Private Albert D.J. Cashier (Jennie Hodgers) in the 95th Illinois Infantry

Jennie Hodgers was born in Clogherhead, Co. Louth in 1843. She emigrated to the United States shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. It is thought her uncle may have got her a job in an all-male shoe factory on her arrival in America, a position that perhaps opened her eyes to the possibilities of masquerading as a man. She next appears when she presented herself for enlistment in Belvidere, Illinois on 3rd August 1862 as one Albert Cashier. No detailed medical examination took place, which might have revealed her true sex. She was duly signed up, and was described on her enrollment as having a light complexion, blue eyes and auburn hair. For the following three years she would march across the South with her regiment, never raising any suspicions as to her true identity. (2)

It is remarkable that Jennie/Albert successfully concealed her womanhood on campaign, a task that must have been a considerable additional burden to carry on top of what was already a tough war. She clearly felt that life as a male offered her more opportunities, for on mustering out she chose to continue as Albert Cashier. After some time as a laborer in Belvidere Jennie moved to Saunemin, Illinois in 1869. She would remain here for over 40 years, living out her life as a man. (3)

The Pension Index Card of Albert D.J. Cashier (Image via Footnote)

Jennie Hodger’s successfully lived as Albert Cashier well into the 20th century. An illness and a leg-break had led to her true sex being revealed to some friends, but they agreed not to disclose it publicly. As age caught up with her she moved to the Soldiers and Sailors Home in Quincy, Illinois, and it was here in 1913 that Jennie’s secret came out. The news caused a sensation as papers around the country broke the story. A reporter writing in the The Hartford Republican went to visit Cashier (her real name did not emerge for some time) and described the scene: I had expected to meet an amazon. A woman who had fought in the death grapple of a nation and had lived and toiled as a man through half a century should be big, strong and masculine. And when I entered her hospital ward there rose and came to meet me, in her faded soldier’s uniform, just a little frail, sweet-faced, old-lady, who might be anybody’s grandmother. (4)

Unfortunately Albert/Jennie was eventually moved to an insane asylum, where she died on 11th October 1914. The house where she lived still survives in Saunemin, and her headstone in the local cemetery now bears both of the Irishwoman’s names; Jennie Hodgers, the girl who emigrated to the United States, and Albert Cashier, the veteran of the American Civil War. (5)

(1) Woods 1915: 15- 226, Himes 1915: Deposition; (2) Dawson 2005: 5, Salt Magazine: 3, The Democratic Banner, Blanton 1993: Part 2; (3) Hicks-Bartlett 1994; (4) Hicks-Bartlett 1994, Blanton 1993: Part 2, The Hartford Republican; (5)  Blanton 1993: Part 2;

References

Blanton, DeAnne 1993. Women Soldiers of the Civil War 

Dawson, Lon P. 2005. Also Known As Albert D.J. Cashier

Hicks-Bartlett, Alani 1994. When Jennie Comes Marchin’ Home

Himes, J.H. 1915. Deposition in the Case of Albert D.J. Cashier 

Woods, Wales W. 1865. A History of the Ninety-Fifth Regiment Illinois Infantry Volunteers

Salt Magazine “What Part am I to Act in this Great Drama” Women Soldiers in the American Civil War

The Democratic Banner May 6th 1913

The Hartford Republican June 6th 1913

Jennie Hodgers/Albert D.J. Cashier Grave

An Irish camp woman, belonging to a New York regiment, made herself quite conspicuous during the action. She remained close to the side of her husband, and refused to retire to a place of security. She was full of pluck. Occasionally she would notice some fellow sneaking to the rear, when she would run after him, seize him by the nape of his neck and place him in the ranks again, calling him a “dirty, cowardly spalpeen,” and other choice epithets. The flying shells had no terrors for her. During the hottest of the cannonade, this courageous woman walked fearlessly about among the troops, encouraging them to stand up to their work. Her only weapon, offensive or defensive, was a large umbrella she carried under her arm. In one instance she shamed a commissioned officer into returning to his duty. She belonged to the Irish Brigade, and her stout person, full, red face and broad language betrayed her undoubted origin. 

