The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1913-06-06
REMARKABLE
WAR VETERAN
Woman Fought Three Years
In Civil War.
Life Is Full Of Mystery-Sex Re-
vealed After Lifetime
Masquerading.

quincy, ILL.,, May. 25.-Sf all the wal
tales veterans will tell on Memorial
Day in thousand American cities
towns and villages, three is not one
so strange and so full of heroism as
the tale of the veteran I have just
visited here in the Illinois Soldiers
Home.
Albert d. ]. Cashier, who fought
through the three hardest years OF
the Civil War. who draws a pension
from the United States, and is a
member of the G. A. r., is a wo-
man!
Her life Is full of mystery. Her
sex has just been revealed, after a
lifetime of nlasquerading, and she
is ending her days unaware that her
secret is known.
| 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 l entered her hospital
ward there rose and came to meet me
in her faded soldiers uniform, just
a little frail, sweet-faced, old lady,
who might be anybody's grandmother.
She was so little and so gentle! She
could walk under the leveled arm
of almost any soldier in the Home.
Most of them were giants beside her.
If she was ever five feet two, age
and toll had shriveled her figure and
bent her shoulders till she bellies her
record.
Her hand-clasp' was timid and her
hand was delicate and small. Her
brown hair had whitened. Her eyes
were a faded blue. And her face was
a face for a painter to dwell on.
Half a century of sun and wind
had bronzed that face, sowed it with
freckles and scanned it with a thous-
and wrinkles. The razor had helped
her disguise and had coaXed forth
a film of beard. But there was no
touch OF coarseness. 1t was a sweet,
kindly, pathetic face. compelling af-
lection and respect.
And this frail, little woman had
just lived, dared and done a mans
work in the world. Her tiny feet
had tromped in line of march, nearly
10000 mics. Her deicate shoulders
had been burdened with half her
weight of equipment. Her little
hands had dug trenches. laid rails
and welded guns. She had shared
the soldiers lot in camp, on sentry
duty. in bivouac and line of battle.
She had built and guarded rail-
road in the advance on Memphis. She
had been through the battle of Gun
town when her company was nearly
annihilated. She had helped pursue
Hoods defeated army to Tennessee.
She had toiled in the swamps against
Gen. Johnstons Confederates, and
triumphed with Grant amid the
thunders of vicksburg.
She had taken part in the siege
of Natchez, the battles Of Kenesaw
Mountain, Chattahoochie - River.
Jonesboro and Lovejoy, Station. She
had been in the battering campaigns
against Price in Arkansas and Miss
issippi, and Hood in Alabama. and
with Sherman in his Atlanta cam
paign, where one soldier out of three
was killed and had followed him In
his devasting march to the sea.
Her life is a mystery. She was
born In Ireland on Christmas Day,
1874. She is said to have come to
America in boys clothes as a stowo-
way Soon afterward she entered the
army. Perhaps there was shattered
romance-nobody knows and her lips
frs sealed.
Evan her name Is unknown. She
has called herself "Albert Cashier"
but all attempts to trace her iden-
tity have failed.
She enlisted August 6, 1862 at Bel
videre, H.. in Company G. of the
Ninety-fifth Infantry, and was dis
charged August II. 1865. She did
farm work for two or three years at
Belvidere. then disappeared. The
next forty years are her own secret.
She Is thought to have worked in