July 11, 2019 • 27 mins
Born as 'Jennie Hodgers' with a female sex assignment on December 25th, 1843, Albert Cashier emigrated to the United States lived as a man from his early teens on through the rest of his life. Despite the massive prejudices of the time, he managed to find support in his local communities, his friends and his fellow soldiers from the 95th Illinois Infantry both during and after the war, when the US government temporarily tried to revoke his pension.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. One
(00:27):
of the weird things about US history is that we
have strange names for wars. We call the Civil War
the Civil War, which is a weird dame if you
think about it, for any sort of war, especially one
that bellicose and bloody. Here's a fact you may not
know about the Civil War. There are over four hundred
(00:50):
solidly documented cases of women disguising themselves as men and
fighting as soldiers on both sides of the conflict, the
Union and the Confederacy. Welcome to Ridiculous History. My name
is Ben, my name is Knoel, and Ben, I'm I'm
just gonna go ahead and get this out of the way,
get out of my system right up front, sort of
like Mulan. You're getting something out of your system. Like No, No,
(01:12):
this this case of like the women dressing up like
so they could fight in the war, kind of like Mulan.
Which is how about to have a live action adaptation?
Quite excited. This episode is not brought to you by
the Disney Corporation. No, but it's an interesting distinction, Ben,
because a lot of folks women dressed up in men's
clothing and passed as men in order to either escape
(01:36):
a harsh life and get the relatively stable life of
a soldier, which gave you three square meals a day,
roof over your head, et cetera. I mean, of course,
you know, you had to put your life on the
line for some folks that might have been preferable to
the conditions they were living in before that. Um, this
story that we're talking about today is a little different
because the individual that's the center of this story is
(01:58):
someone who continued to go on living as a man
after the war was over. That's correct, That's correct. And
we want to be very clear here. Science shows that
gender as it is commonly understood is largely a social construct,
and we wanted to share with you today the story
of Albert Cashier, who fought for the Union in the
(02:23):
US Civil War and was a trans man before before
we continue, I can't believe we got this far in
the episode without shouting out our super producer, Casey Pegram. Now, Casey,
you're not what people would describe as a Civil War
buff especially, is that correct? That's correct? Yeah, I'm not
(02:45):
really too heavily invested in that. What was that four
hour Civil War film? The Civil War, Gettysburg. Gettysburg. Wasn't
there one that? Probably ten or twelve? Okay? So okay, Well,
like I was thinking of of a high account Civil
War documentary. Um. I love how skin Burns his documentaries
are so like authoritative, They're just like jazz baseball the
(03:08):
Civil War. I want him to go a little more
of fields sometimes, you know, I wish he just did
very very specific things, you know, like mascots. That'd be good.
I'll tell you what it's very very specific about ken
Burns is his haircut. Have you seen it? It's like
a very uh interesting twist on the bowl cut. I mean,
he's lived in his life. He is living his life.
(03:29):
And I'll tell you else was living their lives is
Albert Cashier, who was born on December eight, forty three
in a fantastically named Cloggerhead County. Maybe it's claw for head.
There's a g h sound. What do you think, Ben,
we learned our lesson about Gaelic. Let's just spell it
c l O g h e r head. I'm gonna
go with clover Head. That's what I'm gonna shoot for um,
(03:52):
And that is in the County of Louth. Luth, Luth,
I would I would, I would Hazard? It is Luth,
you would Hazard did this Luth. Let's see what four
vo has to say about this. Loud the robot voice
has spoken. Louth is what we shall go with today
for the purposes of this story. So yeah, County of Louth, Ireland.
(04:16):
And the interesting thing, or the I guess galling thing
about the story is that there isn't that much that
we know about this person's life. And the things that
we do know come from a recorded account when Cashier
was going through the throes of dementia back in nineteen thirteen. Um.
But we are going to do our best piece together
(04:38):
what we do know about this fascinating individual and their
bravery and their life rights. So the account comes when
Cashier is seventy years old and suffering from a bit
of mental deterioration with age. Here's what we know. So
Cashier was born in Ireland, as you said in eighteen three,
(04:58):
immigrated to illan away at a very young age, sometime
in childhood, but exactly when is not clear, as a
cast or as a stowaway on a ship to first
two I want to say England London, and then carried
on to New York City, and from his teenage years
(05:18):
Cashier was living as a man, and he did so
until his death at age seventy one. So the account
we have comes one year before he passes away, and
his story is remembered because of his service in the
Civil War. Cashier is one of many, many people who
were living their lives in a way that was largely
(05:44):
unacknowledged by the public, by the communities through which they moved.
And that's that's a problem that continues today throughout the
throughout the world, throughout the species. But in Cashier's case,
Uncle Sam itself infirmed or affirmed would be a better word,
this male identity. We know that at some point after immigrating,
(06:08):
Cashier was given men's clothing by an uncle or stepfather,
with the idea being that, you know, hey, kid, wear
this and you can get a job at this shoe factory.
And that's where that's where Albert adopts the name Albert Cashier.
