← Back to the 365 Library
Contribution #158 of 365
Cathay Williams
First Black American Woman Known to Enlist in the U.S. Army
1866
The contribution
How this work helped shape America
Born in Missouri to an enslaved mother and a free father, Williams had lived in slavery before the Civil War. In 1866 she enlisted under the name William Cathay and became the first Black American woman known to enlist in the U.S. Army and the only known woman to serve as a Buffalo Soldier.