Transgender Soldiers of the American Civil War

Today’s subject choice originated by stumbling across a photograph of Albert D.J. Cashier, born Jennie Hodgers in 1843. He served for a full 3 year term after enlisting in the Union army at the age of 19 and fought in over 40 battles against the Confederate Army. When the war was over, Albert continued to live as a man in small town Illinois, voting in elections and enjoying the freedoms that most women did not. He even received his military pension, but never married and lived in a one room house alone. No one knew Cashier’s secret until 1913, when he developed dementia in his old age. Attendants at a state hospital for the insane discovered that Albert was born a female during bathing. He was forced to wear a dress for the first time since childhood and ultimately died from a fall after tripping over his own skirt.