As seen in a previous post, the Irish Brigade women certainly seem to have been formidable characters! (1)

(1) Burton 2001: 254, Davis 1866: 123;

References

Burton, Brian K. 2001. Extraordinary Circumstances: The Seven Days Battles

Davis, William Watt Hart. 1866. History of the 104th Pennsylvania Regiment

There are three documents in the Confederate Citizen Files which relate to Bridget Bolen. All are receipts from Confederate military authorities which provide details of monies due to her in return for goods and services received. It is clear from the documentation that Bridget Bolen was running a large holding in the vicinity of Staunton, Virginia, and was called upon regularly by the Confederate military. The first of the documents dates to 10th August 1863 with the last the following summer on 14th July 1864. It may well be the case that there were further documents which date to earlier in the war that have not survived or are yet to be identified. What is certain from the available evidence is that the provision of supplies to the Confederacy was an extremely lucrative activity for Bridget Bolen.

The first receipt is dated to 10th August 1863 and pertains to the rental for one month and 18 days of the Irishwoman’s storehouse, in order for it to be utilised as a magazine. For this she received the sum of $40. It was authorised by Major Beverley Randolph, most probably when that officer was serving in Fitzhugh Lee’s Cavalry Division (the nephew of Robert E. Lee). It is interesting to note that as with her amnesty petition, Bridget Bolen provides ‘her mark’ on the document; despite her wealth, it would appear she was illiterate.

Receipt to Bridget Bolen indicating she was entitled to $40 for the rent of her storehouse for use as a magazine by Major Beverley Randolph (Image via Footnote)

Later that month she was again called upon, this time renting out a four horse team and a two horse team in order for them to be used to haul lumber for the construction of a building, on this occasion receiving $33 in payment.

Receipt to Bridget Bolen entitling her to $33 payment for the use of her horse teams to haul lumber on 27th and 28th August 1863 (Image via Footnote)

The final note for payment is dated to 14th July 1864, and details the provision of milk by the Cork native for the month of June. She provided a total of 997 1/2 gallons for the use of the sick and wounded in the General Hospital at Staunton. Her payment for this transaction far exceeded the earlier ones, amounting to a total of $2992.50. It was signed by the surgeon in charge of the hospital, with the Irishwoman once again adding her mark to the document. This high figure was undoubtedly partially the result of inflation, as the Confederate dollar lost value as the war dragged on.*

14th July 1864 receipt for Bridget Bolen entitling her to $2992.50 in payment for the provision of 997 1/2 gallons of milk to the Staunton Hospital in June 1864 (Image via Footnote)

The last payment in particular would indicate that Bridget Bolen was a woman who possessed considerable resources in the later war years, and most probably was the owner of a not insignificant amount of land. It also seems likely that she may have been a slaveholder, given the commitment in her amnesty appeal to ‘never again use slave labor’. As the search continues to find out more about this woman and her life, it is interesting to note an entry on the ‘Find A Grave’ site for a headstone in Thornrose Cemetery, Staunton, Virginia. It records the name ‘Bridget Bolen’ with the inscription ‘Mother. Died September 14, 1895, 70 years.’ Although the age of this woman suggests she was born around 1825 (as opposed to the c.1830 date which is indicated by her given age at the time of the amnesty petition), it seems unlikely that there were many women with the same name in Staunton, and this may well be the final resting place of the lady in question. To see the headstone click here.

*With thanks to Jim Swan for information regarding the inflation of the Confederate dollar.

References

Footnote Confederate Citizen Files (subscription required)

Attorney-General of the United States James Speed. Bridget Bolen addressed her petition to him. (Image via Wikipedia)

The fourteen exceptions to Johnson’s amnesty were as follows:

1. Confederate Civil or diplomatic officials

2. Individuals who vacated judicial positions in the U.S. to aid the rebellion

3. Confederate Army officers above the rank of Colonel and Navy officers above the rank of Lieutenant

4. Individuals who left seat in the U.S. Congress to aid the rebellion

5. Individuals who resigned commissions in the U.S. Army or Navy and afterward served the rebellion

6. Individuals who treated black prisoners of war or their white officers unlawfully

7. Individuals who absented themselves from the U.S. in order to aid the rebellion

8. Confederate military personnel who were educated at the U.S. Military Academy or U.S. Naval Academy

9. Former Confederate Governors

10. Individuals who left home in the U.S. jurisdiction to aid the rebellion

11. Individuals who engaged in the destruction of U.S. commerce

12. Individuals in federal custody

13. Voluntary participants in the rebellion who held taxable property worth at least $20,000

14. Individuals who had broken the oath of allegiance issued on 8th December, 1863 (2)

Bridget Bolen's signature 'her mark' as it appears on her amnesty petition (Image via Footnote)

