A New Image of Jennie Hodgers ("Albert Cashier") Re-Emerges

 Jennie Hodgers, who served in Co. G of the 95th Illinois Infantry as Albert DJ Cashier, is perhaps one of the of the most recognizable women to have served as a soldier of the Civil War. I've written about her a number of times on this blog.  She continued to live in male disguise until 1913 when her secret succumbed to an accident with a vehicle and newspapers that shared the sensational event all over the world.  The men with whom she served soon began sharing their thoughts of "Albert."  One of whom was Robert Horan, who served as a corporal in Co. G.  In one of his letters recounting events of the 1913 veterans reunion to Robert Ives, who served as a sergeant in Co. G, Horan mentioned listening to a letter written by another comrade in the unit describing an event when 

Gleason & Cashier got under the Pup Tent so that Gen McArthur & Col Humphrey could see them

Buffalo Calf Road Woman - Warrior at Little Bighorn

This past June marked the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Little Bighorn where General Armstrong Custer and his men of the 7th Cavalry met their demise at the hands of the Plains Indians near the Little Bighorn River in southeastern Montana. Scholars have debated the details of Custer's last moments for years. One version emerged in 2005 when the Cheyenne came forward following the expiration of a 100-year vow of silence and revealed that the warrior who knocked Custer off his horse was a woman, Buffalo Calf Road Woman, also known as Buffalo Calf Trail Woman. 

Library of Congress

Visiting Reed's Bridge: A Cautionary Tale

In my last blog post, I talked about seeing signs.  Signs can be revelatory and beneficial, such as finding a road sign that directed us to the correct area of a regiment's position.  Intangible signs can also serve as clues instrumental in self preservation, which is why you should always be aware of your surroundings, even when out Civil Warring.  We utilized this exercise in discernment during our visit to the Reed's Bridge Battlefield, located just northeast of Little Rock near Jacksonville, Arkansas.

Here's Your Sign

 A few months ago, Mark and I went Civil Warring to the Trans-Mississippi theater, our epic campaign taking us to somewhere around twelve battlefields in Arkansas, Missouri, and Kansas — in one week.  When we go, we go hard.  One of the places we visited was Carthage.  Fought, July 5th, 1861, it was an early engagement in the campaign to control Missouri. A running battle back to the town ensued with no clear victor.  Not only were we studying the battle itself, I, of course, was in search of a woman soldier connection.  

Video: Mississippi Gulf Coast Book Festival, 2026

 Come along with me to the Mississippi Gulf Coast Book Festival, August 8th, 2026.

 

 

 

 

Jane Perkins Buried in Hollywood Cemetery is NOT the Soldier Jane Perkins - Here's Why

Like so many women soldiers, Jane Perkins exited the stage of history leaving an impression on soldiers she encountered.  Indeed, a number of men wrote about her, either as fellow prisoners of war at Point Lookout or her Federal captors who described the Irish woman as unruly.  She appears to have been quite an interesting character, one whose story is incomplete as she seems to have disappeared from the records after she was released from military prison.  Some modern researchers have attempted to fill in the blanks, which I greatly appreciate the effort.  It is quite a chore to document people of the past who didn't want to be found.  I speak from twenty-years experience.  But there are mistakes that have crept into Jane Perkins's story, and I wanted to address them with my most current research.

Elliott Burial Map of Gettysburg

We can't imagine what it was like to find ourselves in the aftermath of a catastrophic battle like Gettysburg.   Death and destruction were all around.  And the stench.  Approximately 7,000 corpses lay rotting in the Pennsylvania sun following the climactic action on the final day, July 3rd, 1863.  Then came the grisly and monumental task of interring the dead, a lengthy endeavor that horrified all involved.  The residents of the town soon found themselves living in a vast cemetery.  And while the citizens just wanted things to go back to normal and likely had no desire to document the location of the graves, others undertook the challenge.  One of whom was Samuel G. Elliott, a California engineer who surveyed the field during a visit in 1864.  

https://www.loc.gov/item/99447500

  

"Legends and Lies in Female Soldier Portraits" Article in Military Images Magazine

 I recently came across this article by Kurt Luther, founder of Civil War Photo Sleuth, an online tool for users to help identify individuals in images.  In his piece in "Military Image"s magazine, he deals with misidentified photos of women soldiers.  Among those he addresses is allegedly one of Jennie Hodgers in the collection of the Gilder Lehrman Institute.  I was actually going to use it in my book.  Sent the $165 check  and everything.  As you can see, the image is not viewable on their website.  I assumed based on the description that it was the photo below. But when I received the image via Dropbox, it was not what I thought.  And I had serious reservations about whether the soldier depicted was indeed Hodgers.  It didn't look like her to me.  And when I asked them to provide the provenance, they sent me a page from an auction house catalog they bought it from merely claiming the image to be Hodgers based on a resemblance to this photo:

Irving Block Prison

 Known as the "Bastille" of Memphis, Irving Block was originally constructed as office buildings in 1860.  But, like so many structures, it was repurposed as a Confederate hospital after the war broke out.  And then in 1862, when Union forces began their occupation of Memphis, they turned it into a prison for soldiers and Confederate sympathizers.  During its time in Federal possession, the facility became intertwined with corruption and plagued with deplorable conditions.

Irving Block prison, 1864
www.historic-memphis.com

Video: Women Soldiers Brought to Life

 I've been working on this project for a while now and finally got to a point where I could wrap it up and share it.  I took some images of women soldiers, colorized and animated them using AI.  If you have worked with AI, you know it can be fickle.  I can't tell you how many times I had to redo something because it just didn't turn out the way I wanted despite composing very specific prompts.  And I will say that there are some details that still aren't what I wanted.  I'm sure down the road I will still tweak this video, or make a complete new one.  But, until then, here it is: