Albert Cashier

Albert D. J. Cashier (December 25, 1843 – October 10, 1915), born Jennie Irene Hodgers, was an Irish-born immigrant who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Cashier adopted the identity of a man before enlisting, and maintained it until death. Cashier became famous as one of a number of women soldiers who served as men during the Civil War, although the consistent and long-term (at least 53 years) commitment to a male identity has prompted some contemporary scholars to suggest that Cashier was a trans man.[3][4][5][6]

Albert D. J. Cashier
(November, 1864)[1]
Birth nameJennie Irene Hodgers
Born(1843-12-25)December 25, 1843[2]
Clogherhead, County Louth, Ireland
DiedOctober 10, 1915(1915-10-10) (aged 71)
Saunemin, Illinois, U.S.
Buried
Saunemin, Illinois, U.S.
Allegiance United States of America
Service/branch United States Army
Years of service1862–1865
RankPrivate
Unit95th Illinois Infantry, Company G
Battles/warsVicksburg, Red River, Guntown
Other workCemetery worker, janitor, lamplighter

Early life

Cashier was very elderly and disoriented when interviewed about immigrating to the United States and enlisting in the army, and had always been evasive about early life; therefore, the available narratives are often contradictory. According to later investigation by the administrator of Cashier's estate, Albert Cashier was born Jennie Hodgers in Clogherhead, County Louth, Ireland on December 25, 1843,[7]:52[2] to Sallie and Patrick Hodgers.[2] Typically, the youth's uncle or stepfather was said to have dressed his charge in male clothing in order to find work in an all-male shoe factory in Illinois. Even before the advent of the war, Jenny adopted the identity of Albert Cashier in order to live independently.[7]:52 Sallie Hodgers, Cashier's mother, was known to have died prior to 1862, by which time her child had traveled as a stowaway to Belvidere, Illinois, and was working as a farmhand to a man named Avery.[8][9][10]

Enlistment

Cashier first enlisted in July 1862 after President Lincoln's call for soldiers.[7]:52 As time passed, the need for soldiers only increased. On August 6, 1862, the eighteen-year-old enlisted in the 95th Illinois Infantry for a three-year term using the name "Albert D.J. Cashier" and was assigned to Company G.[11][12][7]:52 Cashier was listed in the company catalog as nineteen years old upon enlistment, and small in stature.[note 1]

Many Belvidere boys had been at the Battle of Shiloh as members of the Fifteenth Illinois Volunteers, where the Union had suffered heavy losses. Cashier took the train along with other boys from Belvidere to Rockford in order to enlist, in answer to the call for more soldiers.[13]:380 Along with others from Boone and McHenry counties, Cashier learned how to be a volunteer infantryman of the 95th Regiment at Camp Fuller. After being shipped out by steamer and rail to Confederate strongholds in Columbus, Kentucky and Jackson, Tennessee, the 95th was ordered to Grand Junction where it became part of the Army of the Tennessee under General Ulysses S. Grant.[13]:380–381

During the war

The regiment was part of the Army of the Tennessee under Ulysses S. Grant and fought in approximately forty battles,[12] including the siege at Vicksburg. [13]:381 During this campaign, Cashier was captured while performing reconnaissance,[7]:55 but managed to escape and return to the regiment. After the Battle of Vicksburg, in June 1863, Cashier contracted chronic diarrhea and entered a military hospital, somehow managing to evade detection.[7]:55–56 In the spring of 1864, the regiment was also present at the Red River Campaign under General Nathaniel Banks, and in June 1864 at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads in Guntown, Mississippi, where they suffered heavy casualties.[7]:56–57[13]:382–383

Following a period to recuperate and regroup following the debacle at Brice, the 95th, now a seasoned and battle-hardened regiment, saw additional action in the Winter of 1864 in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign, at the battles of Spring Hill and Franklin, the defense of Nashville, and the pursuit of General Hood.[13]:383

During the war, the regiment traveled a total of about 9,000 miles.[7]:52[note 2] Other soldiers thought that Cashier was small and preferred to be alone, which were not uncommon characteristics for soldiers. Cashier fought with the regiment through the war until honorably discharged on August 17, 1865, when all the soldiers were mustered out.[7]:57

