If you don’t know Cathay Williams, that’s probably by design. She is a true bad*ss. One of over 400 hundred women to serve in the Civil War posing as male soldiers. Williams was the first African American woman to enlist and the only documented woman to serve in the United States Army, while disguised as a man, during the Indian Wars. Despite the prohibition against women serving in the military, Williams enlisted in the U.S. Regular Army under the false name of "William Cathay" on November 15, 1866. She enlisted for a three-year engagement, passing herself off as a man. Williams was assigned to the 38th U.S. Infantry Regiment after she passed the cursory medical examination. Though this exam should have outed her as a woman, the Army did not require full medical exams at this time. Due to contracting smallpox she was frequently hospitalized, the post surgeon discovered she was a woman and informed the post commander. She was honorably discharged by her commanding officer, Captain Charles E. Clarke on October 14, 1868. Though her disability discharge meant the end of her tenure with the Army. She signed up with an emerging all-black regiment that would eventually become part of the legendary Buffalo Soldiers. Her life and military service narrative was published in the St. Louis Daily Times on January 2, 1876. Around 1889 or 1890, Williams entered a local hospital and applied for a disability pension based on her military service. Though there was a precedent for granting pension to female soldiers, (Deborah Sampson, Anna Maria Lane and Molly Williams disguised themselves as men in the Revolutionary War), Williams request was denied. In September 1893, a doctor examined Williams. She suffered from neuralgia and diabetes, and had all her toes amputated and walked with a crutch. The doctor decided that she did not qualify for disability payments.The exact date of her death is unknown, but it is believed she died shortly after she was denied. Woy.