My Last Skirt
Navigation Home Western Theatre Women Juvenile
Durrant, Lynda. My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier. New York: Clarion, 2006.
Young Irishwoman Jennie Hodgers emigrates to America and passes for a young man, taking the name Albert Cashier. In 1862 s/he joins the 95th Illinois and sees action at Vicksburg and in northern Mississippi. Much of the plot of this Young Adult novel centers on the mutual attraction between Albert and his (imaginary) comrade Frank Moore, who divines his secret.
Albert Cashier is a natural subject for historical fiction, but many of the details of this book -- including coinage, weaponry, geography -- ring false, and the love story weakens the novel still further.