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She Wore a Yellow Ribbon: Women Soldiers and Patriots of the Western Frontier.
A cold sunrise greeted the soldiers stationed at Fort Cummings, New Mexico, on the first day of 1868. An eager bugler sounded a call to arms, and members of the Thirty-eighth Infantry hurried out of their barracks to line up in formation, their rifles perched over their shoulders. The enlisted African-American men who made up the regiment pulled their army-issued jackets tight around their necks in an effort to protect themselves from a bitter winter wind. Among the troops falling into place was Pvt. William Cathay. Cathay proudly stood at attention, willing and ready to do battle with the Apache who were raiding villages and wagon trains heading west. The determined expression the private wore was not unlike the look the other members of the outfit possessed.
The Thirty-eighth Infantry was just one of many black units known as the Buffalo Soldiers, a dedicated division of the U.S. Army that seemed to consistently wear a determined expression. Cathay was not unique in that manner. By all appearances Private Cathay was like the other 134 men who made up Company A. What set this soldier apart from the others, however, was her gender. Cathay was a woman disguised as a man-anxious to follow orders to overtake the Chiricahua Apache warriors.
To learn more about William Cathay and other women soldiers and patriots of the Western Frontier read She Wore A Yellow Ribbon.
