This beautifully written and timely story shows a transgender soldier's personal bravery as he faced daring challenges on the battlefield and privately battled the restrictions and confines of gender. By the time she arrived in Belvidere, Illinois, and started working as a farmhand, Jennie had a new name and a new identity . . . Albert D. J. Cashier. In 1861, the winds of war blew through the United States. Jennie Hodgers, a young immigrant from Ireland, moved west to Illinois and soon had a new name and a new identity--Albert D. J. Cashier. Like many other young men, Albert joined the Union Army. Though the smallest soldier in his company, Albert served for nearly three years and fought in forty battles and skirmishes. When the war ended, Albert continued to live his life as a man. His identity fit him as snug as his suspenders. Decades later, a reporter caught wind of the news that an old man in the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home was actually a woman. The news swept through the country. What would happen to Albert and his military pension? Would he be allowed to continue to live as he wished? How would his friends, fellow soldiers, and others in the community react? This book is published in partnership with GLAAD to accelerate LGBTQ inclusivity and acceptance.

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Excerpt from Fighting Men of Illinois: An Illustrated Historical Biography Compiled From Private and Public Authentic Records Here where fearless courage, undaunted bravery and hardy perseverance always find the response of ready appreciation, we of the west look back with glowing pride to the deeds accomplished and obsta cles overcome by these intrepid men - the founders of our western civilization - the discoverers Of our homes today. The bright lustre of their fame France shares with us since La Salle, Joliet, Marquette, Champlain, and a thousand others mothered by fair France rest now in the bosom of the land that ever enticed and enthralled them. Their efforts are the corner stones of the greatest civilization the world has ever known. Their trials and tribulations were not in vain. Upon the foundation left by them there has in less than three centuries been established the most powerful nation known to history. Tradition - the forerunner of history - really means unproven history - but it does not necessarily follow tradition is untrue. Many really 'great experiences befallen hitherto unknown and obscure men, have been related, retold and marked tradition and have been denied the pages of civilized history. The probability that many of these undertakings were true, but were accorded to tradition and unrecorded in history is due to the fact that they were either not recorded securely enough, or that they were recorded in wrong places. The great tradition of France is that in 1488, antedating Columbus by four years, Cousin, a French sailor, discovered America. Cousin, sailing from his home port of Dieppe, while far out to sea Off the African coast, was forced westward by wild winds until one day he beheld land in the distance. Upon closer investigation he made out the mouth of a large river. Lacking the initiative Of the later navigators, he made no explorations, nor did he land, but with the aid of clement weather retraced his course and in due time returned to France. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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Cavalry units from Midwestern states remain largely absent from Civil War literature, and what little has been written largely overlooks the individual men who served. The Fifth Illinois Cavalry has thus remained obscure despite participating in some of the most important campaigns in Arkansas and Mississippi. In this pioneering examination of that understudied regiment, Rhonda M. Kohl offers the only modern, comprehensive analysis of a southern Illinois regiment during the Civil War and combines well-documented military history with a cultural analysis of the men who served in the Fifth Illinois. The regiment’s history unfolds around major events in the Western Theater from 1861 to September 1865, including campaigns at Helena, Vicksburg, Jackson, and Meridian, as well as numerous little-known skirmishes. Although they were led almost exclusively by Northern-born Republicans, the majority of the soldiers in the Fifth Illinois remained Democrats. As Kohl demonstrates, politics, economics, education, social values, and racism separated the line officers from the common soldiers, and the internal friction caused by these cultural disparities led to poor leadership, low morale, disciplinary problems, and rampant alcoholism. The narrative pulls the Fifth Illinois out of historical oblivion, elucidating the highs and lows of the soldiers’ service as well as their changing attitudes toward war goals, religion, liberty, commanding generals, Copperheads, and alcoholism. By reconstructing the cultural context of Fifth Illinois soldiers, Prairie Boys Go to War reveals how social and economic traditions can shape the wartime experience.