In response to President Trump’s Executive Orders and new policies https://media.defense.gov/2025/Feb/27/2003652943/-1/-1/1/DIGITAL-CONTENT-REFRESH.PDF, some content has already been taken offline or it may be republished due to compliance, including military information.
Although change is underway https://www.army.mil/?sf9351265=1, nestled within corners of the Internet, in archives, and in history books, reminders to independently keep reading about trailblazers who preceded us prevail. Cathay Williams, an African American woman who bravely enlisted in the U.S. Army while pretending to be a man during the Indian Wars, is one example of a pioneer who should escape our memories.
Photo Credit: US Army, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (document)
If you are unfamiliar with Williams, she was the first and only known female Buffalo Soldier, and she was the first documented Black woman to enlist in the U.S. Army. Buffalo soldiers were United States Army regiments composed of African American soldiers who served in the western United States from 1867 to 1896. Williams hid her gender and enlisted as a Buffalo Soldier at 17 years old.
“Despite the prohibition against women serving in the military, Williams enlisted in the U.S. Regular Army under the false name of “William Cathay” on November 15, 1866. She enlisted for a three-year engagement, passing herself off as a man. Williams was assigned to the 38th U.S. Infantry Regiment after she passed the cursory medical examination. Though this exam should have outed her as a woman, the Army did not require full medical exams at this time,” according to the National Park Service. (https://www.nps.gov/people/cwilliams.htm)
Additional accounts reveal that Williams was born to a free man and an enslaved mother. She was a house slave at the Johnson plantation located near Jefferson City, Missouri. Union troops occupied Jefferson City in 1861 during the early stages of the Civil War. Enslaved captured people were regarded as contraband. Some of them became cooks, laundresses, or nurses in military support roles to serve the Union Army and free up the troops who were needed for battle. At that time, Williams served as an U.S. Army cook and a washerwoman while accompanying the infantry throughout the country.
However, Williams wanted to continue her military service, and she later enlisted in the U.S. Army voluntarily.
“Though over 400 women served in the Civil War posing as male soldiers, Williams was the first African American woman to enlist and the only documented woman to serve in the United States Army, while disguised as a man, during the Indian Wars. Williams is also the only known female Buffalo Soldier,” National Park Service reported.
Military Times mentioned that if Williams’ gender had been known, the revelation would have resulted in a court-martial, since it was illegal for her to be enlisted in the U.S. Army. (https://www.militarytimes.com/military-honor/black-military-history/2018/02/07/this-ex-slave-pretended-to-be-a-man-and-served-in-the-army/)
Eager to support herself in a time when post-war job opportunities for newly freed slaves were scarce, the unmarried, female ex-slave elected to join the U.S. Army. Williams miraculously escaped disciplinary measures. In time, Williams’ truthful identity began to unfold because she was hospitalized on more than one occasion. Contracting smallpox was one recorded health battle among others.
In 1867, a three-month illness plagued Williams. Her pay was docked accordingly. She was last admitted to the hospital in July of 1868. It was during that time that she was found to be a woman,” the U.S. Army reported.
After her discharge, Williams resumed living as a woman. She worked in New Mexico and also moved to Colorado, where she worked as a laundress and merchant. Enduring years of hiking hundreds of miles through western terrain impacted the ambitious soldier’s health.
The U.S. Army reported, “In 1891, at the age of about 41, she made a claim of disability with the Pension Bureau. It included deafness and neuralgia but was denied in February 1892 due to a lack of substantiation.” (https://www.army.mil/article/73501/black_history_she_survived_under_the_guise_of_a_man)
To date, there is no verifiable picture of Williams, nor has the date of her death or a burial site been determined, noted the Women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. (https://www.womenofthe6888th.org/monuments)
However, a bronze bust of Cathay Williams featuring information about the only known female Buffalo Soldier with a modest rose garden, located at the Richard Allen Cultural Center & Museum was unveiled in Leavenworth, Kansas in 2016.
If history is important to you, remain motivated to learn about people of all backgrounds lifelong. Share information with others who want to know about your findings. Watch RosieLeetta “Lee” Reed portray Williams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFUiFg4EBPw in a presentation offered by the Fort Worth Public Library.