"The story of Al Cashier" Topic

link

Mississippi, 1863. The men of G-Company in the 95th Illinois Voluntary Infantry must have cheered loudly as ‘Little Al' Cashier clambered up the tree, pulled off the tattered, gun-shot Union flag and hoisted a new one.
Or maybe they held back their applause until he was down again, safely out of sight of the Confederate snipers. Either way, all were agreed that Little Al was as courageous a soldier as any of them.
A third of G-Company were dead by the end of the U.S. Civil War, killed in action or prey to the virulent diseases that swept the lines. Far fewer were still alive in 1913, nearly 50 years later, when word reached them that Little Al had been incarcerated in a state psychiatric institution.
That might have been shocking enough but an infinitely greater surprise was in store; it transpired that Private Albert Cashier was assigned female at birth. […]

Cheers
Martin from Canada

Look like the TMP gremlins are at it again…

Is there a hidden message being driven here? I ask because everything ACW history related these days seems to have something else driving it.

Dan
PS. By the way, has anyone bothered to look for similar brace patriotic acts done by those in the South? I'm sure for every example on one side you'll find a similar example in the other. Or is that not the fair thing to look for or do these days?

There were many females serving as men during the
ACW.

'Many' is not meant to indicate thousands, but perhaps
a few hundred out of the millions who served.

'Millions' is valid. A generally accepted number for the
Union Army is about 2 million, while a generally accepted
number for the Confederate forces is about 700,000.

Women serving in the ranks were usually, although not always,
discovered when being examined after being wounded – and
sometimes after going into labor !

Don't worry Dan, there have been several stories about females posing as males in the confederate forces as well. What makes this story so unique is that it wasn't unveiled at the time but rather almost a half-century later and then only by an accident. All the other stories I've heard the female was discovered after they were either wounded or "fell" pregnant as Ed points out. Had this person not been injured and taken to a hospital in her later years, it would never have been discovered. We can only speculate how many women posed as men in the war that were never wounded, died, or became pregnant and lived out their lives with their secret secure.

So a number of women through history have served in disguise as men in military units. Therefore the exceptions prove the rule that all women should be allowed to serve in combat units….

Sorry, old news. Been so long ago I don't even remember her name, but i read a biography of a female Union soldier while I was in grade school or junior high. She had also been a spy and if I remember correctly worked on the Underground Railroad. A real fire eater.

As noted in prior discussions on women in combat units, the Jugoslav Partisans had the highest percentage of women in their ranks of any formal military during WWII. Immediately after WWII based on their experience they demobbed all (except for a few Heroes of the Jugoslav Nation) all women from the new Jugoslav Army. Including from no-combat support roles.

The fact that children as young as 9 are being used by irregular forces in Africa doesn't make a case that they should be allowed into combat in the US military.

Exactly. We may live in interesting times, but not everything was invented first during our time.

Then again I wouldn't even know any more what I do if I faced a female enemy combatant or criminal and had to act in a split second. I think today's PC media has trained to react more like deer in the headlights.

Dan
PS. And, by the way, NO … the following GIF is NOT depicting some sort of rape scene. Apparently it was a fair fight of sorts (I think Deadpool was outnumbered here yet again), and now he's going to end it the same way as if he was fighting a male adversary.