The Woman in Battle

A Cuban woman who moved to New Orleans in the 1850s, Loreta Janeta Velazquez fought in the Civil War as the cross-dressing Harry T. Buford. As Buford, she single-handedly organized an Arkansas regiment; participated in the historic battles of Bull Run, Fort Donelson, and Shiloh; romanced men and women; and eventually decided that spying as a woman better suited her cause. In the North, she was posed as a double agent and worked to traffic information, drugs, and counterfeit bills to support the Confederate cause. Originally published in 1876, Velazquez's seemingly impossible account has divided scholars, some believing this book to be a generally honest autobiography and others believing it to be mostly fiction.