Cashier was only one of at least 250 soldiers who were assigned female at birth and enlisted as men to fight in the Civil War.[14][15]

Postwar
Cashier's postwar residence, since moved to Saunemin

After the war, Cashier returned to Belvidere, Illinois for a time, working for Samuel Pepper and continuing to live as a man.[7]:57[16] Settling in Saunemin, Illinois in 1869, Cashier worked as a farmhand as well as performing odd jobs around the town.[7]:57 and can be found in the town payroll records.[7]:57 Cashier lived with employer Joshua Chesbro and his family in exchange for work, and had also slept for a time in the Cording Hardware store in exchange for labor. In 1885, the Chesbro family had a small house built for Cashier.[17] For over forty years, Cashier lived in Saunemin and was a church janitor, cemetery worker, and street lamplighter. Living as a man allowed Cashier to vote in elections and to later claim a veteran's pension under the same name.[7]:58 Pension payments started in 1907.[18]

In later years, Cashier ate with the neighboring Lannon family. The Lannons discovered their friend's sex when Cashier fell ill, but decided not make their discovery public.[7]:59

In 1911, Cashier, who was working for State Senator Ira Lish, was hit by the Senator's car, resulting in a broken leg.[7]:59 A physician found out the patient's secret in the hospital, but did not disclose the information. No longer able to work, Cashier was moved to the Soldiers and Sailors home in Quincy, Illinois on May 5, 1911. Many friends and fellow soldiers from the Ninety-fifth Regiment visited.[7]:59 Cashier lived there until an obvious deterioration of mind began to take place and was moved to the Watertown State Hospital for the Insane in March 1914.[7]:60 Attendants at the Watertown State Hospital discovered Cashier's sex, at which point, the patient was made to wear women's clothes again after what we can assume would be more than fifty years.[7]:60 In 1914, Cashier was investigated for fraud by the veterans' pension board; former comrades confirmed that Cashier was in fact the person who had fought in the Civil War and the board decided in February 1915 that payments should continue for life.[19][20][21]

Death and legacy

Albert Cashier died on October 10, 1915 and was buried in uniform. The tombstone was inscribed "Albert D. J. Cashier, Co. G, 95 Ill. Inf."[11] Cashier was given an official Grand Army of the Republic funerary service, and was buried with full military honors.[7]:60 It took W.J. Singleton (executor of Cashier's estate) nine years to track Cashier's identity back to the birth name of Jennie Hodgers. None of the would-be heirs proved convincing, and the estate of about $282 (after payment of funeral expenses)[20][21][22] was deposited in the Adams County, Illinois, treasury. The name on the original tombstone is Albert D. J. Cashier. In the 1970s, a second tombstone, inscribed with both names, was placed near the first one at Sunny Slope cemetery in Saunemin, Illinois.[11][23]

Cashier is listed on the internal wall of the Illinois memorial at Vicksburg National Military Park.[24]

A musical entitled The Civility of Albert Cashier has been produced based on Cashier's life; the work was described by the Chicago Tribune as "A timely musical about a trans soldier".[25]

Also Known As Albert D. J. Cashier: The Jennie Hodgers Story is a biography written by veteran Lon P. Dawson, who lived at the Illinois Veterans Home where Cashier once lived. The novel My Last Skirt, by Lynda Durrant, is based on Cashier's life. Cashier was mentioned in a collection of essays called Nine Irish Lives, in which Cashier's biography was written by Jill McDonough.[26] Cashier's house has been restored in Saunemin.[27]

Authors including Michael Bronski, James Cromwell, Kirstin Cronn-Mills, and Nicholas Teich have suggested or argued that Cashier was a trans man due to living as a man for at least 53 years.[3][4][5][6]

See also

Notes
  1. Sources differ about how tall Cashier was. Some say 5'3" [7]:54 and others say 5 feet[13]:380. In addition, Tsui claims Cashier was blue-eyed, with auburn hair and a fair complexion,:54 while Clausius says "dark-haired".:380
  2. According to the regimental historian, the 95th had traveled 9,960 miles in three years of campaigns.[13]:384

