THE FIGHTING INFANTRYMAN

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.