It's interesting to you that there's this idea of of
cooperation from a you know, member of the patriarchy that
(06:30):
was that would potentially have had a problem with this
and uh caused uh, you know, a lot of difficulties
for this this young person at the time. UM. But
the account that we have is that the uncle or
stepfather was in fact cooperative and helpful and helped helped Albert,
you know, mask his assigned gender identity and uh, secure
work at a shoe factory. Um. And that's where he
(06:52):
took on the name Albert Cashier so that he could work.
And he lived by himself and he kept to himself.
And that's something that he would continue doing once he
listed in the Union Army in eighteen sixty two. UM.
He would shower on his own, he would change into
his you know, from his uniform on his own, and
that wasn't seen as being particularly strange, right, Like, that
(07:13):
was pretty common according to some of the records that
we've seen for other soldiers to do that. It wasn't
like a big boys club kind of locker room situation,
right right. And for the record, eighteen sixty two, that
makes Albert nineteen when joining the Union. So here's what
we know for certain. On August sixth, eighteen sixty two,
(07:35):
nineteen year old Albert Cashier was a resident of Belvedere, Illinois,
and enlisted in the ninety five Illinois infantry. Like you
mentioned earlier, Noel Albert was known to keep mostly to
himself and the only thing people really called out about
or busted chops about with him was that he was
(07:57):
the shortest person in the squad. But he passed the
medical exam, which only consisted of looking at like things
like teeth and I guess arches, you know, make sure
he didn't have any bone spurs or anything. I guess
um and the ability to wield rifle. Those are the
things that there was no looking at. The private bits
(08:17):
right right. Cashier was also known for being the silent type,
not not super extroverted, but being very, very brave in
the field of battle. We also found that correspondencies from
the time suggest Cashier had a significant other during the war,
(08:41):
and like many other soldiers on both the Union and
Confederate sides of that conflict, Cashier wrote to this significant
other that was the Morey family, um he kept in
contact with in Babcox Grove, Illinois. Cashier's regiment participated in
(09:01):
over forty uh engagements battles in the war um They
were part of the Army of the Tennessee, and that
included the Siege of Vicksburg, the Red River Campaign, battles
in Kennesaw Mountain, and Jonesboro, Georgia very near where we
are here in Atlanta, and also the Battle of Nashville,
(09:21):
and he survived. In fact, he also, uh, there's a
story that isn't very detailed, but he supposedly was captured
at one point, and he more or less just was
a badass and like knocked over his captor and ran
on foot all the way back to his his camp
and escaped, and all the while avoiding being detective. He
was even treated for diarrhea once and was able to
(09:45):
kind of like wiggle his way out of getting inspected
in any kind of way that would have given away
his secret. And that capture was in eighteen sixty three
during the Siege of Vicksburg. In maybe so Cashier serves
a three year enlistment with his regiment until they are
(10:06):
mustard out honorably discharged on August sixteenth of eighteen sixty five.
To put in perspective how amazing it is for anyone
to survive this sort of conflict. Out of the regiment,
two hundred and eighty nine soldiers died due to death
(10:26):
on battlefield or due to disease, because I thought it
was interesting that you mentioned the idea of joining a
military to get three square meals a day. That is
the case now right in the in the U. S.
Military and most Western militaries. You will be you will
be fed, you will have a place to sleep. It
may not be ideal, but you will have those things.
(10:49):
This was not always the case in the Union and
Confederate armies. People were fighting for ideological reasons. At least
the people, the people on the ground. And Albert's reputation
continues well after the war. His brothers and arms remember
this guy that they thought was, you know, kind of short,
(11:13):
but so brave. It was plucky, you know, and uh,
he undertook dangerous assignments. He was admired for his heroic actions,
his bravery, and he was somewhat of an enigmatic, fascinating
figure because he never seemed to get a serious injury.
(11:33):
He was blessed in some way, very much so. And
that reputation um carried over into his life after the war,
where he continued to keep to himself. Um. You know,
it makes sense that he would do that because too
many questions are getting too close to anybody could have
opened the door to him being discovered, which could have
robbed him of his pension. That's another thing that is
(11:53):
a positive aspect of being in the military. You get
paid even after your service, of which he did the
full term, by the way. So he moved back to
a small community in Illinois where he had immigrated to
originally and was like a pillar of the community. People
(12:14):
you know, didn't really know too much about him, but
he was like regarded as a very good citizen and
treated with respect and no one invaded his privacy. And
during this time he had many odd jobs, including like
he was like a lamplighter for the city. I think
he was a custodian at a hospital, and he also
worked for a lawmaker. He found himself working for Senator
(12:37):
Ira Lash And that is when things kind of started
going downhill for Cashier when the Senator, the honorable Senator,
accidentally hit Cashier with his car and broke his leg,
forcing him to be taken to hospital and examined. Right
and at this time, you know, as as we said,
he was a respected established member of the unity. He
(13:00):
wasn't he wasn't like a Boo Radley type shut in
from Harper leaves to kill a mocking bird. He he
was known, he was active. He wore his uniform all
the time and buttoned up to his neck, apparently to
hide the fact that he did not have an Adam's apple.
That's correct, and you can read an excellent source on
(13:24):
this from Irish Times dot com when Jenny Came Marching Home.
