Ridiculous Stuff We Didn't Get To in 2026, Part Two: Apple Trees, Ice Cream Wars and Weird Nuclear Gadgets

Fellow Ridiculous historians, we're back with a classic episode. This one is a very fascinating tale from the days of the U.S. Civil War.

That's right. Born as Jenny Hodgers, assigned female sex at birth on December 25th, 1843, Albert Cashier died. immigrated to the United States to live as a man from his early teens through the rest of his life. And there were a lot, as you can imagine still are today, quite a lot of prejudices at the time that Albert had to deal with.

Yeah, massive prejudice, a lot of discrimination. This person was known as a very solid soldier and a friend of various communities. However, everything came to a head when the U.S. government learned Albert's identity, and tried to revoke his pension.

Let's roll the tape.

Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. One of the weird things about U.S. history is that we have strange names for wars. We call the Civil War the Civil War, which is a weird name if you think about it for any sort of war, especially one that bellicose and bloody. Here's a fact you may not know about the Civil War.

There are over 400 solidly documented cases of women disguising themselves as men and fighting as soldiers on both sides of the conflict, the Union and the Confederacy. Welcome to Ridiculous History. My name is Ben.

My name is Noel. And Ben, I'm just going to go ahead and get this out of the way, get out of my system right up front. Sort of like Mulan.

You're getting something out of your system like Mulan?

No, no. This case of like the women dressing up like men so they could fight in the war, kind of like Mulan, which is about to have a live action adaptation.

I saw the teaser. I'm quite excited.

This episode is not brought to you by the Disney Corporation. No, but it's an interesting distinction, Ben, because a lot of folks, women dressed up in men's clothing and passed as men in order to either Escape a harsh life and get the relatively stable life of a soldier, which gave you three square meals a day, roof over your head, etc.

I mean, of course, you know, you had to put your life on the line for some folks that might have been. preferable to the conditions they were living in before that. This story that we're talking about today is a little different because the individual that's at the center of this story is someone who continued to go on living as a man after the war was over.

That's correct. That's correct. And we want to be very clear here. Science shows that gender as it is commonly understood is largely a social construct. And we wanted to share with you today the story of Albert Cashier, who fought for the union in the U.S. Civil War and was a trans man. Before we continue, I can't believe we got this far in the episode without shouting out our super producer, Casey Pegram. Now, Casey, you're not what people would describe as a Civil War buff, especially.

Is that correct? That's correct. Yeah, I'm not really too heavily invested in that.

What was that four-hour Civil War film?

The Civil War?

Gettysburg? Gettysburg, yeah.

Wasn't there one that... No, that's a Ken Burns. Ken Burns. It's like probably 10 or 12 hours. Okay, so, okay. Well, look, I was thinking of a high-hour-count Civil War documentary. I love how Ken Burns' documentaries are so, like, authoritative. They're just like.

Jazz, baseball. Yeah, yeah.

The Civil War.

I want him to go a little more afield sometimes. You know, I wish he just did very, very specific things, you know, like, mascots.

That'd be good. I'll tell you what is very, very specific about Ken Burns is his haircut. Have you seen it? It's like a very interesting twist on the bowl cut.

I mean, he's living his life.

He is living his life. And I'll tell you who else was living their lives is Albert Cashier, who was born on December 25th, 1843 in a fantastically named Cloggerhead County. Maybe it's Cloggerhead. There's a GH sound. What do you think, Ben?

We learned our lesson about Gaelic. Let's just spell it. C-L-O-G-H-E-R.

Head. I'm going to go with Cloverhead. That's what I'm going to shoot for. Go for it. And that is in the county of Louth. Louth? Louth.

I would hazard it is Louth.

You would hazard it is Louth. Let's see what Forvo has to say about this.

Louth. Louth. Louth? Louth.

