Female Confederate Soldier, Spy, and Author. She was the daughter of Spanish immigrants who settled in New Orleans. Here Loreta Velazquez was educated and married a U.S. Army officer who resigned and joined the Confedrate army at the onset of the civil war only to be killed in an accidental gunshot accident. After the war, she authored a book, "The Woman in Battle", which was a work of embellishment and unbelievable narrative of her exploits fashioned for financial gain and fame similar to books written about various gun fighters extolling amazing feats of gunmanship. True civil war documents exist which substatiate some of her war history. She enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1860 masquerading as a man, experiencing military combat at Bull Run, Ball's Bluff and Ft Donelson. She was detected and discharged. Undeterred, she re-inlisted and fought at Shiloh only be be unmasked and discharged once again. She then took on the mantel of a spy, working in both male and female guise in Washington and Canada. Her claim to be part of the Confederate plan to free prisoners from the Union prison camp at Johnsons Island located in Sandusky Bay, Marblehead, Ohio is said to be dubious. After the war, she roamed the west collecting three more husbands who all died leaving her a widow over and over. Finally settling in the famous mining town of Austin, Nevada, where she died and was buried in Calvary Cemetery, but her grave has been lost through the deterioration of her wooden marker and the recycling of graves.
Female Confederate Soldier, Spy, and Author. She was the daughter of Spanish immigrants who settled in New Orleans. Here Loreta Velazquez was educated and married a U.S. Army officer who resigned and joined the Confedrate army at the onset of the civil war only to be killed in an accidental gunshot accident. After the war, she authored a book, "The Woman in Battle", which was a work of embellishment and unbelievable narrative of her exploits fashioned for financial gain and fame similar to books written about various gun fighters extolling amazing feats of gunmanship. True civil war documents exist which substatiate some of her war history. She enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1860 masquerading as a man, experiencing military combat at Bull Run, Ball's Bluff and Ft Donelson. She was detected and discharged. Undeterred, she re-inlisted and fought at Shiloh only be be unmasked and discharged once again. She then took on the mantel of a spy, working in both male and female guise in Washington and Canada. Her claim to be part of the Confederate plan to free prisoners from the Union prison camp at Johnsons Island located in Sandusky Bay, Marblehead, Ohio is said to be dubious. After the war, she roamed the west collecting three more husbands who all died leaving her a widow over and over. Finally settling in the famous mining town of Austin, Nevada, where she died and was buried in Calvary Cemetery, but her grave has been lost through the deterioration of her wooden marker and the recycling of graves.
Bio by: Donald Greyfield
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