23 Facts About Albert Cashier

Albert Cashier adopted the identity of a man before enlisting, and maintained it until death.

Albert Cashier became famous as one of at least 250 soldiers who were assigned female at birth and enlisted as men to fight in the Civil War.

The consistent and nearly lifelong commitment to a male identity has prompted some historians to believe that Albert Cashier was a trans man.

Sallie Hodgers, Albert Cashier's mother, was known to have died prior to 1862, by which time her child had traveled as a stowaway to Belvidere, Illinois, and was working as a farmhand to a man named Avery.

Albert Cashier was elderly and suffering from dementia when interviewed about immigrating to the United States and enlisting in the army, and had always been evasive about early life; therefore, the available narratives about his early life are often contradictory.

Albert Cashier first enlisted in July 1862 after President Lincoln's call for soldiers.

Albert Cashier easily passed the medical examination because it consisted of showing one's hands and feet.

Albert Cashier took the train with others from Belvidere to Rockford in order to enlist, in answer to the call for more soldiers.

In June 1863, still during the siege, Albert Cashier contracted chronic diarrhea and entered a military hospital, somehow managing to evade detection.

Albert Cashier fought with the regiment through the war in over 40 battles until honorably discharged on August 17,1865, when all the soldiers were mustered out.

Albert Cashier lived with employer Joshua Chesbro and his family in exchange for work, and had slept for a time in the Cording Hardware store in exchange for labor.

For over forty years, Albert Cashier lived in Saunemin and was a church janitor, cemetery worker, and street lamplighter.

In later years, Albert Cashier ate with the neighboring Lannon family.

In 1911, Albert Cashier, who was working for State Senator Ira Lish, was hit by the senator's car, resulting in a broken leg.

Albert Cashier lived there until an obvious deterioration of mind began to take place, and was moved to the Watertown State Hospital for the Insane in East Moline, Illinois, in March 1914.

In 1914, Albert Cashier was investigated for fraud by the veterans' pension board; former comrades confirmed that Albert Cashier was in fact the person who had fought in the Civil War and the board decided in February 1915 that payments should continue for life.

Albert Cashier died on October 10,1915, and was buried in uniform.

Albert Cashier is listed on the internal wall of the Illinois memorial at Vicksburg National Military Park.

Albert Cashier was mentioned in a collection of essays called Nine Irish Lives, in which Albert Cashier's biography was written by Jill McDonough.

In Michael Leali's 2022 young adult novel, The Civil War of Amos Abernathy, Albert Cashier stands in for a pen pal.

Albert Cashier's one-room house at the corner of Center and Maple Streets is a historic site.

Albert Cashier relocated the house to Pontiac, and utilized it as a streets department shed.

Authors including Michael Bronski, Jason Cromwell, Kirstin Cronn-Mills, and Nicholas Teich have suggested or argued that Albert Cashier was a trans man due to living as a man for at least 53 years.