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Williams, Cathay, 1844-approximately 1893

LC control no.n 2001045806
Descriptive conventionsrda
Personal name headingWilliams, Cathay, 1844-approximately 1893
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Variant(s)Williams, Cathy, 1844-approximately 1893
Cathay, William, 1844-approximately 1893
Williams, Cathy, b. 1844
Birth date1844-09
Death date1893~
Place of birthIndependence (Mo.)
Place of deathTrinidad (Colo.)
Found inTucker, P.T. Cathy Williams, 2002: CIP galley (born a slave in Independence, Missouri in 1844; she enlisted with Company A, 38th U.S. Infantry in November 1866 by disguising herself as a man and assuming the name William Cathay; she thus became a "buffalo soldier", serving in one of the six black units formed following the Civil War)
Wikipedia, March 28, 2018 (Cathay Williams; born September 1844, Independence, Missouri; died (approximately) in 1893, Trinidad, Colorado; pseudonym William Cathay; served in a supporting role (cook, seamstress, etc.) along with the Indiana 8th Infantry, during the Civil War throughout their travel through Arkansas, Louisiana and Georgia; transferred to Washington, DC and served under General Sherman's command; at the end of the war, she was working at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri; she enlisted in the US Regular Army under the name, William Cathay, on Nov. 15, 1866 at St. Louis, as a Buffalo soldier, escaping detection as a woman; she was discovered after almost three years, and discharged on Oct. 14, 1869; she eventually settled in Trinidad, Colorado, working as a seamstress; an account of her life and military service was published in The St. Louis daily times, on Jan. 2, 1876; she died shortly after she was denied a military pension sometime in 1893; honors: In 2016, a bronze bust of Cathay Williams (with information about her life) was dedicated outside the Richard Allen Cultural Center, Leavenworth, Kansas; in 2018, The Private Cathay Williams monument was unveiled on the Walk of Honor at the National Infantry Museum)
African Americans in the U.S. Army website, viewed December 30, 2013: profiles of bravery (Cathay Williams; First African American female to enlist in the Army)
buffalosoldier.net, viewed December 30, 2013: Female Buffalo Soldier- With Documents (Cathay Williams or William Cathay (Cathey); Private, Thirty-eighth U.S. Infantry 1866-1868; An Exceptional Woman)
Daughter of a daughter of a queen, 2018: ECIP data view (Cathy Williams; former slave and first woman to ever serve in the US Army; served in the Union Army (disguised as a man) during the Civil War)
Invalid LCCNn 2018016899