An Irish Woman's Diary on Albert Cashier in the US
Civil War by Nora id Mcalife. So let's fast forward November.
The Senator hits Cashier with his car. Albert at this
point is sixty seven years old. His leg is broken,
(13:46):
goes to hospital, as you said, and the hospital, the
staff of the hospital learns the sex assignment. They agree
that they are not going to betray of the trust.
This is. This is a a bunch of doctors and
medical professional again, incredibly progressive and super helpful and very
(14:06):
lucky in the string of like lucky events that has
led this person to have not been exposed for sixty
seven years of their life. Um, but yeah, there's there.
They all that they can't all be good eggs because
once he has treated he is then he doesn't really
have any much money other than his pension. He can't
(14:27):
really work anymore, so he's sent to a place called
the Soldiers and Sailors Home in Quincy, Illinois, where he
is going to convalesce um and stays there for a
few years. He stays there for a few years. In
that amount of time, he starts to get the onset
of that dementia that we mentioned the top of the show,
and that's when he's sent to this is a horrible term,
(14:47):
but this is what it was referred to at the time,
a state hospital for the insane, and there his sex
assignment is discovered again and they aren't so kind about it. No,
the Senator Lish intervened and Lish, from what we could tell,
is the person who actually disclosed the sex assignment of
(15:09):
Albert Cashier and warned the staff of this state hospital
to keep the information a secret. But these two male
nurses forced Albert to wear a dress and then took
the information public and the media got ahold of it,
and the story went national. And at this time, remember
(15:34):
we mentioned the pension earlier. At this time, the Veterans
pension Board gets gets wind of this, and they instead
of recognizing the soldier's duty and the fact that they
did the full term right of of their enlistment. Instead
of recognizing that, the Veterans Pension Board begins to investigate
Albert for fraud. And keep in mind, keep in mind,
(15:55):
to this point, Albert is sixty nine, seventy years old
and suffering from this cognitive decline. They go on to
say they had insult injury in saying that there's no
way this old elderly person within their frail state could
have possibly been the heroic soldier who fought in the war.
(16:15):
And also because of obviously the fact that they're female. Um,
but again really progressive thinking at this time, his compatriots,
you know, from his army days, come to his aid
and back up his story and say, no, this was
the guy that's and we don't care or I don't know,
it's not I mean, obviously they would have heard the
stories and they would have had to come to his
(16:37):
aid for a reason, and so they had to have
like not cared. This was national news, national news. They
had to have like not held a grudge or you
would think that you know, uh, maybe they would have
felt betrayed or something like that, or allied to but
instead they seemed to see through to the truth of
the matter and come to his defense, and the the
board decided to continue paying out his pension as they
(16:59):
should have. Yeah, assented, because think about this, Think about
the time in which this debate is occurring. What are
you going to do, as the Veteran Board if other
veterans come to you and say, essentially, you were insulting
the entire concept of serving in the military and you
(17:19):
are not holding up your end of the bargain, and
this is heartbreaking. So Albert's fellow soldiers vouch for him
and raise enough of a stink and attention that the
Veteran Board does continue these pension payments. But Albert is
still lost in this place and declared insane. Albert fights
(17:40):
the best way he can. Uh. He takes the skirts
that he's forced to wear and he ties them up
with safety pins so he can form pants out of them.
But Albert trips one day, breaks a hip, and eventually
dies on October, age seventy one. I know this sounds
(18:01):
like down red folks, but we promise you we do
have a happy ending of sorts. Yeah, there's definitely a
really powerful legacy left behind. Let's also not forget that
the conditions that he was exposed to our direct result
of a time before mental health reform, where you know,
the idea of being insane practically relegated you to you know,
(18:22):
forced confinement and very little actual treatment, and you know,
sort of just being almost abandoned and left to rot.
You know, there's all these these stories we know about
the conditions and quote unquote mental asylums. You know, insane
asilence is what this would have been considered, and they
were absolutely horrible and in humane. Here is the bitter
(18:43):
suite powerful ending. When Albert Keshier passes away, he has
given a full military funeral. He is buried in uniform,
the uniform he always dressed even after the war. There
is a gravestone erected to him. The gravestone does not
read Jenny Hodgers. The gravestone reads Albert D. J. Cashier.
(19:06):
Six years later, the headstone has changed such that both
names are there, the original name and then Albert's name.
How do you feel about them? I don't know, you know,
I I don't know how he would feel about because
wondering why they why they chose to do that. Was
there some kind of outcry that like forced that's just
such an odd choice to me. Yeah, as well, I
(19:28):
don't know, because we know that Albert definitely did not
have a say and that you know. Uh, but here's
the thing. The town in Illinois where Albert is buried,
they remember him today. You can go to Sonomon, Illinois,
and you will see US and Irish flags flying side
by side at the home of Albert D. J. Cashier,
(19:51):
very modest, one bedroom home that you can, I believe, tour.
The mayor will also give you a tour. It makes me,
it makes me, uh, I don't know. It's kind of
heartwarming to think that you can go to this small
town and you can call up the mayor and they'll say, okay,
I'll take you over to the house. I'll you know,
I'll even walk you to the grave. It's it's heartwarming
(20:14):
to me that you can literally call up the mayor
of the town and they'll take you on a tour.
