The Fighting Infantryman: The Story of Albert D. J. Cashier, Transgender Civil War Soldier

by Rob Sanders, Nabi Ali (Illustrator)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781499809367
Publisher:	little bee books
Publication date:	06/02/2020
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	1,157,385
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Rob Sanders is a picture book author, a writing teacher, a sometimes blogger, and a dog lover. He worked for fifteen years in religious educational publishing as a writer, editor, editorial manager, and product designer. These days, he teaches elementary school kids about books and words and reading and writing, and writes books for those same kids.

Rob is the author of the nonfiction picture books Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag, Peaceful Fights for Equal Rights, and Stonewall: A Building. An Uprising. A Revolution. But he'll always write fiction too, including Rodzilla, Outer Space Bedtime Race, and Ball & Balloon.
robsanderswrites.com

Nabi H. Ali is a Tamil-American illustrator who enjoys creating diverse works that showcase an array of cultures and peoples. His interest in illustrative works started when he realized he could help create representation in the arts and in media for minorities, and he is very passionate about working with characters that he would have liked to have seen in books when he was a kid. His hobbies include drawing (of course), doll collecting, reading, learning about South Asian mythology and folklore, and researching history.

Editorial Reviews

[Albert D.J. Cashier's] story is well served by Sanders' telling of it, written primarily in short, declarative, well-crafted sentences. Ali's soft-colored illustrations—in both full-page and vignette pictures—capture the spirit and tone of what is a remarkable story.

Booklist

2020-03-15
This illustrated, biographical narrative mixes fact and speculation about the life of a transgender Civil War veteran.

Irish immigrant Albert D.J. Cashier enlisted in the Union army at the age of 19 and fought in the 95th Illinois Infantry. His sex assigned at birth remained private, even from his military comrades, until much later in life, when he moved into the Illinois Soldiers’ and Sailors’ home. Even though he asked for confidentiality, someone told a reporter, spreading the story nationwide and inciting a governmental investigation. Unfortunately, the language throughout the text undermines its mission, failing to respect the identity Cashier himself strove to protect and reinforcing a born-in-the-wrong-body narrative. Following a foreword by an academic in transgender studies that identifies Cashier as a trans man, Sanders opens the text with the birthname that Cashier left behind and she/her pronouns, both of which he repeats in the pages describing Cashier’s early life. Three times, Sanders writes that Albert wasn’t “born” a man. In the backmatter, the provided definition for the word “transgender” further reinforces stereotypes by explaining that a transgender person “looks like a boy or a girl” at birth but knows they are different on the inside. The same note lists terms for transgender people used in “Native American tribes, Hawaii, and other countries” without any cultural context. Illustrations with soft brushstrokes and an earthy palette depict Cashier (who is white) in an mostly white world, with the exception of one black comrade in arms.

A disappointing, disrespectful perspective on the experiences of a transgender person. (author’s note, further information, glossary, sources, timeline) (Picture book/biography. 7-11)

Kirkus Reviews