BACKTRACKING
From Eccentric to Heroine
by Terry
Hogan
There is
nothing constant about history.
History is reinvented in our own image. It evolves and is rewritten to fit our need for comfort; to
fit our need for heroes. This can
be a disconcerting realization.
But it is one we must come to accept and, as they say, “live with
it”.
One
historical character has been the beneficiary of the need to rewrite
history. His/her name is Albert D.
J. Cashier/ Jennie Hodgers. She
was one of those few women who became a man in order to fight in the Civil
War. Their reasons varied,
depending upon their circumstances.
In some cases, it was to go to war with a loved one. In
Albert’s/Jennie’s case, it may have been a personal preference to be seen as a
man, or it may have been a practical economic advantage gained by being male. Whatever
the reason, it was a hard secret to keep over a lifetime.
She was
once considered eccentric and an oddity.
However, with the increased acceptance of “gender bending”, there seems
to be an increasing need for historic figures to somehow legitimize it
all. Albert/Jennie has gone from
an eccentric figure to a heroine and tourist attraction. Such is the flexibility of history.
Jennie is
now a hero/heroine. She can be
found all over the Internet. She
had a play made about her, titled “Going from Hero to Heroine” which was
reviewed by the New York Times on
September 30, 1998. She is the subject of several books. She was recently featured on National
Public Radio. The piece can be
heard on the Internet at
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyID=104452266. If you listen to it,
you may recognize Rodney Davis, a retired professor of history at Knox College.
In one of those quirky coincidences, Rodney Davis’s great grandfather was
Jennie’s/Albert’s commanding officer.
The piece was done by Linda Paul.
Jennie/Albert
is so “hot” that even Jesse Jackson, Jr., Illinois Congressman, has an article
reprinted on his homepage that ends with “Paid
for and maintained by Jesse Jackson, Jr. for Congress” (www.jessejacksonjr.org/query/creadpr.cgi?id=4531).
I don’t want to even think about what voting niche Jackson was going
after. Perhaps it was the
cross-dressing, right-wing, Irish militia vote?
So why am I
writing about this? She is one of
Illinois’ own. She fought with
Company G of the 95th Illinois Regiment. The unit was recruited in
Rockford, Illinois. And Jennie is buried in Saunemin, Illinois. Saunemin is due east of Galesburg, a
little east of I-55. Saunemin is a
sleepy little town that took a while to warm up to the idea of a civil war
cross-dresser becoming a celebrity.
But Saunemin sees folks arriving to visit her grave which has two
stones, one for Albert Cashier and one for Jennie Hodgers. Saunemin is now
working hard to restore the small one-room house that she lived in. Jennie is becoming a tourist attraction
and a source of income for a town that needs it.
So what do
we really know about Jennie? Not a
lot for certain. It appears that
she was fairly flexible when it came to talking about herself. Considering her circumstances in the
1860s, it is not too surprising, I guess.
The general consensus is that she was Jennie Irene Hodgers. She was born in or near 1844 in Clogher
Head, Ireland. She is reported to have been the daughter of Patrick and Sallie
Hodgers.
There are
different versions of how she came to America. Apparently most of them came from Jennie. In any event, it is known that she was
living in Belvidere, Illinois in 1862, where she enlisted on August 3rd. Dressed as a male, she filled out the
paperwork at the recruiting location and then left as Albert Cashier.
The North,
like the South, was interested in warm bodies that could see reasonably well;
could walk; could talk; and appeared to be at least near normal
intelligence. There was no
physical exam. Her 5 feet height
did not create interest or concern, as far as can be determined.
Jennie
arrived at Rockford on September 3, 1862 and reported to Camp Fuller. Her army training had begun. Jennie was
now Private Albert Cashier. I can only speculate that cleanliness was not a big
issue and there were no open group bathing or bathroom facilities.
On November
2nd, Jennie/Albert left for Columbus Kentucky with her unit. The unit was part of Illinois’s own
U.S. Grant’s command. It became part of the First Brigade, 6th
Division of the 13th Army Corps. It has been reported that over the next three years, the 95th
Illinois Infantry traveled an estimated 9,960 miles, mostly on foot. The unit saw battle in several places,
including Vicksburg and the Red River Campaign.
