Loreta Janeta Velázquez

Cuban-born soldier

• Born: June 26, 1842
• Birthplace: Havana, Cuba
• Died: 1897
• Place of death: Unknown

After the outbreak of the American Civil War, Velázquez disguised herself as a man and joined the Confederate army. She fought in several battles, only being discovered as a woman after she was injured. She also worked as a spy for the Confederacy, infiltrating the U.S. Secret Service.

Early Life

The majority of information known about Loreta Janeta Velázquez (loh-REH-tah jah-NEH-tah veh-LAHS-kehz) comes from her autobiography, The Woman in Battle, published in 1876. She was born in Havana, Cuba, on June 26, 1842. Her father was a Spanish government official and her mother was French American. Velázquez had three older brothers and two older sisters. In 1844, the family moved from Cuba to Mexico (to an area that is now part of Texas), where her father owned plantations. Her father fought for Mexico in the Mexican-American War and became very bitter toward Americans.

After the war, the family moved back to Cuba. In her memoirs, Velázquez recalls that she always wanted to be a man when she was a child; she idolized Joan of Arc. Velázquez was educated by an English governess until 1849, when she was sent to Catholic school in New Orleans. While there, she lived with an aunt, who spent two years teaching her to read, write, and speak English. Velázquez had an arranged engagement to a Spanish man named Raphael. However, she felt trapped and did not love him. Instead, she fell in love with William, the boyfriend of her schoolmate, and eloped with him. They were married April 5, 1856, when Velázquez was just fourteen years old. She returned to her aunt’s home and kept the marriage a secret until the following October. She had her first child in 1857 before following her husband westward. By 1860, they had three children and were living in St. Louis. The third baby died shortly after birth; the two older children died later that year of fever.

Life’s Work

Political, economic, and social tensions within the United States had been rapidly growing in the years before the 1860 election. The election of Abraham Lincoln as president led to the secession of a number of Southern states, which formed the Confederate States of America. Velázquez’s husband, William, was from Texas, so he resigned from the U.S. Army after Texas’s secession on February 1, 1861, to join the Confederate army. William was sent to Richmond shortly after the couple’s fifth wedding anniversary.

Velázquez had a Memphis tailor make her two Confederate uniforms, adding extra padding inside the coat to conceal her shape. Upon reaching New Orleans, Velázquez needed a disguise that was more comfortable. She got a French tailor to make six wire-net shields to disguise her body. She also used a false mustache and beard to disguise herself as Lieutenant Harry Buford. Velázquez then traveled to Arkansas and recruited 236 men for a regiment. She claims to have delivered the regiment to her husband in Florida for him to command. William was killed a few days later in a training accident.

Failing to purchase a commission into the army, Velázquez fought as an independent officer, which she felt gave her more freedom. She was wounded during the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas, Virginia) on July 21, 1861, the first major battle of the war. Her injuries were not severe, and she refused medical attention out of fear of being discovered. After the battle, Velázquez went to Washington, D.C., dressed as a woman, to become a spy. She even claimed to have met Lincoln. Velázquez returned to the army as Lieutenant Buford whenever she grew tired of dressing as a woman. In her memoirs, she brags about the attention she received from other women while disguised as Buford. During the Battle of Shiloh, Velázquez claims to have fought valiantly as Buford and spied as a woman at night. She claims to have gotten close enough to Ulysses Grant that she could have killed him but felt it would have been murder. While helping bury the dead, she was wounded by a shell and discovered to be a woman by the army doctor.

Giving up on her army career, Velázquez obtained a British passport and allegedly became a drug smuggler and blockade runner. She then says that the Confederate government hired her to infiltrate the Union’s Secret Service as a double agent. According to Velázquez, she was hired by the Secret Service and assigned to discover a Confederate spy—herself. This position allowed her to travel freely throughout the Union. While doing so, Velázquez attempted to organize a rebellion among Confederate prisoners of war. In the last months of the war, she traveled to Ohio, Canada, London, and Paris, arriving in New York City the day after General Robert E. Lee’s surrender in April 1865.

After the war, Velázquez traveled through Europe and the former Confederacy. She married her third husband and moved to Venezuela but returned shortly after his death. It was in Texas that she wrote and published her memoirs in 1876. Velázquez wrote the book in order to earn enough money to support herself and her son. The book drew heavy criticism and skepticism; among the most vehement of its critics was Confederate General Jubal Early. Despite having lost her notes, Velázquez’s tome is more than six hundred pages long and includes details about the weather and specific conversations. There also is no record of a Harry Buford serving in the Confederate army. Some historians believe that she used the alias Alice Williams, who was reported to have fought as Lieutenant Henry Beford or Bensford. Others claim that Velázquez heard the stories of Williams and passed them off as her own. The book cannot be proven or disproven but appears to be at least a highly fictionalized version of the truth. Velázquez is believed to have died in 1897, but little is known about her outside of her memoirs.

Significance

Velázquez saw the American Civil War as her chance to live out her dream of being a man and fighting for a cause like her hero, Joan of Arc. Her defiance of the gender norms of her era allowed her to experience a very different life, one filled with excitement and adventure. Her memoirs have made her one of the most well-known women who fought and spied for the Confederacy and one of the most famous Cuban Americans to do so as well.

Bibliography

Hall, Richard. Women on the Civil War Battlefront. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006. A well-researched work written by a pioneer in the field that discusses the various roles women played during the Civil War: as soldiers, spies, nurses, scouts, and smugglers.

Velázquez, Loreta Janeta. The Woman in Battle. Richmond, Va.: Dustin, Gilman and Company, 1876. Reprint. Charleston, S.C.: Nabu Press, 2010. Velázquez recounts her adventures during the Civil War as Harry Buford, a spy, double agent, and blockade runner. She also includes her family history and life before and after the war. Much of her book is considered factually suspect.

Winkler, H. Donald. Stealing Secrets. Naperville, Ill.: Cumberland House, 2010. A work focusing on female spies during the Civil War, including Velázquez. The author discusses how these woman helped change the course of the war. Based on newspapers, journals, diaries, letters, and memoirs from the war.