References
  1. "What part am I to act in this great drama?" (PDF). Salt. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-10-08. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  2. Blanton, DeAnne & Cook, Lauren M. (2002). They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War. Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 9780807128060.
  3. Cromwell, Jason (1999). "Transvestite Opportunists, Passing Women, and Female-Bodied Men". Transmen and FTMs: Identities, Bodies, Genders, and Sexualities. University of Illinois Press. pp. 77–78. ISBN 9780252068256.
  4. Bronski, Michael (2011). "A Democracy of Death and Art". A Queer History of the United States. Beacon Press. pp. 69–70. ISBN 9780807044391.
  5. Teich, Nicholas (2012). "The History of Transgenderism and its Evolution Over Time". Transgender 101: A Simple Guide to a Complex Issue. Columbia University Press. pp. 76–77. ISBN 9780231157124.
  6. Cronn-Mills, Kirstin (2014). Transgender Lives: Complex Stories, Complex Voices. Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing Group. p. 41. ISBN 9780761390220.
  7. Tsui, Bonnie (2006). She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War. Globe Pequot. Guilford, Connecticut: TwoDot. ISBN 978-0-7627-4384-1. OCLC 868531116.
  8. Benck, Amy. "Albert D. J. Cashier: Woman Warrior, Insane Civil War Veteran, or Transman?". OutHistory. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  9. Illinois Issues: Little Soldier, Big Mystery, Illinois Public Radio, July 10, 2018
  10. McAuliffe, Nora-Ide. “When Jennie Came Marching Home – An Irishwoman's Diary on Albert Cashier and the US Civil War.” The Irish Times, The Irish Times, 10 Apr. 2018, www.irishtimes.com/opinion/when-jennie-came-marching-home-an-irishwoman-s-diary-on-albert-cashier-and-the-us-civil-war-1.3456012.
  11. Hicks-Bartlett, Alani (February 1994). "When Jennie Comes Marchin' Home". Illinois History. Archived from the original on 2006-09-05. Retrieved 2007-12-13.
  12. Blanton, DeAnne (Spring 1993). "Women Soldiers of the Civil War". Prologue. College Park, MD: National Archives. 25 (1). Archived from the original on 5 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  13. Clausius, Gerhard P. (Winter 1958). "The Little Soldier of the 95th: Albert D. J. Cashier". Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. 51 (4): 380–387. ISSN 2328-3246. JSTOR 40189639.
  14. "The Women Who Fought in the Civil War". Off the Beaten Path. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  15. Steve Hendrix (August 25, 2017). "A history lesson for Trump: Transgender soldiers served in the Civil War". Washington Post. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
  16. "Deposition of J. H. Himes" (January 24, 1915) from Blanton (Spring 1993)
  17. "Recollections - Albert D. J. Cashier". Saunemin, Illinois. Google Sites. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
  18. "The Handsome Young Irishman of the 95th IL Infantry". eHistory, Ohio State University. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  19. McAuliffe, Nora-Ide. "When Jennie Came Marching Home – An Irishwoman's Diary on Albert Cashier and the US Civil War". www.irishtimes.com. The Irish Times. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  20. "Women in the Civil War". Warfare History. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  21. DeAnne Blanton, Lauren Cook Wike (2002-09-01). They Fought Like Demons. LSU Press. p. 174. ISBN 9780807128060. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
  22. "The Handsome Young Irishman of the 95th IL Infantry". eHistory, Ohio State University. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  23. "Albert D. J. Cashier". Find a Grave.
  24. Bonnie Tsui (2006-07-01). She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781461748496. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
  25. Jones, Chris (7 September 2017). "'Civility of Albert Cashier': A timely musical about a trans soldier". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  26. McDonough, Jill (2018). "The Soldier". Nine Irish Lives. Algonquin Books. pp. 68–99.
  27. "For Love Of Freedom". Saunemin Historical Society. July 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-14.

Further reading
  • Bradford, Martin J. (2015). A Velvet Fist in an Iron Glove: The Curious Case of Albert Cashier. Kindle Ebooks @ Amazon. Historical/fiction novel account of the life of Jennie Hodgers/Albert Cashier.
  • Durant, Lynda. (2006). My Last Skirt: the Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 0618574905 Historical fiction account of Jennie Hodgers' life.
  • Eggleston, Larry G. (2003). Women in the Civil War: Extraordinary Stories of Soldiers, Spies, Nurses, Doctors, Crusaders, and Others. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 0786414936
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