The Army barred women. So on November 15, 1866, in St. Louis, Cathay Williams walked in and enlisted under a man’s name — “William Cathay” — flipping her own name around to become somebody the paperwork would accept. She served nearly two years in one of the new all-Black regiments the country would come to call the Buffalo Soldiers, and she remains the only documented woman ever to do it.
Williams was born in September 1844 in Independence, Missouri, to an enslaved mother and a free father — which, under the law of the time, made her legally enslaved. During the Civil War, at 17, she was pressed into service as a cook for Union troops. She knew Army life from the inside before she ever wore the uniform as a soldier: the marching, the cooking fires, the discipline, the danger.
So when the war ended and the Army opened its new regiments, she made a decision almost nobody else on record ever made. With women barred from enlisting, she signed up as “William Cathay” for a three-year term — and passed. The medical exam was cursory and required no full examination, and through that narrow door she walked into history.
The 38th Infantry, and a secret kept by two people
She was assigned to the 38th U.S. Infantry Regiment, one of the new all-Black regiments later known as the Buffalo Soldiers, protecting railroad construction in New Mexico Territory — hard, exposed frontier duty at the far edge of the map.
Only two people in the regiment knew her secret: her cousin and one friend. Everyone else served beside “William Cathay” without knowing. What finally exposed her was not carelessness — it was her body giving out. Illness and repeated hospitalizations revealed what the enlistment exam had missed, and on October 14, 1868, she was honorably discharged. Honorably. The record of her service stood, even after the truth came out.
A St. Louis newspaper told her story publicly in 1876. Later, she applied for a disability pension — the same pension any soldier with her service and her broken health could seek — and in 1891 it was denied, despite her service. She died around 1893, the exact date unrecorded, which is why this page prints “around 1893” and nothing fancier.
What the record does hold, clearly, is this: she is the first documented Black woman to enlist in the U.S. Army and the only documented woman to serve as a Buffalo Soldier. Other women may have tried, in other regiments, in other centuries, and left no paper behind. Cathay Williams left paper — enlistment, service, honorable discharge — and paper is forever. She didn’t wait for permission to serve her country. She reversed her name, passed the exam, and served.
Join the conversation
She served nearly two years before illness exposed her — and was still denied her pension in 1891. What do you think Cathay Williams is owed by history, and by the Army she served? And be honest: had you ever heard the name “William Cathay” before today? Tell us below.
Source note: Cathay Williams (born Sept 1844, Independence, Missouri, to an enslaved mother and a free father, which made her legally enslaved) — being pressed into service as a cook for Union troops at 17 during the Civil War; enlisting in the U.S. Regular Army at St. Louis on Nov 15, 1866, under the name “William Cathay” for a three-year term, passing a cursory medical exam that required no full examination, at a time when women were barred from the Army; serving with the 38th U.S. Infantry Regiment, one of the new all-Black regiments later known as the Buffalo Soldiers, protecting railroad construction in New Mexico Territory, with only her cousin and one friend in the regiment knowing her secret; illness and hospitalizations exposing her, followed by an honorable discharge on Oct 14, 1868; a St. Louis newspaper telling her story in 1876; her disability pension application being denied in 1891 despite her service; her death around 1893, with the exact date unrecorded; and her standing as the first documented Black woman to enlist in the U.S. Army and the only documented woman to serve as a Buffalo Soldier — is from the U.S. National Park Service and Military.com, with her service record as sourced on Wikipedia.
