Loreta Janeta Velazquez dating history

Details

Loreta Janeta Velázquez (June 26, 1842 – 1923), was a woman who claimed to have masqueraded as a male Confederate soldier during the American Civil War, though her story has been brought into question by recent scholarship. The book she wrote about her experiences claims that after her soldier husband's accidental death, she enlisted in the Confederate States Army in 1861. She then fought at Bull Run, Ball's Bluff, and Fort Donelson, but was discharged when her gender was discovered while in New Orleans. Undeterred, she reenlisted and fought at Shiloh, until unmasked once more. She then became a Confederate spy, working in both male and female guises, and as a double agent also reporting to the U.S. Secret Service. She remarried three more times, being widowed in each instance. According to William C. Davis, she died in January 1923 under the name Loretta J. Beard after many years away from the public eye in a public psychiatric facility, St. Elizabeths Hospital.