Loreta Janet Vazquez was born in Havana, Cuba on June 26, 1842. Everything that is known about Loreta comes from her book The Woman in Battle: A Narrative of the Exploits, Adventures, and Travels of Madame Loreta Janet Vazquez, Otherwise known as Lieutenant Harry T. Buford, Confederate States Army. What is known about Loreta is that she was sent to a New Orleans school where she learned English, Spanish, and French. At a young age she developed an admiration for Joan of Arc and wanted to emulate her. While in New Orleans she met a young officer in the United States Texas Army named William. At the age of fourteen she had three kids with him who later died in 1860. In 1861, when Texas seceded from the Union, her husband joined the Confederate army. Velazquez begged him multiple times to allow her to join him by becoming a soldier. Tired of her husband’s refusal Loreta decided to have a uniform made for her and disguised herself as a man, taking on the name of Lieutenant Harry T. Buford. She then moved to Arkansas where she raised a regiment of volunteers and brought them to Florida. She decided to bring the regiment to him however, her husband died before knowing it has her. He was accidently killed when a carbine exploded in his hand while he was training his troops. Velazquez decided to keep on fighting and went off to battle as an independent soldier, she was part of the Battle of First Manassas and the Battle of Ball’s Bluff. Shortly after, she decided to wear female attire again and went off to Washington D.C. to gather information for the Confederates during this time she claims she met Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Simon Cameron. When she went back to the South she had become an official member of the Detectives Corp. but she then decided to turn back into Lieutenant Buford and traveled to Tennessee to fight in the Battle of Fort Donelson on February 11, 1862. During the battle she was wounded in the foot however, fearing that her true gender would be revealed she decided to go back to New Orleans to seek medical treatment. While she was there the Confederates arrested her since they believed she was a female Union spy but they ended up releasing her although she was cleared from all charges she received a fine for impersonating a man. She then moved back to Tennessee and fought in the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, unfortunately she was wounded in the side by an exploding shell and an army doctor discovered her real identity. She decided to end her journey as a soldier and moved back to New Orleans where she spent the rest of the war working as a Confederate spy. Later on, she married Confederate Captain Thomas DeCaulp but he died soon after. Once the war ended she remarried a man named Major Wason and immigrated to Venezuela where she lived in a colony of former Confederates. When her husband passed away she traveled back to the United States and in 1876 she decided to publish her memoirs. She dedicated her book to her comrades. The public had mixed emotions with some people saying it was pure fiction. It is believed that she died in 1897.

click here