Typically
in cold weather, soldiers slept three in a tent. It was crowded but it helped to keep warm. Despite this, none of her fellow
soldiers apparently detected her secret.
After the
war, she was mustered out. She was
still Albert. She remained Albert
in civilian life. For a single
woman, it provided the opportunity for greater independence and better pay.
That may have been the motivation.
Or perhaps she just preferred it based on personal preference. She traveled around Illinois for awhile
but settled in Saunemin. She
worked at various jobs including a farmhand and the town lamplighter. Joshua Chesebro, a farmer whom she
worked for, built her a one-room house that still stands today, although it had
quite a life of moving about.
It has now been returned to Saunemin which apparently intends to restore
it.
Albert
accomplished some amazing things.
Albert applied for, and received, a pension, despite the pension requiring
a physical exam. Somehow, the pension was issued in 1907, but Albert’s secret
was either somehow un-noted, or it was concluded to be irrelevant. Both options
seem implausible for that era. But
nevertheless, Albert began to receive a pension of $8 a month.
Ironically,
what Albert was able to hide in the Civil War become known in civilian
life. Albert became ill in
1910. A nurse was summoned to
examine Albert. The nurse’s
examination revealed that Albert did not quite have all the right shapes and all
the right parts to be considered a male.
Albert also
ran into problems with an Illinois Senator named Ira M. Lish. While Albert was working for Senator
Lish, he backed over him, while driving the only car in town. Albert was then
67 years old. In 1911, Albert
became a resident of the Illinois Soldier’s and Sailor’s Home in Quincy. Albert was forced to go there as he was
no longer able to take care of his own needs and he had no apparent
relatives. For reasons not at all
clear (unless perhaps Senator Lish intervened?), the Home administrators
decided to maintain Albert’s secret.
But it could not be maintained.
Two male nurses discovered Albert’s atypical physiology when they used
force to give Albert a bath.
Albert’s
final years were not happy. The
Pension Bureau began an investigation whether Jennie was really Albert who
fought with the 95th Illinois Infantry. About the same time, Albert/Jennie suffered dementia and she
was sent to the women’s ward of an asylum. She was forced to wear dresses, which she would try to pin
up like men’s pants. She fell
repeatedly as a result, and died in the asylum on October 15, 1915.
Albert/Jennie,
however, was buried in her soldier’s uniform, with a complete military funeral.
She has the civil war military marker to prove it. Her markers can be found at the Sunny Slope Cemetery at
Saunemin, Illinois.
She may
have been born as Jennie, but she was buried as Albert, a civil war veteran who
served his country for three long years.
It is just
another story about one of Illinois’s own.
Additional Information:
NPR Public Radio
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104452266
“Women in
the Civil War- Jennie Irene Hodgers/ Albert Cashier”,
www.geocities.com/civil_warcontinues/JennieIHodgers.html
“When Jennie Comes Marchin’ Home”
www.lib.niu.edu/1994/ihy940230.html
“Vicksburg, Only by Accident…” National Park Service, Vicksburg
National Military Park
“Jennie Came Marching Home” by Mike Conklin, Chicago Tribune, Sept.
5, 2001 www.jessejacksonjr.org/query/creadpr.cgi?id=4531
“Jennie’s Secret: A Soldier’s Story”. Chicago Public Radio.
www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=34370
“Civil War Women”. August 2, 2007.
civilwarwomen.blogspot.com/2007/08/jennie-hodgers.html
“Theater Review; Going from Hero to Heroine”. Anita Gates. September
30, 1988. The New York Times www.nytimes.com/1998/09/30/theater/theater-review-going-from-hero-to-heroine.html
“87 years ago: Jennie Hodgers: Army Vet”. Edward T. O’Donnell. Irish
Echo on line. May 27-June 2, 2009.
www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=11809
“Also Known as Albert D. J. Cashier: The Jennie Hodgers Story, or How
one Young Irish Girl Joined the Union Army During the Civil War”. By Lon P.
Dawson.
www.compassrose.org/books/jennie.html
Joel Pounds, 2009. Personal Communications. Email suggesting Albert Cashier as a
suitable subject for a story in Backtracking.
June, 2009