The robot voice has spoken. Louth is what we shall go with today. For the purposes of this story. So, yeah, County of Louth, Ireland. And the interesting thing or the, I guess, galling thing about the story is that there isn't that much that we know about this person's life. And the things that we do know come from a recorded account when Cashier was going through the throes of dementia back in 1913. But we are going to do our best to piece together what we do know about this fascinating individual and their bravery and their life.

Right. So the account comes when Cashier is 70 years old and suffering from a bit of mental deterioration with age. Here's what we know. So Cashier was born in Ireland, as you said, in 1843, immigrated to Illinois at a very young age, sometime in childhood, but exactly when is not clear.

As a stowaway on a ship, first to, I want to say, England, London, and then carried on to New York City.

And from his teenage years, Cashier was living as a man. And he did so until his death at age 71. So the account we have comes one year before he passes away. And his story is remembered because of his service in the Civil War. Kashir is one of many, many people who were living their lives in a way that was largely unacknowledged by the public, by the communities through which they moved. And that's a problem that continues today throughout the world, throughout the species. But in Kashir's case, Uncle Sam itself confirmed or affirmed, would be a better word, this male identity. We know that at some point after immigrating, cashier was given men's clothing by an uncle or stepfather with the idea being that, you know, hey, kid, wear

this and you can get a job at this shoe factory. And that's where that's where Albert adopts the name Albert Cashier.

It's interesting, too, that there is this idea of cooperation from a member of the patriarchy that was that would potentially have had a problem with this and caused a lot of difficulties for this young person at the time. But the account that we have is that the uncle or stepfather was in fact cooperative and helpful and helped Albert mask his assigned gender identity and secure work at a shoe factory. And that's when he took on the name Albert Cashier so that he could work and he lived by himself and he kept to himself. And this is something that he would continue doing once he enlisted in the U.N. army in 1862. He would shower on his own. He would change into his, you know, from his uniform on his own. And that wasn't seen as

being particularly strange, right? Like that was pretty common, according to some of the records that we've seen for other soldiers to do that. It wasn't like a big boys club kind of locker room situation.

Right, right. And for the record, 1862, that makes Albert 19 when joining the Union. So here's what we know for certain. On August 6th, 1862, 19-year-old Albert Cashier was a resident of Belvedere, Illinois, and enlisted in the 95th Illinois Infantry. Like you mentioned earlier, Noel, Albert was known to keep mostly to himself. And the only thing people really called out about or busted chops about with him was that he was the shortest person in the squad.

But he passed the medical exam.

Which only consisted of looking at like things like teeth and I guess arches, you know, make sure he didn't have any bone spurs or anything like that. And the ability to wield a rifle. Those are the things that there was no looking at private bits. Right, right.

Cashier was also known for being the silent type, not super extroverted. but being very, very brave in the field of battle. We also found that correspondences from the time suggest Cashier had a significant other during the war. And like many other soldiers on both the Union and Confederate sides of that conflict, Cashier wrote to this significant other.

That was the Morey family he kept in contact with in Babcock's Grove, Illinois. Cashier's regiment participated in over 40... engagements, battles in the war. They were part of the Army of the Tennessee, and that included the Siege of Vicksburg, the Red River Campaign, battles in Kennesaw Mountain in Jonesboro, Georgia, very near where we are here in Atlanta, and also the Battle of Nashville. And he survived. In fact, he also there's a story that isn't very detailed, but he supposedly was captured at one point. And he more or less just was a badass and like knocked over his captor and ran on foot all the way back to his camp and escaped. And all the while avoiding being detected.

He was even treated for diarrhea once and was able to kind of like wiggle his way out of getting shot. inspected in any kind of way that would have given away his secret. And that capture was in 1863 during the siege of Vicksburg.

