Draft:Albert Cashier/Rfc proposals/Mathglot

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Albert D. J. Cashier
Albert-Cashier.jpg
(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.
BuriedSaunemin, Illinois, U.S.
Allegiance United States of America
Service/branchSeal of the United States Board of War and Ordnance.svg United States Army
Years of service1862–1865
RankPrivate
Unit95th Illinois Infantry, Company G
Battles/warsVicksburg, Red River, Guntown
Other workCemetery worker, janitor, lamplighter

Albert D. J. Cashier (December 25, 1843 – October 10, 1915), birth name 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. Albert 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 the male identity has prompted some contemporary scholars to suggest that Cashier was a trans man.[3][4][5][6]

Early life[edit]

Hodgers was born in Clogherhead, County Louth, Ireland on December 25, around the year 1843.[7]:52[2] According to later investigation by the administrator of the estate, Cashier's parents were Sallie and Patrick Hodgers. Cashier's later accounts of moving to the United States and enlisting in the army were taken at an advanced age; Cashier was disoriented and evasive about earlier life, and these narratives are contradictory.[2] Cashier as a child was said to have been dressed in boy's clothing by Patrick Hodgers in order to find work at a shoe factory in Illinois. Even before the advent of the war, Jenny adopted the identity of Albert Cashier in order to find work.[7]:52 Sallie Hodgers died while Cashier was still a youth, and by 1862, Cashier had traveled as a stowaway to Illinois and was living in Belvidere, working as a farmhand for a man named Avery.[8][9]

Enlistment[edit]

Cashier first enlisted in the Army in July 1862 after President Lincoln's call for soldiers.[7]:52 As time passed, the need for soldiers increased. On August 6, 1862, Cashier enlisted in the 95th Illinois Infantry for a three-year term using the name "Albert D.J. Cashier" and was assigned to Company G.[10][11][7]:52 A company catalog lists Cashier as nineteen years old upon enlistment, a farmer from New York City, 5 feet 3 inches tall, with blue eyes, auburn hair, and a fair complexion.[7]:54

During the war[edit]

The regiment was part of the Army of the Tennessee under Ulysses S. Grant which fought in approximately forty battles,[11] including the siege at Vicksburg. This campaign proved to be a challenge, and Cashier was captured while performing reconnaissance.[7]:55 Cashier managed to escape, however, and returned 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 The regiment was also present at the Red River Campaign and the Battle of Brice's Crossroads at Guntown, Mississippi, where it suffered heavy casualties.[7]:56–57 The regiment traveled about 9,000 miles during the war.[7]:52 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 August 17, 1865, when all the soldiers were mustered out. Cashier was honorably discharged on August 17, 1865.[7]:57

Subsequent research revealed that Cashier was one of at least 250 women who disguised themselves and enlisted as men to fight in the Civil War.[12][13]

Postwar[edit]

Cashier's postwar residence, since moved to Saunemin

After the war, Cashier returned to Belvidere for a time, working for Samuel Pepper and maintaining the male wartime identity.[7]:57[14] Cashier settled in Saunemin, Illinois in 1869, working as a farmhand as well as performing odd jobs around the town.[7]:57 The name of Albert Cashier can be found on records of the town payroll.[7]:57 Albert worked for Joshua Chesbro and lived with Chesbro's family, and had previously slept in the Cording Hardware store in exchange for work. In 1885, the Chesbro family built a small house for Cashier. [15] For over forty years, Cashier lived in Saunemin and was a church janitor, cemetery worker, and street lamplighter. Due to living as a man, Cashier voted in elections, and later claimed a veteran's pension under the name Albert Cashier.[7]:58 Pension payments started in 1907.[16]

In later years, Cashier ate with the neighboring Lannon family. Later on, when Cashier fell ill, the Lannons discovered Cashier's true sex following medical examination by a nurse, but they did not make their discovery public.[7]:59

