The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1923-05-19
WOMEN FOUGHT
AS SOLDIERS
Pension Records Disclose One in
TO and One in '61.
BOTH REAL FIGHTING MEN"

IHe unique records OF two women
serving as private soldiers, one
throughout the Revolutionary war and
another in the Civil war, fighting on
the battlefields and being wounded
have just been discovered in the pen
sion bureau files.
Both women, one from Illinois, sue
ceeded in hiding their sex from the
other soldiers, and the fact that they
were women was only disclosed when
they were awarded pensions. Their
names are Deborah Gannett and cal
bert" D. j. Cashier, or Hodgers, and
they are the only women In American
history who were paid pensions for
actual military service
The first of these women warriors
was Deborah Gannett OF Massachu-
sets. She enlisted April, 1871, in a
Massachusetts, regiment commanded by
Col. Henry Jackson under the assumed
name of Robert Shurtleff, and served
until November, 1888, as a private sol
der, when she was honorably dis
charged
Fought at Tarrytown.
She fought at Tarrytown, where she
was wounded, and was in the ranks
when Lord COrnw allis was captured.
Her real identity was revealed after
the war, and in 1888 congress passed a
special bill for the relief Of her heirs
awarding them pension in which she
was described as Deborah Gannett, q
soldier of the revolution"
The second woman was Albert d.
j. Cashier, whose real name was
Rodgers, but whose Christian name
was never revealed. She enlisted as a
private in Company G, Ninety-fifth ILL
nofs infantry, in August, 1865. At the
time she Joined she was nineteen, with
blue eyes and auburn hair. She gave
her occupation as farmer and her
residence at Belvidere, Ill
She went through the entire cam
paign with the Ninety fifth Illinois in
fantry, was In the engagements leading
to the fall of Vicksburg, including
charge against the besieged city. She
also participated in the Jackson and
East Meridian raids, the Red River ex-
petitions, capture OF Fort De Russy,
md the battles Of Old river, Cloutier-
ville, Mansura and Yellow Bayou.
In Thiol<est Of Fight.
In April, 1864, she was In the thick |
,st OF tho fight OF Guntown, Miss,
where the regiment lost heavily in |
zilled and wounded. Later she par
icipated in the battle Of Nashville and |
he pursuit of General Hoods defeated |
lrmy, and was at Franklin, Columbia,
Pulaski, Lawrenceburg and East Port. |
After being discharged, she returned /
o Illinois and worked on a farm herd
a "a n nd q
ension and became an inmate of the
soldiers home at Quincy, ILL.,, and re-
lained there except for intervals,
7hen she engaged in farm labor on
arms in Boone, Kankakee and Liy-
lgston counties in Illinois,
1t was on one of these occasions,
lille employed by State Senator Lish
Saunemin, ILL.,, that she was struck
Y an automobile, and it was while
eceiving surgical attention that her
ecret was discovered She pleaded
18th the physicians not to reveal her
tx. She died at WATERFOWL, ILL.,, In
315.
An investigation of her early life
)nducted by the pension bureau re-
llted in the discovery that she was
0rn In Clogher Head, Ireland, where,
18th twin brother, she herded sheep
I'D dressed in male attire because she
)uld do her work better.