In May. So, Gashier serves a three-year enlistment with his regiment, the 95th, until they are mustered out, honorably discharged on August 16th of 1865. To put in perspective how amazing it is for anyone to survive this sort of conflict, out of the 95th Regiment, 289 soldiers died due to death on battlefield or due to disease. Because I thought it was interesting that you mentioned the idea of joining a military to get three square meals a day. That is the case now, right? In the U.S. military and most Western militaries, you will be fed. You will have a place to sleep. It may not be ideal, but you will have those things. This was not always the case in the Union and Confederate armies. People were fighting

for ideological reasons, at least the people on the ground. And Albert's reputation continues. Well after the war, his brothers-in-arms remember this guy that they thought was you know, kind of short, but so brave. He was plucky, you know, and he undertook dangerous assignments. He was admired for his heroic actions, his bravery, and he was somewhat of an enigmatic, fascinating figure because he never seemed to get a serious injury.

He was blessed in some way.

Very much so. And that reputation carried over into his life after the war, where he continued to keep to himself. You know, it makes sense that he would do that because too many questions or getting too close to anybody could have opened the door to him being discovered, which could have robbed him of his pension. That's another thing that is a positive aspect of being in the military.

You get paid even after your service, of which he did the full term, by the way. So he moved back to a small community in Illinois where he had immigrated to originally and was like a pillar of the community. People, you know, didn't really know too much about him, but he was like regarded as a very good citizen and treated with respect and no one invaded his privacy. And during this time, he had many odd jobs, including like he was like a lamplighter for the city. I think he was a custodian at a hospital. And he also worked for a lawmaker. He found himself working for Senator Ira Lash. And that is when things kind of started going downhill for Cashier. When the senator, the honorable senator,

accidentally hit Cashier with his car and broke his leg, forcing him to be taken to hospital immediately. And examined.

Right. And at this time, you know, as we said, he was a respected, established member of the community. He wasn't like a Boo Radley type shut in from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. He was known.

He was active.

He wore his uniform all the time.

That's right. And buttoned up to his neck, apparently, to hide the fact that he did not have an Adams app.

That's correct. And you can read an excellent source on this from irishtimes.com, When Jenny Came Marching Home, an Irish woman's diary on Albert Cashier and the U.S. Civil War by Nora Eide McAleef. So let's fast forward. November 1910, the senator hits Cashier with his car. Albert, at this point, is 67 years old. His leg is broken, goes to the hospital, as you said, and the hospital... The staff of the hospital learns the sex assignment. They agree that they are not going to betray the trust. This is a good bunch of doctors and medical professionals.

Again, incredibly progressive and super helpful and very lucky in this string of like lucky events that has led this person to have not been exposed for 67 years of their life. There's bad news. Yeah, although they can't all be good eggs because once he is treated, he doesn't really have any much money other than his pension. He can't really work anymore. So he's sent to a place called the Soldiers and Sailors Home in Quincy, Illinois, where he is going to convalesce. And he stays there for a few years. He stays there for a few years.

In that amount of time, he starts to get the onset of that dementia that we mentioned at the top of the show. And that's when he's sent to and this is a horrible term, but this is what it was referred to at the time, a state hospital for the insane. And there, his sex assignment is discovered again, and they aren't so kind about it.

No, the Senator Lish intervened, and Lish, from what we could tell, is the person who actually disclosed the sex assignment of Albert Cashier and warned the staff, of this state hospital to keep the information a secret, but these two male nurses forced Albert to wear a dress and then took the information public, and the media got a hold of it, and the story went national, and at this time, remember we mentioned the pension earlier, at this time, the Veterans Pension Board gets wind of this, and they decide Instead of recognizing the soldier's duty and the fact that they did the full term, right, of their enlistment, instead of recognizing that, the Veterans Pension Board begins to investigate Albert for fraud. And keep in mind to this point,

Albert is 69, 70 years old and suffering from this cognitive decline.

Well, they go on to say– they add insult to injury in saying that there's no way this old elderly person in their frail state could have possibly been the heroic soldier who fought in the war and also because of obviously the fact that they are female. But again, really progressive thinking at this time. His wife. compatriots, you know, from his army days come to his aid and back up his story and say, no, this was the guy.