The U.S. Government received approximately 15,000 applications for amnesty between 29th May 1865 and 6th September 1867. Of these c. 13,500 of the petitions were successful. Clearly given the breadth of the fourteen exceptions and the numbers of people who eventually applied, many of those who fell within the terms of reference did not bother to petition the President for amnesty. Of the c. 15,000 received, Bradley R. Clampitt has identified that only some 389 were from women. The majority of these women applied for the amnesty under the thirteenth exception, namely those who held taxable property worth over $20,000. Their motivations for doing so appear to have been a fear that they would lose their property if they did not secure the amnesty. Bridget Bolen fell into this category, and it was to guard against the loss of property that she decided to petition the government. (3)

Bridget Bolen's petition for amnesty (Image via Footnote)

On the 7th August 1865 the Irishwoman had the following petition written, which was witnessed by E.B. Dull:

Staunton, Augusta County Virginia, Aug. 7th 1865

To the Hon James Speed

Attorney General of the U.S.

The petition of Bridget Bolin [sic]. Respectfully represents that she is a native of Cork, Ireland a citizen of Augusta County in the State of Va. where she has resided for the last 11 years. That she is in the 36^th year of her age, is the owner of land and has been as she is now, engaged in commercial pursuits, during the war. That she is not a slave owner; will never again use slave labor or recognise the Institution of Slavery in the U.S. That her participation in the late rebellion consisted only in the past of taxes and contraction of supplies for the army levied under the authority of the so called Confederate States Govt. That her property may or may not be worth $20,000 but whether more or less no proceedings have been instituted against her by the U.S. authorities for its confiscation. That she has taken and subscribed the annexed oath of Amnesty, and as a legal citizen of the U.S. intends to keep the home in good faith. She therefore coming, probably, within the 13^th exception of the President’s Proclamation of the 19^th May last, prays for special pardon on the terms and conditions prescribed.

Her mark: Bridget Bolen

Witness

E.B. Dull (4)

Bridget Bolen's signed Amnesty Oath (Image via Footnote)

Bolen’s petition was accompanied by a signed amnesty oath which was witnessed by William A. Burnett, a notary public. As with the majority of women who applied for amnesty under the thirteenth exception, Bridget Bolen’s petition was successful, and she was pardoned on 16th August, 1865. (5)

Many intriguing questions about the Corkwoman’s life remain. Did she leave Cork as an already wealthy woman, or did she marry into or acquire her money in Virginia? What was the nature of her wealth? What activities was she engaged in during and after the war? Given her claim that she had resided in Augusta County for 11 years it should be possible to identify her on the 1860 census, although no Bridget Bolen appears. Perhaps Bolen was a married name adopted post 1860- two other Irishwomen named Bridget of the right age do appear on the census for the county, namely Bridget Miligan and Bridget Cochran, and she may be one of these women. There is much research yet to do to find out more about Bridget Bolen and her circumstances; a woman of such means is unlikely to be absent from contemporary local newspapers, for example. It is to be hoped that more can be discovered that will facilitate a follow up post on her in the near future.

(1) Clampitt 2010: 327, Footnote: Confederate Amnesty Petitions; (2) Clampitt 2010: 327; (3) Clampitt 2010: 325-329; (4) Footnote: Confederate Amnesty Petitions; (5) ibid;

References

Clampitt, Bradley R. 2010. ‘”Not intended to dispossess females”: Southern Women and Civil War Amnesty’ in Civil War History, Volume 56, Number 4, pp. 325- 349

Footnote Confederate Amnesty Papers (subscription required)

Mary soon found herself facing the realities of war as casualties began to stream in following the first battle of Manassas, where she helped to deal with the wounded. Her diary, transcribed by the Louisiana Division of the UDC, records her thoughts. Mary remembered ‘being asked by some to pick Minie balls out of their legs and arms, while they waited their turn of the doctors, who of course had to attend to the most serious cases first. They have not half supplies. I tore down all the window blinds, and rolled them into bandages; nor was there half hospital accommodations. I made good chicken-soup, and flew around generally. The sights of the wounded were fearful to look at; I was nearly wild with excitement, thinking, as each batch of wounded arrived, I might see my brother, or my Louisiana friends of Walker’s Brigade.’ Thankfully for Mary, her brother’s regiment were not seriously engaged at the battle. As the war progressed, the Louisiana boys under her care came to call her ‘mother’ due to her attentiveness to their needs when they were sick and wounded. Throughout  she always found time to look after her brother, trying to make sure that  he was well fed and clothed, while often despairing of his propensity for losing his belongings.

