A friend of mine introduced me to Cathay Williams, the first African American Woman documented to have served in the Civil War. She was also a Buffalo Soldier.  I hope to discuss this for a Black History Month program talk sometime in the future.

Bob Marley — Buffalo Soldier

Cathay Williams or William Cathay (Cathey)
Private, Thirty-eighth U.S. Infantry 1866-1868

http://www.sangres.com/history/cwilliams/index.htm
http://www.buffalosoldier.net/CathayWilliamsFemaleBuffaloSoldierWithDocuments.htm
http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets2.html

http://dashingclaire.hubpages.com/hub/First-Female-Buffalo-Soldier-Cathay-Williams

Last year marked the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.  Here is a very short story about one of my ancestors who fought bravely for freedom.

In December of 1863 my Great Great Grandfather, William Henry Halstead, who lived in Tarrytown, New York, traveled to New Haven, Connecticut to join the 29th Connecticut Colored Infantry.  On his Volunteer Enlistment papers it notes his occupation as a farmer.  He enlisted for three years and was discharged on the 24th day of October 1865.  He married and had five children.  William Henry Halstead passed away in 1888 and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Tarrytown, New York.  His wife moved to New York City with her five children.  Her children grew up in Harlem and belonged to various organizations such as Odd Fellows, Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Daughters of New York.

One of his descendents was my grandmother Eva Sophronia Gordon Palmer who was born in 1892.