They're like, that's my dude.

And we don't care. Or I don't know. It's not, I mean, obviously they would have heard the stories. They would have had to come to his aid for a reason. Yeah. And so they had to have like not cared.

This was national news.

National news. They had to have like not held a grudge or you would think that, you know, maybe they would have felt betrayed or something like that or lied to, but instead they seemed to see through to the truth of the matter and come to his defense. And the board decided to continue paying out his pension, as they should have.

Yeah, they assented. Because think about this. Think about the time in which this debate is occurring. What are you going to do as the veteran board if other veterans come to you and say essentially you were insulting the entire concept of serving in the military? and you are not holding up your end of the bargain. And this is heartbreaking. So Albert's fellow soldiers vouch for him and raise enough of a stink and attention that the veteran board does continue these pension payments. But Albert is still lost in this place and declared insane. Albert fights the best way he can. He takes the skirts that he's forced to wear and He ties them up with safety pins so he can form pants out of them. But

Albert trips one day, breaks a hip, and eventually dies on October 10th, 1915, age 71. I know this sounds like a downer, folks, but we promise you we do have a happy ending of sorts.

Yeah, there's definitely a really powerful legacy left behind. Let's also not forget that the conditions that he was exposed to were a direct result of a time before mental health reform, where, you know, the idea of being insane practically relegated you to, you know, forced confinement and very little actual treatment and, you know, sort of just being almost abandoned and left to rot. You know, there's all these stories we know about the conditions in quote-unquote mental asylums, you know, insane asylums is what this would have been considered, and they were absolutely horrible and inhumane.

Here is the bittersweet Powerful ending. When Albert Cashier passes away, he is given a full military funeral. He is buried in uniform. the uniform he always dressed in even after the war there is a gravestone erected to him the gravestone does not read jenny hodgers the gravestone reads albert dj cashier 60 years later the headstone has changed such that both names are there the original name and then Albert's name.

How do you feel about that? I don't know.

You know, I, I don't know how he would feel about it.

Exactly. Because I'm wondering why they, why they chose to do that. Was there some kind of outcry that like forced, I mean, that's just such an odd choice to me.

Yeah. As well.

I don't know.

Uh, because we know that Albert definitely did not have a say in that, you know, uh, but here's the thing, the town in Illinois where Albert is buried, they remember him today. You can go to Sonneman, Illinois, and you will see U.S. and Irish flags flying side by side at the home of Albert D.J.

Cashier. Very modest one-bedroom home that you can, I.

Believe, tour. The mayor will also give you a tour. It makes me, I don't know, it's kind of heartwarming to think that you can go to this small town and you can call up the mayor and they'll say, okay, I'll take you over to the house. I'll, you know, I'll even walk you to the grave. It's, it's heartwarming to me that you can literally call up the mayor of the town and they'll take you on a tour.

That's pretty neat.

It is pretty neat. And I have to be honest, I was unaware of this story, but clearly some people were because there is in fact a Broadway musical or a Broadway style musical about the life of Albert Cashier that came out in 2017. And, They got pretty great reviews and played at the stage 773 in Chicago. Haven't heard anything about a Broadway run, but I'd be very interested in seeing this. It's called The Civility of Albert Cashier by J. Paul Deretani, and the score is by Joe Stevens and Keaton Wooden. And here's a little blurb from one of the cast members by the name of Delia Kropp. Quote, in so many ways, Albert's story is a true American one, a soldier who served their country and wanted nothing more and personal liberty to live life

as they wish to.

Which, when you put it that way, how much more American can you get? What else do you want? That's personal freedom, right? And even though the practice of the law doesn't adhere to the letter of the law near as often as I think we would all like, it is inspirational. It doesn't matter who you are. You should be inspired by this. As we mentioned earlier, Albert Cashier was not the only person in this situation. And there is an important distinction to make here. More than 250 Civil War soldiers were assigned female at birth. Most of those soldiers are assumed by historians today to have been cisgender women in disguise for the purpose of getting around army regulations.

