Military Archives - Page 52 of 55

Albert Cashier

Albert D. J. Cashier was an Irish-born American immigrant who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Born Jennie Irene Hodgers, Cashier took on the identity of a man even before enlisting on August 6, 1862, and maintained that identity until their death in 1915. Cashier became famous as one of the more than 250 women soldiers who served as men during the Civil War, but the consistent and long-term commitment to a male identity indicates a strong likelihood that Cashier was a trans man. Cashier’s uncle or stepfather reportedly dressed his charge in male clothing so that the teen could find work in an all-male shoe factory in Illinois, and Cashier had adopted their male identity in order to live independently. During the war, Cashier’s regiment was part of the Army of the Tennessee serving under Ulysses S. Grant and fought in approximately 40 battles, including the siege at Vicksburg. During this campaign, Cashier was captured while performing reconnaissance, but escaped and return to the regiment. Cashier managed to hide their birth gender even when hospitalised and fought with the regiment through the war until they were honorably discharged with all of the other soldiers on August 17, 1865. It was only at age 70, suffering from dementia and living in a veterans’ hspice, that Cashier’s biological sex was revealed and they were forced to wear women’s clothing once again. When they diedthe following year, Albert Cashier was buried in uniform with full military honors and their tombstone inscribed “Albert D. J. Cashier, Co. G, 95 Ill. Inf.”

Jovita Feitosa

Brazilian military heroine and a symbol for the war against sexism.

Teriitaria II

Teriitaria II became Queen of Tahiti when she and her sister Teremoemoe married their second cousin King Pōmare II and later, she ruled as Queen of Huahine and Maiao in the Society Islands.
In 1815, Teriitaria became the Queen of Huahine and Maiao. The previous ruler, Mahine, had fought alongside her at the Battle of Te Feipī, and formally presented the government of the islands to her while he remained the resident chief until his death in 1838. She ruled as a largely absentee monarch while residing on Tahiti for the first few decades of her reign. Teriitaria had no children with Pōmare II, but Pōmare fathered the next two Tahitian monarchs, King Pōmare III (r. 1821–1827) and Queen Pōmare IV (r. 1827–1877), by Teremoemoe. Pōmare II died in 1821, and Teriitaria and Teremoemoe served as regents for Pōmare III and (after his death in 1827) for Pōmare IV.
Teriitaria was removed from the regency in 1828, but continued to have a significant role in Tahiti, including leading Tahitian forces in the Taiarapu rebellion of 1832. She joined her niece, Pōmare IV, in exile on Raiatea during the Franco-Tahitian War (1844–1847). During that time, she repelled a French invasion force at the 1846 Battle of Maeva, which secured the independence of the Leeward Islands.

Yekaterina Budanova

Yekaterina “Katya” Vasilyevna Budanova was a fighter pilot in the Soviet Air Force during World War II. With five air victories, she was one of the world’s two female fighter aces, with Lydia Litvyak.

Zenobia

Zenobia was a 3rd-century Syrian queen who led a revolt against the Roman Empire.

Yaa Asantewaa

As Queen Mother of Ejisu, Yaa Asantewaa led the Asante in a war against British colonization between 1900 and 1901, known as the War of the Golden Stool or the Yaa Asantewaa War.

Teresa Magbanua

Teresa Magbanua was a Filipino schoolteacher and military leader at the turn of the 20th century. When the 1896 Philippine Revolution against Spain broke out, she joined the Panay-based Visayan branch of the Katipunan, the initially secret revolutionary society headed by Andrés Bonifacio.
Despite opposition from her husband, Magbanua took up arms against the Spaniards, leading troops into combat and winning several battles under the command of General Martin Delgado. She is credited as the only woman to lead troops in the Visayan area during the Revolution. Afterward, Magbanua shifted to fighting American colonial forces during the Philippine–American War.
She is one of the few Filipinos to have participated in all three resistance movements against Spain (in the Philippine Revolution), the United States (in the Philippine-American War), and Japan (in World War II). While not an active fighter during World War II, Magbanua did what she could to resist Japanese forces during their occupation of the Philippines. She sold her personal belongings to purchase food and supplies, which she would then give to the local guerrillas, and sold her property in Iloilo to help finance the fighters.

Dandara dos Palmares

Dandara was an Afro-Brazilian warrior during Brazil’s colonial period.

Milcey Zachary

Milcey Zachary volunteered as a US Navy yeomanette in mid-April 1917 and became an assistant in the Office of the Scretary of the Navy. She attended meetings of the Naval Consulting Board, which evaluated inventions proposed for military use. After World War I, she was one of the few civilians kept on staff and on 1 July 1920, took on an administrative role for the Naval Research Laboratory, responsible for the department’s elaborate filing system, and for recruiting other women.

Æthelflæd

Æthelflæd was an Anglo-Saxon warrior queen in 9th and 10th century England, who fought to protect her land from Viking invasion.
The princess of Wessex she was married to Æthelred circa 886 to create an alliance between Wessex and the kingdom of Mercia. On the way to the wedding, she personally fought off a Viking attack, which may have been an assassination attempt to prevent the marriage. She effectively ruled Mercia almost from the beginning of her marriage, particularly after Æthelred began to suffer a wasting illness in 902 and, with her brother Edward the Elder, played a key role in routing the Danes from eastern England. After her husband died in 911, she received the title “Lady of the Mercians.” A brilliant military strategist, she led her forces in repelling a Viking attack on the port of Chester in 905, and in 907 she took an army deep into Danish East Anglia to retrieve the bones of a Christian saint. In 917 she went to war against the Vikings at Derby and against Welsh kings who had been opening their borders to Viking forces. This tactical move le dto alliances with some Welsh rulers. A cunning politician, she cultivated ties with the king of Alba (modern-day Scotland) and even with disaffected Viking lords. She also captured Derby and Leicester and remained in the thick of fight against the Danes until her death in 918, just days before the Vikings surrendered to her at York and accepted her as their overlord. Her decades of work resulted in a combined kingdom of Mercia and Wessex that lay the foundation for a united nation of England.