That's pretty neat. It is pretty net and um, I
I have to be honest, I was unaware of this story,
but clearly some people were, because there is in fact
a Broadway musical, or a Broadway style musical um about
the life of Albert Cashier. That came out in seventeen
(20:35):
and I got pretty great reviews and played at the
Seven Stage seven seventy three in Chicago. Having anything about
a Broadway run, but I'd be very interested in seeing this.
It's called The Civility of Albert Cashier by j. Paul
Derratani and the score is by Joe Stevens and Keaton Wooden.
And here's a little blurb from one of the cast
members by the name of Delia Crop quote. In so
(20:57):
many ways, Albert's story is a true American one, a
soldier who served their country and wanted nothing more than
personal liberty to live life as they wished to. Which,
when you put it that way, how much more American
can you get? What else do you want? That's a
that's personal freedom right. And even though the practice of
the law doesn't adhere to the letter of the law
(21:20):
near as often as I think we would all like,
it is inspirational. It doesn't matter who you are, you
should be inspired by this. As we mentioned earlier, Albert
Cashier was not the only person in this situation. And
(21:41):
there is an important distinction to make here. More than
two fifties Civil War soldiers were assigned female at birth.
Most of those soldiers are assumed by historians today to
have been sis gender women in disguise for the purpose
of getting around army regulations. Mulan like mulan. So some
(22:03):
would fight to be close to their significant other or
their spouse. Uh, some were straight up trying to escape slavery, right, which,
of course, who could blame him? And so that's that's
sort of the point we made earlier, where it's like,
the conditions that would maybe cause someone to look at
military service as a better alternative to the life they're
(22:24):
leading before those previous conditions had to be pretty rough.
Slavery would certainly be one of them. Abject poverty, things
like that, an abusive relationship or a home situation, you know,
would make one seek out any alternative, and the army
was certainly one of those. And while Albert Cashier was
a transman and trans soldier fighting in the Civil War, Uh,
(22:48):
this story doesn't stop here, Christine Jorgensen. It's actually the
first American trans woman who was widely known for having
a sex reassignment surgery. And and this goes back a
little bit farther right. No, yeah, I mean call the
Cashier story a precedent if you will, UM or just
call it kind of a spiritual successor. But Jorgensen, who
(23:11):
was in the army UM in and she during that
time she learned about UM the possibility of getting sexual
reassignment surgery, and she started to get that process underway
in Denmark in nineteen fifty one. And when she came
back to the US in the early nineteen fifties, it
became kind of a pretty hot button story when the
(23:33):
New York Daily News reported it with the headline x
G I becomes blonde bombshell. She documented her life extensively.
She became a huge figure in the trans community early
days of the trans community. Um and was you know,
made appearances on talk shows, She toured college campuses talk
about her transition in her life living as a trans woman.
(23:54):
She became an actress, a nightclub performer, and she was
very very sharp witted and um She passed away in
nineteen eighty nine. Um and she referred to her impact
on the sexual revolution as having given it a good
swift kick in the pants. It's kind of kick started.
And there's already been an indie movie made about Jorgensen.
(24:19):
And also additionally, Edwoods Glenn or Glenda definitely tried tried to,
let's say, take inspiration from Christine Jorgensen's story, But these
stories are important to remember, and we also want to
acknowledge that the struggle, the search for validation, recognition of
(24:40):
your own identity, and the right to live as you
wish is a fundamental part of being a human being.
So thankfully Albert Cashier, despite the social climate and discrimination
of the time, was able to get the recognition he deserved.
(25:03):
We still have a long way to go, and we
have to wonder what future historians will say about these
are modern days. I don't know, man, sure seems like
we're living in a time where, um, things like this
are much more mainstream and much more accepted. And like
my kid has grown up being completely comfortable with the
idea of trans people that she has several in her class,
(25:25):
and she is just like just it's it's it's it's
basically the new normal. And I think that's an amazing
place for us to be, given how far we've come. Agreed, agreed,
Thank you so much for tuning in today. We hope
that you enjoyed this exploration of Albert's life, and we
would like to hear from you. What are some other
(25:46):
amazing and inspirational stories of individuals in times of conflict
doesn't have to be restricted to the Civil War here
in the United States. Let us know we are all
ears or eyes rather, because we'll probably be reading what
you sent to us. You can email us directly. We
(26:06):
are Ridiculous at I heart radio dot com. You can
also find our Facebook page Ridiculous Historians, where you can
meet our favorite part of the show. The three of
us are always talking about you off air, your fellow listeners. Yeah.
You can also check me and Ben out individually on Instagram.
