Cathy Williams: Influential Female Veteran
Cathay Williams was born in 1844, in Independence Missouri. She was the first African American female to enlist, serving in the United States Army under the pseudonym William Cathay. Williams was one of the Buffalo Soldiers for three years, passing herself off as a man to all but her cousin and a friend, both of whom were fellow soldiers in her regiment. Williams lived through smallpox, and several other illnesses and hospital visits without her true identity being discovered. Only until she had grown weary of her military service was her true gender revealed to the post surgeon and she was discharged on October 18th, 1868. Not only was Cathay Williams one of the first women to enlist in the army/service, but she was the first documented African American woman, which makes her all the more unique and brave.