In Her Own Words,
Cathay Williams' account of her life

My Father a was a freeman, but my mother a slave, belonging to William Johnson, a wealthy farmer who lived at the time I was born near  Independence, Jackson county, Missouri. While I was a small girl my master and family moved to Jefferson City.

My master died there and when the war broke out and the United States soldiers came to Jefferson City they took me and other colored folks with them to Little Rock. Col. Benton of the13th army corps was the officer that carried us off. I did not want to go. He wanted me to cook for the officers, but I had always been a house girl and did not know how to cook.

I learned to cook  after going to Little Rock and was with the army at The Battle of Pea Ridge. Afterwards the command moved over various portions of  Arkansas and Louisiana. I saw the soldiers burn lots of cotton and was at  Shreveport when the rebel gunboats were captured and burned on Red River.  We afterwards went to New  Orleans,  then by way of the Gulf to  Savannah  Georgia, then to Macon and other places in the South.

Finally I was sent to  Washington City and at the time Gen. Sherman made his raids in the Shenandoah valley  I was cook and washwoman for his staff I was sent from  Virginia  to some place in Iowa and afterwards to Jefferson Barracks,  where I remained some time. You will see by this paper that on the 15th day  of November 1866 I enlisted in the  United States army at St. Louis, in the Thirty-eighth United States Infantry Company  A, Capt. Charles E. Clarke commanding.

The regiment I joined wore the Zouave uniform and only two persons, a cousin and a particular friend, members of the regiment, knew that I was a woman. They never 'blowed' on me. They were partly the cause of my joining the army.

Another reason was I wanted to make my own living and not be dependent on relations or friends. Soon after I joined the army, I was taken with the small-pox and was sick at a hospital across the river from St. Louis, but as soon as I got well I joined my company in New Mexico. I was as that paper says, I was never put in the guard house, no bayonet was ever put to my back.

I carried my musket and did guard and other duties while in the army, but finally I got tired and wanted to get off. I played sick, complained of pains in my side, and rheumatism in my knees. The post surgeon found out I was a woman and I got my discharge. The men all wanted to get rid of me after they found out I was a woman. Some of them acted real bad to me.

After leaving the army I went to Pueblo, Colorado, where I made money by cooking and washing. I got married while there, but my husband was no account. He stole my watch and chain, a hundred dollars in money and my team of horses and wagon. I had him arrested and put in jail, and then I came here. I like this town. I know all the good people here, and I expect to get rich yet. I have not got my land warrant.

I thought I would wait till the railroad came and then take my land near the depot. Grant owns all this land around here, and it won't cost me anything. I shall never live in the states again. You see I've got a good sewing machine and I get washing to do and clothes to make. I want to get along and not be a burden to my friends or relatives.

Printed in St. Louis Daily Times, January 2, 1876