A Transgender American War Hero in a New Picture Book

Albert D. J. Cashier was an immigrant, a Union soldier in the U.S. Civil War, and a transgender man. A new picture book tells the true story of this American hero.

The Fighting Infantryman, by Rob Sanders and illustrated by Nabi H. Ali (Little Bee), begins in Ireland with a child who was assigned female at birth, but who donned boy’s clothes for tending sheep. Similarly, boy’s clothes made the trip to America safer and easier. After arriving in New York City, the teen found a job in a shoe factory—a job for a boy—and continued with a male identity. Moving west as a farmhand, he took the name Albert D. J. Cashier, and later used that name when enlisting in the Union Army.

As part of the Ninety-Fifth Illinois Infantry, Cashier “kept his jacket buttoned up” and “kept his thoughts and feelings buttoned up, too. It was safer that way.” He marched, trained, and hauled supplies like any other soldier, and fought in numerous battles. Once, when the stars and stripes flag fell during combat, he rescued it and remounted it high in a tree.

After the war, he held various jobs but was always proud of having been a “fighting infantryman.” When in his later years, he was admitted to a veterans’ hospital and his sex assigned at birth became known, he almost lost his military pension. His former comrades stood up for him, though, and he retained it—and upon his death, he was given a military funeral, with his gravestone reflecting his military unit and chosen name.

Sanders paints a sympathetic portrait of a young immigrant finding his way in America and putting his life on the line to keep his new country united, even while trying to remain true to himself. Sanders goes further than that, though, telling us that while the war had not been easy or safe “for a country trying to be what it was meant to be,” nor were things easy or safe for Cashier, “a man trying to be who he was meant to be.” Cashier’s story, Sanders seems to be telling us, is inextricably part of of America’s story, reflecting the values and progress of the country itself.

Given that transgender soldiers are even now still having to fight for the right to serve their country in the military, Cashier’s life takes on added meaning and impact. How many other transgender servicemembers may have helped defend the United States over the centuries without their assigned gender becoming known? Why are some people trying to stop transgender people from serving openly now? Sanders does not go into any of this, but adult readers should catch the implications.

At the end of the book are photos of the real Cashier; quotes from his friends and comrades taken during the investigation of his veteran’s status; a timeline; a short glossary of military and other terms; and a list of primary sources, one secondary article, and two books about gender identity.

Sanders also notes in an afterward that while transgender people have always existed, terminology has changed across time and cultures. Nevertheless, “it’s possible, even likely” that Cashier was transgender. The cover is more explicit, however, calling Cashier a “Transgender Civil War Soldier” and subtly showing the colors of the transgender flag in the background, making it clear that Sanders is not trying to dance around Cashier’s identity, but simply to be historically mindful about terminology. In the story itself, Sanders reinforces that “His identity fit him as snug as his suspenders.” The way Cashier lived his life “was more than a choice. It was who Albert D.J. Cashier was.”

This is a rare and needed picture book of a pre-Stonewall LGBTQ figure and American hero who deserves to be better known.