Correcting Identities.

We, #IrememberOurHistory®, #TheGCFHawleyMuseum® #NCMAAHC Are sharing this image to do our part in providing some clarity about this image.

Many people on social media continue to share this image of a Civil War Soldier and say it's Cathay Williams, there is no proof that this is her.

When false information is spread on the streets of social media people actually believe it to be true, because they do not research things themselves.

There are several artist's renderings of her, but each is based on how the artist saw her to look. To date, there have been no photographs of her that are verified to be her.

Below is an explanation from a Civil War historian about this image.

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"No. Not Cathay Williams. I am a Civil War historian. That picture has never been identified by name, nor was it ever confirmed to be female. Lots of boys as young as 14 served in the Civil War on both Union and Confederate sides, some with delicate features.

He is wearing a Civil War field jacket, not a Buffalo Soldiers field jacket (the uniforms changed slightly after the Civil War), and the red accoutrements on his collar indicate an Artillery regiment (if the colorization is accurate), so it makes no sense that he is holding a Cavalry saber Cavalry would have been indicated by yellow trim on his uniform. I've seen lots of portraits in which soldiers have all kinds of props.

Buffalo Soldiers were part of the Regular Army, established after the Civil War. Any Black soldier who served during the years of the Civil War was part of the United States Colored Troops, which was a division of the US Army. This is NOT a Regular Army field jacket or frock coat; it's USCT, pre-Buffalo Soldier era. " - Jerilyn James Lee

For more information on Cathay Williams and Blacks in the Civil War, please see this page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/182460225500764/