Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past rediscovered.

Before we start, a correction. We incorrectly included the story of Albert Cashier,

whose birth name was Jenny Hodgers, in a series about women who won wars. We have removed the episode from the series

and made some corrections to pronoun usage

to better identify cashier consistently

based on what we know about how he identified himself.

On August 6, 1862, a shy young man from Belvedere, Illinois signed up to fight for the North

in the Civil War.

His name was Albert Kaffir.

His birth name was Jenny Hodgers.

Among the boys of the 95th Illinois infantry, cashier was the shortest, but among the toughest.

During the seas of Vicksburg, a brutal 47-day battle

where more than 32,000 Confederates were killed,

historians say cashier was captured

while conducting reconnaissance.

To escape, he knocked over a guard,

wrestled away his gun, and ran,

saving his own life,

and protecting a secret about his identity

he'd kept since enlisting.

Music about his identity he'd kept since enlisting. More than 400 women fought as men in the Civil War.

How they did it, why they did it, is a story that historians only began unraveling in the last decade or so.

...