While Sam’s regiment prepared to take part in Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Valley Campaign, Mary decided to travel to the Richmond hospitals to see what she could do for the wounded soldiers there. She soon learned that the 6th Louisiana were engaged and decided to rejoin her brother and his comrades. While en-route, she heard a report that her brother had been killed in action, news which Mary describes as driving her ‘nearly crazy’. Luckily the reports were premature, although Sam had been badly wounded. While nursing him back to health in Richmond Mary also worked in the Louisiana Hospital, where she cared for many men of that State who were wounded during the Seven Days Battles.

Aside from her work at the front aiding the soldiers, Mary had many other adventures throughout the course of the war. Availing of her British citizenship, she was able to move between Confederate and Union controlled areas, which included New Orleans following its fall. This allowed her to carry out further compassionate work, such as bringing news of killed and wounded soldiers to their families and loved ones behind the lines. However, her actions did not go unnoticed by the Federal authorities, and in 1864 she was arrested in New Orleans and charged with ‘having correspondence with and giving intelligence to the enemy’. At the time of her arrest she was recovering from scarlet fever, but despite this she went on to spend four months in prison. She was eventually sentenced ‘to be sent into the Confederacy as an enemy’. Following her ordeal she was never to fully recover her health, and after the war she sought redress for what she saw as unlawful imprisonment.

One of the interesting aspects of Mary’s wartime experience were her two visits to Europe, once in 1863 and again in early 1865. While there she took the opportunity to visit her family in Ireland. Her diary illustrates that the Irish experience of the American Civil War was not restricted to those who had left for America; she met an Irish family who gave her presents to take to their only son who was a sergeant in Company F of the 6th Louisiana, and a custom-house official who asked her to carry a letter to his brother in the war department in Richmond. One can only imagine what it was like for families such as these who had loved ones fighting at such remove from Ireland. Much of their time must have been anxiously spent waiting for scraps of out of date and often inaccurate information about the conflict in which their family members were engaged.

After the war, Mary was named the first matron of the Soldiers’ Home set up by the associations of the Army of Northern Virginia and Army of Tennessee. She eventually moved to New York where she lived with her nephew until her death in 1902. The true impact she made on so many lives during the Civil War was revealed in a Confederate Veteran article written on the occasion of her passing. The magazine described Mary’s funeral: Through the streets of New Orleans, at an early morning hour, marched a long line of aged men wearing gray uniforms, with bowed heads and saddened hearts. Before them was borne the remains of a woman whom they had known in adversity, and honored as a queen among Southern sympathizers. The “Florence Nightingale of the Army of Northern Virginia” was dead, and its surviving veterans sought to show their love and appreciation by burying her with military honors, an unusual and beautiful occurrence.’ Many of the men who marched in the funeral cortege had first hand experience of Mary’s kindness. One was John H. Collins, who had served with Wheat’s Tigers during the war and ‘whose empty sleeve spoke silently of the past struggle in which she was a participant’. He bore a heart-shaped floral wreath of red roses, tied with a broad white satin ribbon. It was a final tribute from the men of the Army of Northern Virginia to the Irishwoman who had made such a difference to their lives during the war.

References & Further Reading

Confederate Veteran Volume X, March 1902

Gannon, James 1998. Irish Rebels, Confederate Tigers: A History of the 6th Louisiana Volunteers

Mary Sophia Hill Diary transcribed by Jan Batte Craven, Louisiana Division UDC

Thomas Livermore of the 5th New Hampshire recalled:

I was told, too, that a woman, who followed the Irish Brigade as laundress or nurse, went up with it, and standing with it in the fight, swung her bonnet around and cheered on the men.’

Charles C. Hale also of the 5th New Hampshire described the scene in more detail:

‘As our first brigade was forming to relieve them, (Meagher’s Irish Brigade attacking the Sunken Road) we saw “Irish Molly,” of the 88th New York, a big, muscular woman who had followed her husband in all the campaigns, and he a private soldier in the ranks. She was a little to the left of their line, apparently indifferent to the flying bullets, and was jumping up and down, swinging her sunbonnet around her head, as she cheered the Paddys on. Our regiment was maneuvering for position at the time, and the bullets that passed the Irishmen were pretty thick, so there was no time for anything else, as we were moving lively, but the glimpse that I got of that heroic woman in the drifting powder smoke, stiffened my back-bone immensely.’

References

Livermore, Thomas. Days and Events (5th New Hampshire)

Hale, Charles C. The Story of  My Personal Experience at the Battle of Antietam (Company C, 5th New Hampshire Volunteers)

Post Research by Robert McLernon