PHOTO BY MIRANDA BAILEY-PEETZ
Mary Young plays Pvt. Albert Cashier in the one-act play Private Albert: Solider to Citizen.
Pvt. Albert Cashier fought in the 95th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. A favorite of those he fought with, he was hiding a secret that didn’t come out until he was in his 60s, when he applied for his Civil War pension – that Cashier was really born Jennie Hodgers.
Cashier’s life in the war and post-war activities are the topic of a new one-person play at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Private Albert: Soldier to Civilian is a one-act play starring local actress Mary Young and written by ALPLM’s attractions coordinator Edward MacMurdo.
MacMurdo said a friend told him about the story of Cashier at a pool party last summer. The story fascinated him, and he began researching Cashier’s life with the goal of writing and producing a one-act, one-person play for the ALPLM.
Born in Clogherhead, County Louth, Ireland, in 1843, Hodgers was the daughter of Sallie and Patrick Hodgers. According to his own account when he was older, his uncle and stepfather would dress Jennie as a boy in order for him to gain employment at a local factory.
After his mother died, Jennie, now going by the name Albert Cashier and living as a man full-time, moved to Illinois and began working as a farmhand. When the Civil War began and President Abraham Lincoln called on volunteers to join the army, Cashier enlisted on Aug. 6, 1862, in Belvidere, Illinois, for a three-year enlistment.
Although he was small in size, he resembled many other Irishmen joining the U.S. Army at the time. Many of his fellow soldiers would remember him as a quiet person, who sought privacy whenever bathing or dressing. Keeping to himself, he was able to keep his identity a secret, fighting in more than 40 battles with the 95th Regiment as part of the Army of Tennessee. Cashier would take part in major battles in the West, including the Siege of Vicksburg, the Battle of Nashville, the Red River Campaign and the battles at Kennesaw Mountain and Jonesboro in Georgia.
An unconfirmed story tells of Cashier being captured by Confederates but escaping by overpowering a prison guard. No details of this event exist, so it remains uncorroborated.
The 95th Regiment was mustered out of service on Aug. 17, 1865, after serving the full three years of enlistment. After being released from the Army, Cashier returned to Illinois and moved to Saunemin, a small town east of Pontiac. While there, he took various odd jobs, including farmhand, church janitor, cemetery worker and street lamp lighter.
He first lived with his employer, Joshua Chesboro, and his family while working at the Cording Hardware store. In 1885, the Chesboro family built a small, one-bedroom house on their property for Cashier, where he lived for the next 40 years.
During this time, because he was living as Cashier, he received his veteran’s pension, starting in 1907. He was also able to vote in local and state elections, which would make him the first woman to vote in Illinois.
In 1911, he was hit by a car and broke his leg. Although doctors then discovered his true identity, they kept it secret so he could move into the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home in Quincy, as he couldn’t work any longer. Many of his fellow soldiers from the 95th Regiment joined him there.
In 1914, due to the beginning of dementia, he was moved to the Watertown State Hospital for the Insane. There, attendants discovered his true identity. They made Cashier wear a dress, more than 50 years after beginning to dress as a man, and had great difficulties doing so. He was also investigated for fraud by the veterans pension board for taking a pension under a false name.
His fellow soldiers in the 95th Regiment all confirmed in front of pension board officials that Cashier was indeed the person that they had fought alongside and refused to let him down. With their support, the pension board ruled in favor of Cashier, and his pension payments resumed for the rest of his lifetime.
Cashier died on Oct. 15, 1915, and was buried in uniform with full military honors. He is buried with the military headstone provided at the time, which reads: “Albert D.J. Cashier, Co. G, 95th ILL Inf.”
“I find it fascinating that he and others like him existed in the Civil War,” said Young, adding that there are more than 400 documented cases of women serving in the Civil War under a man’s identity. “It’s the idea that the complexities of identity aren’t just here in modern times. People seem to think that gender identities are a new thing, but no, it’s been around a long time, and here is an example of somebody from the Civil War.”
Telling stories of those outside of the norm are important, said writer and director MacMurdo. “You know, we live among these people. And we always have, and this is not a new phenomenon that is happening.
“He was a proud man. He was the first one there in uniform on the days they would commemorate the veterans. He was so proud of being a soldier,” he said.
Miranda Bailey-Peetz works for the Illinois State Historical Society and is a graduate of University of Illinois Springfield with a degree in communications and history. She is particularly interested in Civil War history, fashion history, family history and genealogy research.