I've got an account under how Now Noel Brown where
(26:29):
you can just catch me doing you know, the things
I do day to day, which apparently includes getting kicked
in the shens by little kids and until I get
black bagged and disappeared for my my various misadventures. You
can find me at Ben Bolan on Instagram. Thanks so
much to our super producer casey La Bush Pegroom. Thanks
(26:53):
to our research associates Ryan Bearish and Gabe Bluesia. Yeah
big thanks to Alex Williams who composed our theme Chris
for us stots here in spirit Jonathan Strickland looming large
in the world of quiz related super villainy. And thanks
to you, Ben for being a friend and a confidant
down that road and back again and all that. Thanks
to see you next time Fox. For more podcasts for
(27:24):
My Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. One
(00:27):
of the weird things about US history is that we
have strange names for wars. We call the Civil War
the Civil War, which is a weird dame if you
think about it, for any sort of war, especially one
that bellicose and bloody. Here's a fact you may not
know about the Civil War. There are over four hundred
(00:50):
solidly documented cases of women disguising themselves as men and
fighting as soldiers on both sides of the conflict, the
Union and the Confederacy. Welcome to Ridiculous History. My name
is Ben, my name is Knoel, and Ben, I'm I'm
just gonna go ahead and get this out of the way,
get out of my system right up front, sort of
like Mulan. You're getting something out of your system. Like No, No,
(01:12):
this this case of like the women dressing up like
so they could fight in the war, kind of like Mulan.
Which is how about to have a live action adaptation?
Quite excited. This episode is not brought to you by
the Disney Corporation. No, but it's an interesting distinction, Ben,
because a lot of folks women dressed up in men's
clothing and passed as men in order to either escape
(01:36):
a harsh life and get the relatively stable life of
a soldier, which gave you three square meals a day,
roof over your head, et cetera. I mean, of course,
you know, you had to put your life on the
line for some folks that might have been preferable to
the conditions they were living in before that. Um, this
story that we're talking about today is a little different
because the individual that's the center of this story is
(01:58):
someone who continued to go on living as a man
after the war was over. That's correct, That's correct. And
we want to be very clear here. Science shows that
gender as it is commonly understood is largely a social construct,
and we wanted to share with you today the story
of Albert Cashier, who fought for the Union in the
(02:23):
US Civil War and was a trans man before before
we continue, I can't believe we got this far in
the episode without shouting out our super producer, Casey Pegram. Now, Casey,
you're not what people would describe as a Civil War
buff especially, is that correct? That's correct? Yeah, I'm not
(02:45):
really too heavily invested in that. What was that four
hour Civil War film? The Civil War, Gettysburg. Gettysburg. Wasn't
there one that? Probably ten or twelve? Okay? So okay, Well,
like I was thinking of of a high account Civil
War documentary. Um. I love how skin Burns his documentaries
are so like authoritative, They're just like jazz baseball the
(03:08):
Civil War. I want him to go a little more
of fields sometimes, you know, I wish he just did
very very specific things, you know, like mascots. That'd be good.
I'll tell you what it's very very specific about ken
Burns is his haircut. Have you seen it? It's like
a very uh interesting twist on the bowl cut. I mean,
he's lived in his life. He is living his life.
(03:29):
And I'll tell you else was living their lives is
Albert Cashier, who was born on December eight, forty three
in a fantastically named Cloggerhead County. Maybe it's claw for head.
There's a g h sound. What do you think, Ben,
we learned our lesson about Gaelic. Let's just spell it
c l O g h e r head. I'm gonna
go with clover Head. That's what I'm gonna shoot for um,
(03:52):
And that is in the County of Louth. Luth, Luth,
I would I would, I would Hazard? It is Luth,
you would Hazard did this Luth. Let's see what four
vo has to say about this. Loud the robot voice
has spoken. Louth is what we shall go with today
for the purposes of this story. So yeah, County of Louth, Ireland.
(04:16):
And the interesting thing, or the I guess galling thing
about the story is that there isn't that much that
we know about this person's life. And the things that
we do know come from a recorded account when Cashier
was going through the throes of dementia back in nineteen thirteen. Um.
But we are going to do our best piece together
(04:38):
what we do know about this fascinating individual and their
bravery and their life rights. So the account comes when
Cashier is seventy years old and suffering from a bit
of mental deterioration with age. Here's what we know. So
Cashier was born in Ireland, as you said in eighteen three,
(04:58):
immigrated to illan away at a very young age, sometime
in childhood, but exactly when is not clear, as a
cast or as a stowaway on a ship to first
two I want to say England London, and then carried
on to New York City, and from his teenage years
(05:18):
Cashier was living as a man, and he did so
until his death at age seventy one. So the account
we have comes one year before he passes away, and
his story is remembered because of his service in the
Civil War. Cashier is one of many, many people who
were living their lives in a way that was largely
(05:44):
unacknowledged by the public, by the communities through which they moved.
And that's that's a problem that continues today throughout the
throughout the world, throughout the species. But in Cashier's case,
Uncle Sam itself infirmed or affirmed would be a better word,
this male identity. We know that at some point after immigrating,
(06:08):
Cashier was given men's clothing by an uncle or stepfather,
with the idea being that, you know, hey, kid, wear
this and you can get a job at this shoe factory.
And that's where that's where Albert adopts the name Albert Cashier.
It's interesting to you that there's this idea of of
cooperation from a you know, member of the patriarchy that
(06:30):
was that would potentially have had a problem with this
and uh caused uh, you know, a lot of difficulties
for this this young person at the time. UM. But
the account that we have is that the uncle or
stepfather was in fact cooperative and helpful and helped helped Albert,
you know, mask his assigned gender identity and uh, secure
work at a shoe factory. Um. And that's where he
(06:52):
took on the name Albert Cashier so that he could work.