In 1911, Cashier was hit by a car and suffered a broken leg.[7]:59 A physician discovered Cashier's secret in the hospital, but likewise did not disclose it. On May 5, 1911, when no longer able to work, Cashier was moved to the Soldiers and Sailors home in Quincy, Illinois. During this stay, Cashier was visited by many fellow soldiers from Ninety-fifth Regiment.[7]:59 Cashier lived there until a deteriorating mental state necessitated a move to the Watertown State Hospital for the Insane in March 1914.[7]:60 Attendants at the Watertown State Hospital discovered Cashier's sex while administering a bath, at which point they obliged Cashier to wear women's clothes again after fifty years of living as a man.[7]:60 In 1914, Cashier was investigated for fraud by the veterans' pension board. Former comrades however confirmed that Cashier was in fact the person who had fought in the Civil War and the board decided in February 1915 that pension payments should continue for life.[17][18][19]

Death and legacy[edit]

Albert Cashier died on October 10, 1915 and was buried in the uniform which had been kept safe all those years. Cashier's tombstone was inscribed "Albert D. J. Cashier, Co. G, 95 Ill. Inf."[10] 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.[10][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 having lived as a man for at least 53 years. [3][4][5][6]

References[edit]

  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. ^ a b c Blanton, DeAnne & Cook, Lauren M. (2002). They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War. Louisiana State University Press.
  3. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Bronski, Michael (2011). "A Democracy of Death and Art". A Queer History of the United States. Beacon Press. pp. 69–70. ISBN 9780807044391.
  5. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Cronn-Mills, Kirstin (2014). Transgender Lives: Complex Stories, Complex Voices. Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing Group. p. 41. ISBN 9780761390220.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t 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. ^ 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.
  10. ^ a b c Hicks-Bartlett, Alani (February 1994). "When Jennie Comes Marchin' Home". Illinois History. Archived from the original on 2006-09-05. Retrieved 2007-12-13.
  11. ^ a b 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.
  12. ^ "The Women Who Fought in the Civil War". Off the Beaten Path. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  13. ^ "https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/07/26/a-history-lesson-for-trump-transgender-soldiers-served-in-the-civil-war/?utm_term=.49afe5bdf435". Retrieved August 3, 2018. External link in |title= (help)
  14. ^ "Deposition of J. H. Himes" (January 24, 1915) from Blanton (Spring 1993)
  15. ^ Saunemin Illinois. “Recollections - Albert D. J. Cashier.” Google Sites, sites.google.com/site/albertdjcashier/recollections-1.
  16. ^ "The Handsome Young Irishman of the 95th IL Infantry". eHistory, Ohio State University. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ "Women in the Civil War". Warfare History. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  19. ^ DeAnne Blanton, Lauren Cook Wike. They Fought Like Demons. LSU Press. p. 174. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
  20. ^ "The Handsome Young Irishman of the 95th IL Infantry". eHistory, Ohio State University. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  21. ^ "Women in the Civil War". Warfare History. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  22. ^ DeAnne Blanton, Lauren Cook Wike. They Fought Like Demons. LSU Press. p. 174. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
  23. ^ Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8448540/albert-d.j.-cashier. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  24. ^ Bonnie Tsui. She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War. Rowman & Littlefield. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
  25. ^ Jones, Chris. “'CiviliTy of Albert Cashier': A Timely Musical about a Trans Soldier.” Chicagotribune.com, 27 Sept. 2017, http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/reviews/ct-ent-albert-cashier-review-0908-story.html.
  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[edit]

  • 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

External links[edit]



Category:1843 births Category:1915 deaths Category:Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923) Category:Transgender and transsexual men Category:Transgender and transsexual military personnel Category:Union Army soldiers Category:People from County Louth Category:People of Illinois in the American Civil War Category:People from Belvidere, Illinois Category:People from Livingston County, Illinois Category:People from Quincy, Illinois Category:Female wartime cross-dressers in the American Civil War