Loreta Janeta Velázquez facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Loreta Janeta Velázquez
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Loreta Janeta Velázquez as herself (right)
and disguised as "Lieutenant Harry T. Buford" (left) |
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| Nickname(s) | Lieutenant Harry T. Buford |
| Born | June 26, 1842 Havana, Cuba, Spanish Empire |
| Died | 1923 (aged 80–81) |
| Allegiance |  Confederate States of America |
| Service/ |
 Confederate States Army |
| Years of service | 1861–1865 |
| Rank |  Second Lieutenant |
| Battles/wars | |
Loreta Janeta Velázquez (born June 26, 1842 – died 1923) was a woman who claimed to have fought as a male soldier during the American Civil War. She said she joined the Confederate States Army in 1861 after her husband died.
Her story says she fought in important battles like Bull Run and Fort Donelson. She was discovered to be a woman and discharged, but she kept rejoining the army. She fought at Shiloh before being found out again. After that, she claimed to be a spy for the Confederacy, sometimes pretending to be a man and sometimes a woman. She even said she worked for the U.S. Secret Service.
Velázquez married three more times, and each time her husband passed away. According to historian William C. Davis, she died in January 1923. She was known as Loretta J. Beard and had been living away from the public eye in a hospital for mental health.
Contents
Her Book: The Woman in Battle
Velázquez wrote a long book about her adventures. It was called The Woman in Battle: A Narrative of the Exploits, Adventures, and travels of Madame Loreta Janeta Velázquez, Otherwise Known as Lieutenant Harry T. Buford, Confederate States Army. She published it in 1876 to help support her son.
However, not everyone believed her story. A Confederate general named Jubal Early said her book was not true. Today, many historians also doubt if everything in her book really happened.
Early Life and Family
Loreta Janeta Velázquez said she was born in Havana, Cuba, on June 26, 1842. Her parents were a rich Cuban official and a mother with French and American family. She also used the name Alice Williams. She claimed to be related to important historical figures from Cuba and Spain.
Her father was a Spanish government official. He owned large farms in Mexico and Cuba. He was very upset with the United States because he lost land in the Mexican–American War. This made his relationship with Loreta difficult after she married an American soldier.
In 1849, Velázquez went to school in New Orleans and learned English. She lived with her aunt there. Because her father was wealthy, she had the chance to travel and get an education. In New Orleans, she loved fairy tales and stories about heroes. She said Joan of Arc was a big inspiration for her.
When she was young, Loreta was engaged to a Spaniard named Raphael. She called this a "marriage of convenience" in her book. At age fourteen, she ran away and married an American army officer named John Williams in 1856. Her family was very angry about this and threatened to send her to a convent or back to Cuba. Her decision to elope caused her to become separated from her family. She later converted to Methodism, which further distanced her from them.
Fighting in the American Civil War
When the American Civil War began, Velázquez claimed her husband left the U.S. Army. He then joined the Confederate Army. The couple became very interested in the war after three of their children died young.
At first, her husband helped Loreta try to disguise herself as a man. He thought if she saw how men behaved, she would change her mind. But it only made her want to join the army more. She couldn't convince her husband to let her fight with him. So, she bought two army uniforms and started calling herself Harry T. Buford.
She moved to Arkansas and quickly recruited 236 men in four days. She sent them to Pensacola, Florida, and presented them to her husband as her own group of soldiers. Soon after, her husband died in an accident while showing his troops how to use weapons. Velázquez gave her men to a friend and looked for other ways to help.
Her first battle was as an independent soldier at the First Battle of Bull Run. She eventually got tired of army camp life. So, she dressed as a woman again and went to Washington, D.C.. There, she spied for the Confederacy. She claimed to have met Abraham Lincoln and the Secretary of War during this trip. When she returned to the South, she was assigned to a detective group. Later, she went to Tennessee.
In Tennessee, she fought in the siege of Fort Donelson until the Confederates surrendered. She was hurt in the battle but no one found out she was a woman. She escaped to New Orleans. There, she was arrested because people thought she might be a female Union spy. After she was released, she joined the army again to leave the city.
At Shiloh, she found the group of soldiers she had recruited in Arkansas. She fought in the battle. While she was burying the dead after the fight, a stray shell wounded her. An army doctor examined her and discovered she was a woman. She then fled to New Orleans again. She saw Major General Benjamin Butler take control of the city. At that point, she stopped wearing her uniform.
Later, in Richmond, Virginia, she was hired as a spy again. She traveled all over the U.S. During this time, she married a Captain Thomas DeCaulp. He reportedly died soon after in a hospital in Chattanooga. (However, records show an officer with that name survived the war.)
She then traveled north. Officials there hired her to search for herself, not knowing who she really was. In Ohio and Indiana, she tried to organize a rebellion of Confederate prisoners of war.
Travels After the War
After the war ended, Velázquez traveled in Europe with her brother. She also visited South America and the southern United States. She married Major Wasson and moved with him to Venezuela. When he died in Caracas, she came back to the United States.
During her travels around the U.S., she had a baby boy. She also met Brigham Young in Utah. She arrived in Omaha, Nebraska, with very little money. But she convinced General W. S. Harney to give her blankets and a revolver. Two days after arriving in a mining area of Nevada, an older man proposed marriage to her, but she said no. She eventually married a younger man, whose name is not known. Velázquez soon left Nevada with her baby.
Life After the War
Loreta became very active in public life and politics. She was involved in big plans for mining and building railways. She also worked in journalism and writing. Her biographer, William C. Davis, believes that many of her actions were not honest. He thinks she often tried to get money for herself and her friends through these schemes.
Some newspapers were impressed by her energy and business skills. For example, an article in the New York Herald in 1891 described Velázquez as "a woman of business, a woman who can 'run things like a man.'"
Her Death
Loreta Janeta Velázquez is believed to have died in 1923. However, historian Richard Hall says that the exact date and place of her death are not known for sure. Hall, in his book Patriots in Disguise, closely examines The Woman in Battle. He tries to figure out if her claims were true or made up.
Elizabeth Leonard, in her book All the Daring of the Soldier, thinks The Woman in Battle is mostly fiction. But she believes it was based on some real experiences. A newspaper report mentions a "Lieutenant Bensford" who was arrested when it was found out "he" was a woman. Her name was given as Alice Williams, which Loreta Velázquez also used.
In Popular Culture
María Aguí Carter directed a documentary called Rebel. This film investigates Loreta Velázquez's story. It explores her claims and how her story might have been forgotten by history. The film was made in 2013 and is 73 minutes long.
Newer Research on Her Story
In October 2016, William C. Davis published a detailed book about Velázquez. It was called Inventing Loreta Velásquez: Confederate Soldier Impersonator, Media Celebrity, and Con Artist. His research used old newspapers and records. He claims that Velázquez's entire book, The Woman in Battle, is fiction.
Davis says that Velázquez was not from Cuba and was not a Confederate soldier. He believes she was a thief, possibly born in New York. He thinks she later became a swindler and a con artist. Velázquez used many different names, so Davis is not sure of her real name, age, or birthplace. This means he can't be sure about her family background either.
The woman Davis identifies as Velázquez spent time in jail for theft and other small crimes. He believes she later made up more exciting stories about herself. Davis's work views Loreta Velázquez in a negative way. He also questions if women truly served effectively as soldiers in the Civil War. However, Davis does provide a clear date for her death: January 26, 1923, as Loretta J. Beard, at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington.
See also
In Spanish: Loreta Janeta Velázquez para niños
