Gender Benders: Figure 2
Subject: Miss Major Pauline Cushman
Maker: E. and H. T. Anthony (New York)
Genre: studio portrait
Process: carte de visite, albumen print
Date: 1864-66
Collection: Greg French

Pauline Cushman (1833-1893) was born Harriet Wood in New Orleans and grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She began a theatrical career in Louisiana in 1851 with “Pauline Cushman” as a stage name. During the Civil War, she became a spy for the Union, supposedly dressing as a man to infiltrate Confederate lines. Cushman narrowly escaped execution once when caught. Granted the honorary rank of major by General James Garfield (later president), after the war she toured and lectured in uniform as “Miss Major Pauline Cushman.” For more on Cushman’s exploits, see Pauline Cushman: Spy of the Cumberland (2006), by William J. Christen; for a contemporary (1865) account, see Life of Pauline Cushman, by F. L. Sarmiento.

Gender Benders: Figure 3

Subject: Kady Brownell
Maker: photographer unknown
Genre: studio portrait
Process: carte de visite, albumen print
Date: 1861-65
Collection: Greg French

Kady Brownell (1842-1915) was born in South Africa, in the camp of an officer of the British army, where she became used to military life. Around 1860, he immigrated to Providence, Rhode Island, where she worked in a factory and fell in love with the man she married, Robert Brownell. When Robert enlisted in a Rhode Island regiment, Kady insisted on joining him. She learned to shoot, use the sword, and bear the regimental flag. For a contemporary account of how she participated bravely in the battles of Bull Run and New Bern, see Women of the War: Their Heroism and Self-sacrifice (1866), by Frank Moore, pages 54-64. Brownell was the only woman in the Civil War to receive military discharge papers and, eventually, a veteran’s pension.

Gender Benders: Figure 4

Subject: Mary Tebe
Maker: R. W. Addis (Washington, DC)
Genre: studio portrait
Process: carte de visite, albumen print
Date: circa 1865
Collection: Greg French

Mary Tebe (also known as Marie or Mary Tepe, French Mary, and Zouave Mary) was a vivandiere with Pennsylvania’s 114th Regiment, Collis’ Zouaves. Zouaves were units in the Civil War that modeled their uniforms on French Algerian troops; as a vivandiere, Mary Tebe was a paid member of the regiment who served in many support roles, but especially as a nurse on and off the battlefield. Here, she wears a uniform modeled on that of Collis’ Zouaves; she carries her cask to administer water or spirits to wounded soldiers, and she wears the Kearny Cross that she was awarded for her bravery at the battle of Fredricksburg. Tebe also served at Gettysburg. For a contemporary description of Zouave Mary, see Four Brothers in Blue, by Robert Goldthwaite Carter, pages 281-3.

Gender Benders: Figure 5

Subject: Albert Cashier and unknown sergeant
Maker: photographer unknown
Genre: studio portrait
Process: tintype
Date: circa 1865
Collection: The Gilder Lehrman Collection

Albert Cashier (1843-1915), seated on the left, emigrated from Ireland to America as Jennie Hodgers. In 1862, Hodgers assumed the name Albert Cashier to enlist in the 95th Illinois infantry, serving through the war undiscovered and fighting in many battles. For half a century after the war, Cashier maintained an identity as a man, living in Saunemin, a small town in Illinois, drawing a military pension. When Cashier’s biological identity as female was revealed after an accident, he was forced to wear a dress, but former comrades rallied to him to ensure he kept his pension and was buried in his uniform. For a deposition in that case, see here. Cashier’s career is documented in They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War, by De Anne Blanton and Lauren Cook.