Albert Cashier
Many of the Union regiments that fought in and around Louisiana during the Civil War hailed from the Midwest. One such unit was the 95th Illinois, which was organized in the late summer of 1862 after President Lincoln called for an additional 300,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion.
Albert Cashier was one of the approximately two thousand soldiers who served in the regiment. Cashier, born on Christmas Day, 1843, in Ireland, stowed away on a ship to come to America as a youngster. He settled into his adopted country and led an ordinary life working as a farmer and shepherd until he answered Lincoln’s call for volunteers and joined the 95th Illinois. Military records show that Albert was nineteen years old, stood 5’ 3” tall, and weighed 110 lbs., making him considerably smaller than the average 5’ 8”, 143 lb. Yankee soldier.
Sent down the Mississippi River, Albert first saw combat at Vicksburg, when the 95th Illinois made futile assaults on the rebel defenses on May 19 and 22, 1863, and suffered 159 casualties. Albert served throughout the Vicksburg Campaign, and was said to have been captured, and subsequently escaped, while on a scouting expedition, but there is no proof that it actually happened. Although never wounded during the fighting, he was hospitalized for a time for chronic diarrhea.
Albert and the 95th Illinois went on to fight at Fort DeRussy and Yellow Bayou, Louisiana; Brice’s Crossroads, Mississippi; Nashville, Tennessee; and Fort Blakey, Alabama. By the time the 95th Illinois mustered out of the army in August 1865, 289 of its men had died, mostly from disease. Albert served with the regiment throughout its three years of service and emerged unscathed, even though he fought in approximately forty battles and skirmishes.
After the war, Albert returned to Illinois, worked as a handyman and became a respected member of the Union veterans’ organization known as the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). He voted regularly and also qualified to receive a veteran’s pension after undergoing a physical examination.
Albert led a routine life until 1911, when he was accidentally struck by a car and seriously injured. While treating him, the doctor made an astonishing discovery—Albert Cashier was actually a woman named Jennie Hodgers! It is believed that Jennie began masquerading as a man early in life in order to find work, but the fact she was able to hide her true identity for so many decades is incredible.
Jennie had to pass a physical to enlist in the army but such exams were cursory at best. One of her old comrades wrote, “When we were examined we were not stripped. . . . All that we showed was our hands and feet.” Apparently, her stay in the hospital during the Vicksburg Campaign and her physical exam for her pension did not require undressing, either.
None of “Albert’s” comrades ever suspected he was a woman even though they lived in close quarters for three years. One soldier recalled, “I never did see Cashier go to toilet nor did I ever see any part of his person exposed by which I could determine the sex. He was of very retiring disposition and did not take part in any of the games. He would sit around and watch, but would not take part.” Another man admitted that while he never suspected Cashier was a woman, he “seemed to be a little funny.”
The doctor who treated Jennie kept her secret because she could no longer work and gaining admittance to a veterans’ home was her best chance for survival. Jennie moved into the veterans’ home under the name Albert Cashier and maintained her secret identity for two years. Then, however, Jennie began to exhibit signs of mental illness and was transferred to an asylum, where the staff discovered her true identity and made her wear women’s clothing (which she hated).
Jennie’s problems increased when the government investigated her for fraud because she had claimed her military pension under the assumed name Albert Cashier. Fortunately, her old comrades came to her aid, and she was able to keep the pension after they testified that she had served with them faithfully for three years.
When Jennie Hodgers, aka Albert Cashier, died on October 10, 1915, her fellow GAR members buried her in the Saunemin, Illinois, cemetery. She was given full military honors and was even buried in a Union uniform under her assumed name. Jennie’s headstone reads “Albert D. J. Cashier, Co. G, 95the Ill. Inf.” Today, Cashier’s name can also be found etched into the bronze plaque honoring the 95th Illinois inside the Illinois rotunda monument at the Vicksburg National Military Park.
Jennie Hodgers was not the only woman to masquerade as a man to serve in the Civil War—approximately four hundred others have been identified—but she may be the first female voter in Illinois history.
Dr. Terry L. Jones is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. An autographed copy of “Louisiana Pastimes,” a collection of the author’s stories, costs $25. Contact him at tljones505@gmail.com
