Cathay Williams was an African-American soldier in the U.S. Army under the name William Cathay. She became the first Black woman to enlist, and the only documented woman to serve in the United States Army posing as a man.
Cathay Williams is the only documented Black American woman to serve as a soldier in the U.S. Army in the 19th century. Cathay was born a slave approx. around 1850 in Jackson County, Missouri. In 1861 Cathay worked as a cook and washerwoman for the Union Army officers. Williams remained in the Army throughout the Civil War serving at Little Rock, Arkansas, New Orleans, and Shreveport Louisiana and Savannah and Macon, Georgia. Then in 1864 she shortly served as cook and washerwoman for General Phil Sheridan and his staff in the Shenandoah Valley campaign.
On November, 15, 1866 Williams hid her gender and enlisted as William Cathey serving in Company A of the 38th Infantry. The company was a newly-formed all-Black regiment. At the time historians claim Cathay said the reason she joined the Army was because “I wanted to make my own living and not be dependent on relations or friends.”
At first Cathay served at Jefferson Barracks outside of St. Louis was later moved to Fort Cummings and Fort Bayard in New Mexico Territory. Many Black soldiers were stationed at western outposts after the Civil War with inadequate supplies and inferior weapons. Cathay was able to conceal her gender discovered by the Fort Bayard port surgeon. Cathay was discharged at Fort Bayard on October 14, 1868, on a surgeon’s certificate of disability.
After being discharged from the Army, Cathay went back to being known as Cathay Williams living in Pueblo, Las Animas, and Trinidad, Colorado. Cathay was hospitalized around 1890 for over a year in Trinidad. Then in June 1891, Cathay filed an invalid pension application based on medical disability occurred during military service as William Cathey. But the Army rejected her pension claim on February 8, 1892, citing no grounds for a pensionable disability. The date of Cathay Williams’ death is unknown.
Sources:
Rand-Caplan, R. (2007, January 30) Cathay Williams (1850- ). Retrieved from https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/williams-cathay-1850/
St. Louis Daily Times, St. Louis, MO, January 2, 1876. “She Fought Nobly: The Story of a Colored Heroine who Served as a Regularly Enlisted Soldier During the Late War”; NARA, Washington, D.C. , U.S. Regular Army: Enlistment papers, William Cathey, November 15, 1866, St. Louis, MO; Certificate of Disability for Discharge, William Cathey, October 14, 1868, Fort Bayard, N.M.; U.S. Army Pension Bureau, Declaration for an Original Invalid Pension, filed June 1891 by Cathay Williams.
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