Loreta Janeta Velázquez (June 26, 1842 – c.1902), was a Cuban-born woman who masqueraded as a male Confederate soldier during the American Civil War.
Loreta Janeta Velázquez was born in Havana, Cuba, on June 26, 1842, to a wealthy Cuban official and a mother of both French and American ancestry.She also used the name Alice Williams. Her father owned plantations. Was born into a wealthy family. According to her own account, Velázquez was of Castilian descent and related to Cuban governor Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar and artist Diego Velázquez.
Her father was a Spanish government official who owned plantations in Mexico and Cuba. Her father hated the United States due to losing an inherited ranch in the Mexican-American War at San Luis Potosi. She learned the English language due to being sent to school in New Orleans in 1849, living with an aunt. While fourteen years old she eloped with a Texas United States Army officer known only as William on April 5, 1856. She initially continued to live with her aunt, but after a quarrel with her she moved in with her husband and would live at various army posts, estranging herself further from her family by converting to Methodism.
In her memoirs book ‘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.
American Civil War.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Velázquez’s husband resigned his U.S. commission and joined the Confederate Army. She failed to convince him to let her join him, so she acquired two uniforms, adopted the name Henry T. Buford and moved to Arkansas. There she recruited 236 men in four days, shipped them to Pensacola, Florida and presented them to her husband as her command.Her husband died in an accident while he was demonstrating the use of weapons to his troops. Velázquez turned her men over to a friend and began to search for more things to do.
She supposedly fought in the First Battle of Bull Run. She grew tired of camp life and again donned female garb to go to Washington, D.C., where she spied for the Confederacy. She claimed she met Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Simon Cameron. When she returned to the South, she was assigned to the detective corps. She later left for Tennessee.
In 2007, The History Channel broadcast Full Metal Corset, a program that presented details of Velázquez’s story as genuine. However, the overall truthfulness of her account remains indeterminate and highly questionable.
Loreta Janeta Velázquez is said to have died in 1897, but historian Richard Hall asserts that the place and date of her death are unknown.
Loreta Velázquez claimed four marriages (though never took any of her husbands’ names). Her second husband enlisted in the Confederate army at her urging, and, when he left for duty, she raised a regiment for him to command. He died in an accident, and the widow then enlisted—in disguise—and served at Manassas/Bull Run, Ball’s Bluff, Fort Donelson and Shiloh under the name Lieutenant Henry T. Buford.
Loreta Velázquez also claims to have served as a spy, often dressed as a woman, working as a double agent for the Confederacy in the service of the U.S. Secret Service.
María Aguí Carter directed Rebel, an investigative documentary, examining the story of Loreta Velázquez. The film is a detective story exploring Velázquez’s claims and the politics involved in erasing her from history. It was produced in 2013 and lasts for 73 minutes.
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The Cuban History, Hollywood.
Arnoldo Varona, Editor.