A former slave, Stokes eventually volunteered in the United States Navy as a nurse on the USS Red Rover in 1863.
Stokes was born in 1830 into slavery as Ann Bradford in Rutherford County, Tennessee.
[1] That same month, she volunteered to work as a nurse on the United States Navy hospital ship USS Red Rover where she assisted Sisters of the Holy Cross.
[1][2] Stokes was assigned the rank of "first class boy" and was paid for her work.
[1] She married Gilbert Stokes, who had also worked on the Red Rover and they moved to Illinois.