Images: Albert Cashier, Loreta Janeta Vasquez, Sarah Rosetta Wakeman; Sources: wikipedia.org, nyhistory.wams.org

To borrow some words from Gloria Steinem, we need to make history fit women, not make women’s history fit. Women’s voices are an imperative part of the American story, and if one takes the time to peel back the layers of what is presented in a history text book, there are always women leading every movement, either in a seemingly quiet way because that’s all society would allow, or in loud, forceful ways as they swam against the tide of society’s gender expectations. Using both strategies, women have changed the way people think about politics, economics, and society, and history cannot be fully understood without considering the female narrative. This is true of every era in American history, including in the Civil War. To add further intersecting stories to the narrative, we can not only examine the women who fought on the front lines in the Civil War, but also the way they express their gender in those moments on the battlefield and in the times they lived as civilians.

Many women chose to disguise themselves as men to fight as soldiers for both the Union and Confederate armies in the Civil War . According to New York Historical Society’s Women and the American Story resources, historians know of over 400 women soldiers. There were few socially acceptable ways for women to participate in the war. They could be nurses or fundraise for the army, they could produce supplies, run family farms when their husbands were away at war, or even be spies. However, being on the front lines of the bloodiest war in U.S. history was not an option for women, which we now know that at least 400 of them found to be an unacceptable limit on their freedom to pursue their calling and therefore they found workarounds to enlist as soldiers. By presenting as male, enlisted women contributed to the war effort as combatants and some even led their units to victory. Post-war, many received pensions for their service. At least one person, Albert Cashier, chose not to return to his gender assigned at birth and identified as a male citizen for the rest of his life.

Albert Cashier’s story is compelling and can be examined through several lenses. Cashier was born Jennie Hodgers with a female gender assignment. An Irish immigrant, Cashier enlisted in the 95th Illinois Infantry, and served for three years. After the war, he returned to Illinois but did not return to his gender assigned at birth. He held many jobs and voted during a time women were still fighting for suffrage. His sex assigned at birth was discovered by hospital staff who took care of him after being hit by a car, but the hospital honored his privacy. Later, he was a resident at the Soldiers and Sailor’s home and then sent to Watertown State Hospital for the Insane because he developed dementia. Watertown forced him to identify as a woman. The staff made him wear a dress and live in the women’s ward. He reportedly used pins to turn his skirt into pants and in doing so fell and broke his hip. He never recovered. Eventually the press picked up on his story. When the men he fought with in the 95th Illinois Infantry learned his story, they protested the way Watertown was treating him and also protested an investigation by the Veteran’s Board when they questioned Cashier’s military service. Their commitment to fighting the Veteran’s Board on Cashier’s behalf ensured Cashier’s pension payments would continue for the rest of his life.

When Cashier died, his identity was honored with the inscription of his male name and his military service. According to the Irish Examiner, the Irish priest at Albert’s Soldier’s Home, the Reverend Father PD Curran ,wrote a letter to the editor of The Anglo-Celt: “[Albert] wanted to be a man, and because Nature cheated her of this privilege she did the next best thing, disguised as a man, so she could do a man’s work, lead a man’s life and be a man in everything, but sex.” The word “transgender” did not exist in 1913 or in the 1860s; however, Father Curran obviously understood Cashier without the vocabulary we have now.

We might never know the motivation behind many of women soldiers’ desires to enlist. Some of it may be the feeling of duty to serve. It could also be the money, as in the case of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, where her service was for monetary gain, as a $153 offer from the Union Army was enough to make her enlist under the name Lyons Wakeman. Loreta Janeta Vasquez, a Cuban immigrant, disguised herself as Harry T. Buford to join the Confederate Army and follow her fiancé into the war. Vasquez hid her gender as well as her race. As we normally see the Civil War in terms of Black and white, Vasquez, a Latina woman, chose a white man as her other identity. In the course of her tenure as a Cofederate soldier, she was able to recruit over 200 men to fight and saw combat at Bull Run. After an injury fighting at Shiloh, she was found to be a woman and served as a spy for the Confederacy and later served as a double agent and spy for the Union.

There are many implications in the classroom for these people. On the surface, they are an examination of gender and gender expression. They represent immigrants and can be a part of LGBTQ history. Their stories are very much a part of the narrative because enlisted soldiers are the heart of the army; it isn’t only high ranking service people that matter. We can have discussions with students about motivation- though we have to be very careful not project our modern feelings onto these people of the past. The best part about teaching these people, though, is representation. Your students may see themselves in these people, creating a connection to the past and helping them see their roots in the American story. Our job is to help students understand themselves and one another, empathize with themselves (yes, that’s a thing!) and one another, and see why they matter. This begins with making the story fit them, and learning about these Civil War heroes is a great place to start!

References: wams.nyhistory.org, battlefields.org, americanhistory.si.edu, irishexaminer.com

Books recommended about this topic by WAMS Ambassador Lee Sharmat:

• The Woman in Battle: A Narrative of the Exploits, Adventures, and Travels of Madame Loreta Janeta Velazquez
• An Uncommon Soldier: The Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman
• They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War
• The Fighting Infantryman: The Story of Albert D. J. Cashier, Transgender Civil War Soldier