Loreta Janeta Velázquez: Cuban Confederate Soldier (Our Voices)

Lieutenant Harry T. Buford was a respected Confederate soldier who fought in four major battles during the Civil War and later became a double agent spying for the Southern cause. However, Lieutenant Buford was actually Loreta Janeta Velazquez! Velazquez was a Cuban woman living in New Orleans, who disguised herself as a man in order to experience freedoms otherwise unattainable to her. This captivating book explores her unconventional life as a soldier, a spy, and a Latina in the American South who lived life on her own terms. "Loreta Janeta Velázquez was a Cuban woman who assumed the identity of a white man to join the Confederate army during the Civil War. She lived as Lieutenant Harry T. Buford and fought in several major battles during the early years of the conflict. After she was arrested multiple times on suspicion of being a woman, Velázquez turned to espionage as another way to further the Southern cause. Her resourceful nature and talent for deception made her an excellent spy for the Confederacy. She assumed multiple identities and costumes to infiltrate the North. She even acted as a double-agent, spying on the Union while appearing to spy for it, and collected valuable information for the South in the process"-- Provided by publisher