Under the name William Cathay, Cathay Williams was the first African-American woman to enlist in the US Army, as one of the Buffalo Soldiers, the 38th US Infantry Regiment, in 1866, after having worked as a servant with the 8th Indiana Infantry Regiment. Buffalo Soldiers is the term given to the units of African-American troops serving in the US army at that time.
In around 1890, she applied for a disability pension from the army, but was rejected - on medical grounds, not because she was female (though by that time she needed to walk with a crutch because all her toes had been amputated).
She didn't have a glorious military career, but she did spend two years serving alongside the men of her unit, marching long distances, doing garrison duty, and scouting for hostile Native Americans.
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