Like Mulan.

Like Mulan. So some would fight to be close to their significant other or their spouse. Some were straight up trying to escape slavery.

Right.

Which, of course.

Who could blame them? And so that's that's sort of the point we made earlier, where it's like the conditions that would maybe cause someone to look at military service as a better alternative to the life they were leading before. Those previous conditions had to be pretty rough. Slavery would certainly be one of them. Abject poverty, things like that, an abusive relationship or home situation, you know, would make one seek out any alternative. And the army was certainly one of those.

And while Albert Cashier. was a trans man, a trans soldier fighting in the Civil War. This story doesn't stop here. Christine Jorgensen is actually the first American trans woman who was widely known for having a sex reassignment surgery. And this goes back a little bit farther, right, Noel?

Yeah, I mean, call the cashier story a precedent, if you will, or just call it kind of a spiritual successor. But Jorgensen, who was in the Army in 1945, and she– during that time, she learned about the possibility of getting sexual reassignment surgery. And she started to get that process underway in Denmark in 1951. And when she came back to the U.S. in the early 1950s, it became kind of a pretty hot-button story when the New York Daily News reported it with the headline, XGI Becomes Blonde Bombshell.

she documented her life extensively. She became a huge figure in the trans community, early days of the trans community and was, you know, made appearances on talk shows. She toured college campuses, talk about her transition and her life living as a trans woman. She became an actress, a nightclub performer, and she was very, very sharp witted. And she passed away in 1989. And she referred to her, impact on the sexual revolution as having given it a good swift kick in the pants to kind of kickstart it.

And there's already been an indie movie made about Jorgensen. And also additionally, Edward Glenn or Glenda definitely tried to, let's say, take inspiration from Christine Jorgensen's story But these stories are important to remember. And we also want to acknowledge that the struggle, the search for validation, recognition of your own identity and the right to live as you wish is a fundamental part of being a human being.

So thankfully, Albert Cashier, despite the social climate and discrimination of the time, was able to get the recognition he deserved. We still have a long way to go and we have to wonder what future historians will say about these are modern days.

I don't know, man. Sure seems like we're living in a time where things like this are much more mainstream and much more accepted. And like my kid is grown up being completely comfortable with the idea of trans people. She has several in her class and she is just like, it's basically the new normal. And I think that's an amazing place for us to be, given how far we've come. Agreed.

Greed, thank you so much for tuning in today. We hope that you enjoyed this exploration of Albert's life. And we would like to hear from you. What are some other amazing and inspirational stories of individuals in times of conflict? It doesn't have to be restricted to the Civil War here in the United States. Let us know. We are all ears, or eyes rather, because we'll probably be reading what you send to us. You can email us directly.

We are ridiculous at iheartradio.com. You can also find our Facebook page, Ridiculous Historians, where you can meet our favorite part of the show. The three of us are always talking about you off air, your fellow listeners.

Yeah, you can also check me and Ben out individually on Instagram. I've got an account under HowNowNoelBrown, where you can just catch me doing, you know, the things I do day to day, which apparently includes getting kicked in the shins by little kids.

And until I get black bagged and disappeared for my various misadventures, you can find me at Ben Bolin on Instagram. Thanks so much to our super producer, Casey Labouche-Peggram. Thanks to our research associates, Ryan Barish and Gabe Luzio.

Yeah, big thanks to Alex Williams, who composed our theme. Christopher Hustiotis here in spirit. Jonathan Strickland looming large in the world of quiz-related supervillainy. And thanks to you, Ben, for being a friend and a confidant down that road and back again and all that.

Thanks, Noel.

See you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Ridiculous Stuff We Didn't Get To in 2026, Part Two: Apple Trees, Ice Cream Wars and Weird Nuclear Gadgets

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