And he lived by himself and he kept to himself.
And that's something that he would continue doing once he
listed in the Union Army in eighteen sixty two. UM.
He would shower on his own, he would change into
his you know, from his uniform on his own, and
that wasn't seen as being particularly strange, right, Like, that
(07:13):
was pretty common according to some of the records that
we've seen for other soldiers to do that. It wasn't
like a big boys club kind of locker room situation,
right right. And for the record, eighteen sixty two, that
makes Albert nineteen when joining the Union. So here's what
we know for certain. On August sixth, eighteen sixty two,
(07:35):
nineteen year old Albert Cashier was a resident of Belvedere, Illinois,
and enlisted in the ninety five Illinois infantry. Like you
mentioned earlier, Noel Albert was known to keep mostly to
himself and the only thing people really called out about
or busted chops about with him was that he was
(07:57):
the shortest person in the squad. But he passed the
medical exam, which only consisted of looking at like things
like teeth and I guess arches, you know, make sure
he didn't have any bone spurs or anything. I guess
um and the ability to wield rifle. Those are the
things that there was no looking at. The private bits
(08:17):
right right. Cashier was also known for being the silent type,
not not super extroverted, but being very, very brave in
the field of battle. We also found that correspondencies from
the time suggest Cashier had a significant other during the war,
(08:41):
and like many other soldiers on both the Union and
Confederate sides of that conflict, Cashier wrote to this significant
other that was the Morey family, um he kept in
contact with in Babcox Grove, Illinois. Cashier's regiment participated in
(09:01):
over forty uh engagements battles in the war um They
were part of the Army of the Tennessee, and that
included the Siege of Vicksburg, the Red River Campaign, battles
in Kennesaw Mountain, and Jonesboro, Georgia very near where we
are here in Atlanta, and also the Battle of Nashville,
(09:21):
and he survived. In fact, he also, uh, there's a
story that isn't very detailed, but he supposedly was captured
at one point, and he more or less just was
a badass and like knocked over his captor and ran
on foot all the way back to his his camp
and escaped, and all the while avoiding being detective. He
was even treated for diarrhea once and was able to
(09:45):
kind of like wiggle his way out of getting inspected
in any kind of way that would have given away
his secret. And that capture was in eighteen sixty three
during the Siege of Vicksburg. In maybe so Cashier serves
a three year enlistment with his regiment until they are
(10:06):
mustard out honorably discharged on August sixteenth of eighteen sixty five.
To put in perspective how amazing it is for anyone
to survive this sort of conflict. Out of the regiment,
two hundred and eighty nine soldiers died due to death
(10:26):
on battlefield or due to disease, because I thought it
was interesting that you mentioned the idea of joining a
military to get three square meals a day. That is
the case now right in the in the U. S.
Military and most Western militaries. You will be you will
be fed, you will have a place to sleep. It
may not be ideal, but you will have those things.
(10:49):
This was not always the case in the Union and
Confederate armies. People were fighting for ideological reasons. At least
the people, the people on the ground. And Albert's reputation
continues well after the war. His brothers and arms remember
this guy that they thought was, you know, kind of short,
(11:13):
but so brave. It was plucky, you know, and uh,
he undertook dangerous assignments. He was admired for his heroic actions,
his bravery, and he was somewhat of an enigmatic, fascinating
figure because he never seemed to get a serious injury.
(11:33):
He was blessed in some way, very much so. And
that reputation um carried over into his life after the war,
where he continued to keep to himself. Um. You know,
it makes sense that he would do that because too
many questions are getting too close to anybody could have
opened the door to him being discovered, which could have
robbed him of his pension. That's another thing that is
(11:53):
a positive aspect of being in the military. You get
paid even after your service, of which he did the
full term, by the way. So he moved back to
a small community in Illinois where he had immigrated to
originally and was like a pillar of the community. People
(12:14):
you know, didn't really know too much about him, but
he was like regarded as a very good citizen and
treated with respect and no one invaded his privacy. And
during this time he had many odd jobs, including like
he was like a lamplighter for the city. I think
he was a custodian at a hospital, and he also
worked for a lawmaker. He found himself working for Senator
(12:37):
Ira Lash And that is when things kind of started
going downhill for Cashier when the Senator, the honorable Senator,
accidentally hit Cashier with his car and broke his leg,
forcing him to be taken to hospital and examined. Right
and at this time, you know, as as we said,
he was a respected established member of the unity. He
(13:00):
wasn't he wasn't like a Boo Radley type shut in
from Harper leaves to kill a mocking bird. He he
was known, he was active. He wore his uniform all
the time and buttoned up to his neck, apparently to
hide the fact that he did not have an Adam's apple.
That's correct, and you can read an excellent source on
(13:24):
this from Irish Times dot com when Jenny Came Marching Home.
An Irish Woman's Diary on Albert Cashier in the US
Civil War by Nora id Mcalife. So let's fast forward November.
The Senator hits Cashier with his car. Albert at this
point is sixty seven years old. His leg is broken,
(13:46):
goes to hospital, as you said, and the hospital, the
staff of the hospital learns the sex assignment. They agree
that they are not going to betray of the trust.
