The Images of Loreta Janeta Velazquez

Cuban-born Loreta Janeta Valezquez is only one of two women soldiers known to have published her memoirs.  Sarah Emma Edmonds was the other.  The Woman in Battle, Velazquez's narrative, appeared originally  in 1876 and details daring exploits of the lady lieutenant and double agent.   Some of her adventures were embellished.  Jubal Early condemned her as a liar.  James Longstreet, however, seemed to corroborate some of story at least in a letter he wrote in 1888 to a Miss Park in Massachusetts where he says that he met Valezquez in New Orleans after the war.  Even though he "...had not known of her in the ranks..." he was able to "...attest of points she gave for identification."  (Richard Hall, Women on the Civil War Battlefront, p. 311)  Furthermore, historians have been able to confirm at least part of her exploits through newspaper articles and documents in the national archives.  Edit to add:  William C. "Jack" Davis wrote a book about her called Inventing Loreta Velazquez (2016) in which he concluded that she was a hoaxer.  I found flaws in his research, and you can read my critical review of his book by clicking [HERE].


It's finals week, so I do not have the energy to discuss the details of her garbled story.  Other historians have done so with much more alacrity than I am able to muster at this time.  Please see the aforementioned book by Richard Hall and/or Blanton and Cook's They Fought Like Demons.  There is also a documentary about her called Rebel.  I thought it was a bit whitewashed though.  For example, it didn't mention that she was arrested and convicted of the theft of a lady's gold watch and chain and a gold thimble, a crime for which she was sentenced to six months in prison.  (Semi-Weekly Wisconsin, 11/28/1862; original story appearing in the New Orleans Delta)

At any rate, there are only two, maybe three, pictures of her. The two engravings below are from her memoirs.

Reprinted in the Boston Globe

 And then there's one on Richard Hall's website that he believes is of her.  Click (HERE) for more.

But there were (are?) apparently others out there.  According to the Nashville Daily Union and American, June 20th, 1866, she (as Mrs. DeCaulp) had hundreds of photographs of her in uniform for sale.  The picture above is an engraving.  The ones she sold were photographs that she posed for in a studio, particularly the Saltzman (or Saltsman) gallery in Nashville.  According to the article, people interested in purchasing one could do so from either the studio or from her personally at the St. Cloud Hotel where she was staying.

According to the 1860 Nashville City Directory, Volume 5, page 181, The Saltsman Gallery was located at 44 Union Street near the corner of College Street. Today, it is the modern day Union and 3^rd, the current location of Hotel Indigo. 

(Photos by Mark Hidlebaugh)

The St. Cloud Hotel was located on the northwest corner of Spring (modern Church) and Summer (modern 5^th) Streets. 

 

Sketch of the hotel is from the 1857 City Directory, page 184.

 

St. Cloud Corner, location of the former St. Cloud hotel

 (Photographs by Mark Hidlebaugh.  Thanks to Krista Castillo of Fort Negley for the help in locating these areas.)

So what has become of these hundreds of photographs of Lieutenant Buford in her uniform?  Did any of them survive?  Mark and I visited the Tennessee state archives while we in Nashville last month to see if we could find the answers.  Unfortunately, we came up short.  And yes, Mark and I asked the current businesses if they had any old photographs lying around.  Well, Mark did.  Believe it or not, I'm rather on the shy side.   But he had no problem charging in there and asking about pictures of a woman dressed up as a man wearing a Civil War uniform.  We knew we would probably strike out, and we did.  But it was worth a try.   Maybe one day they will surface.

Until next formation....rest.