The gravestone in the photograph has quite a tale to tell. It was a gift from a community near Pontiac, IL, to honor a Union veteran of the Civil War. This former prisoner of war had left Springfield, IL, after fighting ended and settled in the small town of Saunem, IL.
He had no family or work skills, yet a farm family gifted him a home in a modified chicken coop. Today that building stands as an Historic Home to honor Albert D. J. Cashier and is open to the public.
Cashier and two others were portrayed by Betty Carlson Kay of Wilmette, IL, Sunday, February 8, 2015, at the Sterling-Rock Falls Historical Society meeting in Ryberg Auditorium of CGH Hospital, 101 E. Miller Road, Sterling, IL. She noted the historically correct salute used in the Civil War.
In 1862, Cashier had joined Company G of the 95th Illinois Infantry. He stated the doctor checked to see if there were enough
- fingers to fire a rifle
- teeth to rip open paper cartridges
- toes to march long miles.
“He failed to check anything in between,” he noted. That was the only time Cashier saw a physician while in the Army. In three years, he saw over 40 battles but never was sick or injured. For over 40 years, these unusual circumstances protected the world from knowing Cashier was actually a woman.
The tombstone is unique, because it reflects two lives of one individual. Jennie Hodgers was born in 1843 in Clogher Head, Ireland. Poverty drove her to the bold decision to board a ship to America, disguised as a boy for protection. She eased into line with another family; no questions were asked. “I like to have died” during the six-weeks passage to Boston, she said, “but I didn’t.”
In the United States she remained a boy, again for her safety, and took any job. She spent one year in a shop as a cashier–hence the surname–and then went west to Belvidere, IL. Here she joined the military, because she would receive three meals a day, a handsome blue jacket with brass buttons, and a small pay at the end of the month. Off she went to Cairo, IL, to muster.
During the Battle of Vicksburg, MS, the Union troops were dug in to starve the Rebels, who controlled the Mississippi River. Cashier was asked to infiltrate Rebel lines as a “scout,” or spy, actually. He was captured and imprisoned. While his guard slept, he “bonked him on the head and escaped.”
The war years “were the best years of my life!” Cashier exclaimed.
While living in Saunem, Albert wore his military jacket every day; marched with veterans in parades and gave talks; continued to pose comfortably as a male. As he aged, the community gave him the manageable job of street lamplighter. A State Senator accidentally hit him with his Model T and broke Cashier’s leg. “Call a doctor!” commanded the Senator, and Albert was taken to a hospital for the first time. The physician stated, “Why Albert, you’re a woman!” and Jennie Hodgers’s secret was exposed.
Albert Cashier spent his final years in a Quad Cities home for indigents. Kind residents of Saunem requested he be returned to them for burial–in his “handsome blue jacket with brass buttons.”
Kay ended the first of her three presentations with Albert stating, “Don’t bring me flowers. Bring a flag [to place] next to my tombstone.”
Kay changed clothes to portray Mary Ann “Mother” Bickerdyke, who became a one-woman “clean-up committee” of bodies after the February 1862 battle at Ft. Donaldson, TN. In the darkness and cold she walked the fields for hours, calling to any soldiers who might be alive. Bickerdyke spent five years tending the wounded while initiating standards of cleanliness and good meals, as she traveled with Generals U. S. Grant and William T. Sherman.
She said “Good night” to each wounded man in her care. Her nickname derived when a young wounded soldier called back, “Good night, Mother.”
When she died in Kansas, residents of Galesburg, IL, requested Bickerdyke be buried there. On the County Courthouse grass, they erected an impressive bronze statue of her offering water to a soldier. Because of her independence and determination to provide the best care for her wounded boys, General Sherman stated, “She outranks me!” The quotation adorns her statue. Children today pat the top of Mary Ann Bickerdyke’s head in tribute.
Julia Dent Grant, wife of the new President, was the final woman of the Civil War era to be portrayed. She described the Victory Parade in Washington, D. C. on May 23-24, 1865. Black and white Union soldiers marched together for the first time, filling Pennsylvania Avenue. Women, including Mary Ann Bickerdyke, also rode in a place of honor.
President Grant stated, “I do not think we could have won the war without her.”