This is. This is a a bunch of doctors and
medical professional again, incredibly progressive and super helpful and very
(14:06):
lucky in the string of like lucky events that has
led this person to have not been exposed for sixty
seven years of their life. Um, but yeah, there's there.
They all that they can't all be good eggs because
once he has treated he is then he doesn't really
have any much money other than his pension. He can't
(14:27):
really work anymore, so he's sent to a place called
the Soldiers and Sailors Home in Quincy, Illinois, where he
is going to convalesce um and stays there for a
few years. He stays there for a few years. In
that amount of time, he starts to get the onset
of that dementia that we mentioned the top of the show,
and that's when he's sent to this is a horrible term,
(14:47):
but this is what it was referred to at the time,
a state hospital for the insane, and there his sex
assignment is discovered again and they aren't so kind about it. No,
the Senator Lish intervened and Lish, from what we could tell,
is the person who actually disclosed the sex assignment of
(15:09):
Albert Cashier and warned the staff of this state hospital
to keep the information a secret. But these two male
nurses forced Albert to wear a dress and then took
the information public and the media got ahold of it,
and the story went national. And at this time, remember
(15:34):
we mentioned the pension earlier. At this time, the Veterans
pension Board gets gets wind of this, and they instead
of recognizing the soldier's duty and the fact that they
did the full term right of of their enlistment. Instead
of recognizing that, the Veterans Pension Board begins to investigate
Albert for fraud. And keep in mind, keep in mind,
(15:55):
to this point, Albert is sixty nine, seventy years old
and suffering from this cognitive decline. They go on to
say they had insult injury in saying that there's no
way this old elderly person within their frail state could
have possibly been the heroic soldier who fought in the war.
(16:15):
And also because of obviously the fact that they're female. Um,
but again really progressive thinking at this time, his compatriots,
you know, from his army days, come to his aid
and back up his story and say, no, this was
the guy that's and we don't care or I don't know,
it's not I mean, obviously they would have heard the
stories and they would have had to come to his
(16:37):
aid for a reason, and so they had to have
like not cared. This was national news, national news. They
had to have like not held a grudge or you
would think that you know, uh, maybe they would have
felt betrayed or something like that, or allied to but
instead they seemed to see through to the truth of
the matter and come to his defense, and the the
board decided to continue paying out his pension as they
(16:59):
should have. Yeah, assented, because think about this, Think about
the time in which this debate is occurring. What are
you going to do, as the Veteran Board if other
veterans come to you and say, essentially, you were insulting
the entire concept of serving in the military and you
(17:19):
are not holding up your end of the bargain, and
this is heartbreaking. So Albert's fellow soldiers vouch for him
and raise enough of a stink and attention that the
Veteran Board does continue these pension payments. But Albert is
still lost in this place and declared insane. Albert fights
(17:40):
the best way he can. Uh. He takes the skirts
that he's forced to wear and he ties them up
with safety pins so he can form pants out of them.
But Albert trips one day, breaks a hip, and eventually
dies on October, age seventy one. I know this sounds
(18:01):
like down red folks, but we promise you we do
have a happy ending of sorts. Yeah, there's definitely a
really powerful legacy left behind. Let's also not forget that
the conditions that he was exposed to our direct result
of a time before mental health reform, where you know,
the idea of being insane practically relegated you to you know,
(18:22):
forced confinement and very little actual treatment, and you know,
sort of just being almost abandoned and left to rot.
You know, there's all these these stories we know about
the conditions and quote unquote mental asylums. You know, insane
asilence is what this would have been considered, and they
were absolutely horrible and in humane. Here is the bitter
(18:43):
suite powerful ending. When Albert Keshier passes away, he has
given a full military funeral. He is buried in uniform,
the uniform he always dressed even after the war. There
is a gravestone erected to him. The gravestone does not
read Jenny Hodgers. The gravestone reads Albert D. J. Cashier.
(19:06):
Six years later, the headstone has changed such that both
names are there, the original name and then Albert's name.
How do you feel about them? I don't know, you know,
I I don't know how he would feel about because
wondering why they why they chose to do that. Was
there some kind of outcry that like forced that's just
such an odd choice to me. Yeah, as well, I
(19:28):
don't know, because we know that Albert definitely did not
have a say and that you know. Uh, but here's
the thing. The town in Illinois where Albert is buried,
they remember him today. You can go to Sonomon, Illinois,
and you will see US and Irish flags flying side
by side at the home of Albert D. J. Cashier,
(19:51):
very modest, one bedroom home that you can, I believe, tour.
The mayor will also give you a tour. It makes me,
it makes me, uh, I don't know. It's kind of
heartwarming to think that you can go to this small
town and you can call up the mayor and they'll say, okay,
I'll take you over to the house. I'll you know,
I'll even walk you to the grave. It's it's heartwarming
(20:14):
to me that you can literally call up the mayor
of the town and they'll take you on a tour.
