The First Soldier of Buffalo: Cathay Williams

How does a woman born into enslavement leave everything behind to become a soldier fighting alongside the Buffalo Soldiers? My story is one of mystery, one of someone who defied my time to become the only known female Buffalo soldier. I saw a world dominated by men and I decided to dive in, head-first. This is the story of how I became a soldier and the struggles I endured to become a name of legend…

The Not-So Ordinary Life and the Sudden Change to Something Different

1866. Perhaps what I was doing was foolish. Or perhaps it needn’t matter. On November 15^th, 1866, I enlisted in the US Army for a three-year term. Of course, women were not allowed in the army so I had to disguise myself as a man…

Now, you might think one’s endeavours would falter at the physical examination but no, in those days there was no physical examination. It gave me the freedom to serve out most of my contract with the army as William Cathay.

My service, however, started long before I was even old enough to enlist. When I did, I was the first black woman to do so. By the end of my career, I was the only female Buffalo soldier. The life of a soldier was to prove brutal.

I had no idea what was coming.

An Early Life of Hardship and Toil and the Decision to Break the Mould

I was born in September 1844 in Independence, Missouri, which was ironic as I was far from free. I was born to a free man but also an enslaved woman, giving me the legal status of an enslaved woman and all the perks that came with it…

It meant that my early life was one of a house girl, working on the Johnson plantation near Jefferson City. Life was… well, I was alive. But then it happened. The Civil War. General Nathaniel Lyons’s soldiers captured Jefferson City, which had become a rebel stronghold.

The Eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry labelled all enslaved people ‘contraband’. I had to support the Union Army as a camp follower, travelling with the regiment working as a laundress. I and other enslaved people cooked and often acted as nurses. I saw the soldiers burn lots of cotton and I was at Shreveport when the rebel gunboats were captured and burned on the Red River. At the time, General Sheridan made his raids in the Shenandoah Valley. I was a cook and washwoman for his staff.

But at the end of the war, I was free. For the first time in my life I could do… well, anything. Or at least that’s the story I was sold. A free woman in Missouri in those days, well, there were so few options. I wanted to make my own living and not be dependent on relations or friends. So what was I to do? I didn’t want to just get by in life, struggling to survive from one day to the next.

And so I did something no black woman had ever done before…

The Soldiers of Buffalo and Their Service in the Army

November. 1866. I enlisted as William Cathay in the 38^th US Infantry, Company A in St Louis, Missouri. The army did not allow women to enlist in those days, so I adopted an alias: William Cathay. The regiment I enlisted in was an all-black regiment known as the Buffalo Soldiers.

At the time, only a cursory medical examination was required and so it was easy for me to evade detection. I told them I was a 22-year-old cook. Five feet, nine inches tall. Black eyes and black hair. That was about the extent of my examination. I was found fit for duty. But I could not do this alone.

Only two people knew my true identity: my cousin and a friend, both of who faithfully kept my secret. They never ‘blowed’ on me, not once…

And with that, I travelled west to the frontier. At the time, it was little explored. The Buffalo Soldiers were new, created by that Congress in 1866 to fill the need for soldiers created by westward expansion. Of course they sent the black soldiers into the unknown. The reasons for that are probably quite obvious.

I needed the work. And I needed the money. I was tall and well-built so I garnered no undue curiosity or suspicion. I may have been the first black woman to enlist but I didn’t have the luxury to consider my legacy. But it hardly went well at all.

Shortly after I enlisted, I contracted smallpox. It left me in a hospital to recover for a while until I could rejoin my unit, which by then was posted in New Mexico. But, once again, I found myself in trouble. The heat did not agree with me at all. I marched for hundreds of miles. And my body began to show signs of strain. And so I found myself in a hospital again. And again. And again…

I carried my musket and did guard and other duties while in the army, but I never saw combat. I protected miners and settlers in the New Mexico Territory for eight months. You know, when I wasn’t in a hospital, which wasn’t very often. Amazingly, the doctors never found out that I was a woman. Which was lucky. Women who were caught were often sent to a mental health facility.

But my health was suffering. I became ill with diabetes. And it would cost me dearly…

The Secret Kept to the Very End and Vanishing into History

Five hospital visits in my soldier days never gave away my secret. In fact, when I was honourably discharged in 1868, there was no mention of my gender. Instead, I was discharged due to disability. I worked as a cook thereafter for a colonel at Fort Union.

I moved on to work as a laundress before settling in Trinidad, Colorado, where I made a living as a laundress and part-time nurse. But time and time again, my health continued to be a problem. I was hospitalised for some time in the late 1880s and when I left, I was completely without money.

And so I applied for a pension from the army. I was going deaf, I was suffering from rheumatism and neuralgia, all of which I contracted in the army. The Pension Bureau rejected my claims, saying that no disability existed. And even if they had ruled in my favour, it was illegal for a woman to serve in the army in any case…

I did lose all of my toes. My diabetes, again. Even then, this was not ruled a disability, although the reasons for that are probably obvious. I’m not sure why I became a soldier. Clearly, it was not for the luxury as I suffered immensely. But motivations needn’t matter. I was proud to do what I did and I did it the best I could. Having a place in the history books was never on my agenda. But still, it was nice, I guess, while it lasted.

This is my story, The First Soldier of Buffalo.

‘Cathay Williams died around 1893, at the age of 48 or 49.’

Epilogue

Very little is known of Cathay Williams’ later life. We believe she was born in 1844 and died sometime between 1893 and 1900 due to her illnesses, as she disappears off the censor records after this. The whereabouts of her grave is unknown. After 1893, Cathay simply vanished from history. To this day, we can only speculate as to why she joined the army.

Historians are quick to praise Cathay’s trailblazing service but she never did it for fame or to show what women in the military can do. She was not a military hero. She never earned any medals or commendations. And it’s likely she never faced an enemy in battle. So how does a woman born into enslavement leave everything behind to become a Buffalo Soldier?

When she was freed, Cathay had nothing. No money, no family, no friends. She was all on her own. She needed money. And for a black woman in those days, her options were limited. She could scrape by on a meagre living as a cook or a maid, or she could disguise herself as a man and make a fortune in the military. This is likely why she chose to become a soldier, but she never anticipated the hell she would endure.

Her health was always in a poor state, even before she joined the military. But she was a trailblazer. She was the first black woman to enlist and the only documented woman to serve in the army posing as a man during the American-Native Wars. Nearly 80 years before women were officially allowed to serve in the American army, a former enslaved person managed to do so and went undetected. It needn’t matter what she did during her service.

She was a lone woman making her way in the world however she could. And in doing so, her name became a legend for all the women who came after her. To learn more about female soldiers, please check out the blog posts below:

How do you think people like Cathay Williams helped to change history, reader?

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My Other Blogs: The Indelible Life of Me | To Contrive & Jive

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Image Credit
https://kcblackhistory.org/articles/cathay-williams

Post Sources
https://www.army.mil/blackamericans/profiles/williams.html, https://www.learningforjustice.org/classroom-resources/texts/hidden-figures-of-womens-history-cathay-williams, https://www.legendsofamerica.com/cathay-williams/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathay_Williams, https://www.nps.gov/people/cwilliams.htm, https://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2021/11/gender-conceal-when-cathay-williams-went-to-war-in-disguise.html, https://www.military.com/history/cathay-williams-was-armys-only-female-buffalo-soldier-and-first-black-female-enlistee.html, https://allthatsinteresting.com/cathay-williams