Loreta Janita Valazquez "Lieutenant Harry T. Buford"

Born:  June 26, 1842, Havana, Cuba

Died:  Circa 1897, Austin, Nevada

Resting Place:  Calvary Cemetery, Austin, Nevada

Brief History:  Loreta Janeta Velázquez was an American woman who wrote that she had masqueraded as a male Confederate soldier during the American Civil War. Velazquez was born in Cuba on June 26, 1842 to a wealthy family. In 1849, she was sent to school in New Orleans, where she resided with her aunt. At the age of 14, she eloped with an officer in the Texas army. When Texas seceded from the Union in 1861, her husband joined the Confederate army and Velazquez pleaded with him to allow her to join him. Undeterred by her husband’s refusal, Velazquez had a uniform made and disguised herself as a man, taking the name Harry T. Buford. Now displaying the self-awarded rank of lieutenant, Velazquez moved to Arkansas, where she proceeded to raise a regiment of volunteers. She fought in the Civil War for the Confederacy as the cross-dressing Harry T. Buford, she single-handedly organized an Arkansas regiment; participated in the historic battles of Bull Run, Balls Bluff, Fort Donelson, and Shiloh.

Velazquez headed north, and joined up with a regiment to fight at the Battle of First Manassas and the Battle of Ball’s Bluff. Later, she once again dressed as a woman and went to Washington, DC, where she was able to gather intelligence for the Confederacy. After her return to the South, Velazquez was made an official member of the detective corps. When she returned to the South, she was assigned to the detective corps. In Tennessee, she fought in the siege of Fort Donelson until the surrender. She was wounded in battle, but was not exposed. She fled to New Orleans, where she was arrested, suspected of being a female Union spy in disguise. After she was released, she enlisted to get away from the city. Still in her male disguise, Velazquez was arrested in New Orleans for being a possible Union spy. She was cleared of the charges, but was fined for impersonating a man, and released. She immediately headed back to Tennessee, in search of another regiment to join. As luck would have it, she found the regiment she had originally recruited in Arkansas, and fought with them at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6-7, 1862. While on burial detail, she was wounded in the side by an exploding shell, and an army doctor discovered her true gender. Velazquez decided at this point to end her career as a soldier, and she returned to New Orleans.