That's pretty neat. It is pretty net and um, I
I have to be honest, I was unaware of this story,
but clearly some people were, because there is in fact
a Broadway musical, or a Broadway style musical um about
the life of Albert Cashier. That came out in seventeen
(20:35):
and I got pretty great reviews and played at the
Seven Stage seven seventy three in Chicago. Having anything about
a Broadway run, but I'd be very interested in seeing this.
It's called The Civility of Albert Cashier by j. Paul
Derratani and the score is by Joe Stevens and Keaton Wooden.
And here's a little blurb from one of the cast
members by the name of Delia Crop quote. In so
(20:57):
many ways, Albert's story is a true American one, a
soldier who served their country and wanted nothing more than
personal liberty to live life as they wished to. Which,
when you put it that way, how much more American
can you get? What else do you want? That's a
that's personal freedom right. And even though the practice of
the law doesn't adhere to the letter of the law
(21:20):
near as often as I think we would all like,
it is inspirational. It doesn't matter who you are, you
should be inspired by this. As we mentioned earlier, Albert
Cashier was not the only person in this situation. And
(21:41):
there is an important distinction to make here. More than
two fifties Civil War soldiers were assigned female at birth.
Most of those soldiers are assumed by historians today to
have been sis gender women in disguise for the purpose
of getting around army regulations. Mulan like mulan. So some
(22:03):
would fight to be close to their significant other or
their spouse. Uh, some were straight up trying to escape slavery, right, which,
of course, who could blame him? And so that's that's
sort of the point we made earlier, where it's like,
the conditions that would maybe cause someone to look at
military service as a better alternative to the life they're
(22:24):
leading before those previous conditions had to be pretty rough.
Slavery would certainly be one of them. Abject poverty, things
like that, an abusive relationship or a home situation, you know,
would make one seek out any alternative, and the army
was certainly one of those. And while Albert Cashier was
a transman and trans soldier fighting in the Civil War, Uh,
(22:48):
this story doesn't stop here, Christine Jorgensen. It's actually the
first American trans woman who was widely known for having
a sex reassignment surgery. And and this goes back a
little bit farther right. No, yeah, I mean call the
Cashier story a precedent if you will, UM or just
call it kind of a spiritual successor. But Jorgensen, who
(23:11):
was in the army UM in and she during that
time she learned about UM the possibility of getting sexual
reassignment surgery, and she started to get that process underway
in Denmark in nineteen fifty one. And when she came
back to the US in the early nineteen fifties, it
became kind of a pretty hot button story when the
(23:33):
New York Daily News reported it with the headline x
G I becomes blonde bombshell. She documented her life extensively.
She became a huge figure in the trans community early
days of the trans community. Um and was you know,
made appearances on talk shows, She toured college campuses talk
about her transition in her life living as a trans woman.
(23:54):
She became an actress, a nightclub performer, and she was
very very sharp witted and um She passed away in
nineteen eighty nine. Um and she referred to her impact
on the sexual revolution as having given it a good
swift kick in the pants. It's kind of kick started.
And there's already been an indie movie made about Jorgensen.
(24:19):
And also additionally, Edwoods Glenn or Glenda definitely tried tried to,
let's say, take inspiration from Christine Jorgensen's story, But these
stories are important to remember, and we also want to
acknowledge that the struggle, the search for validation, recognition of
(24:40):
your own identity, and the right to live as you
wish is a fundamental part of being a human being.
So thankfully Albert Cashier, despite the social climate and discrimination
of the time, was able to get the recognition he deserved.
(25:03):
We still have a long way to go, and we
have to wonder what future historians will say about these
are modern days. I don't know, man, sure seems like
we're living in a time where, um, things like this
are much more mainstream and much more accepted. And like
my kid has grown up being completely comfortable with the
idea of trans people that she has several in her class,
(25:25):
and she is just like just it's it's it's it's
basically the new normal. And I think that's an amazing
place for us to be, given how far we've come. Agreed, agreed,
Thank you so much for tuning in today. We hope
that you enjoyed this exploration of Albert's life, and we
would like to hear from you. What are some other
(25:46):
amazing and inspirational stories of individuals in times of conflict
doesn't have to be restricted to the Civil War here
in the United States. Let us know we are all
ears or eyes rather, because we'll probably be reading what
you sent to us. You can email us directly. We
(26:06):
are Ridiculous at I heart radio dot com. You can
also find our Facebook page Ridiculous Historians, where you can
meet our favorite part of the show. The three of
us are always talking about you off air, your fellow listeners. Yeah.
You can also check me and Ben out individually on Instagram.
I've got an account under how Now Noel Brown where
(26:29):
you can just catch me doing you know, the things
I do day to day, which apparently includes getting kicked
in the shens by little kids and until I get
black bagged and disappeared for my my various misadventures. You
can find me at Ben Bolan on Instagram. Thanks so
much to our super producer casey La Bush Pegroom. Thanks
(26:53):
to our research associates Ryan Bearish and Gabe Bluesia. Yeah
big thanks to Alex Williams who composed our theme Chris
for us stots here in spirit Jonathan Strickland looming large
in the world of quiz related super villainy. And thanks
to you, Ben for being a friend and a confidant
down that road and back again and all that. Thanks
to see you next time Fox. For more podcasts for
(27:24):
My Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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