On the 20th of May, 1810, a member of the French nobility died. And nobody, including the attending physician who examined the body, knew what to write on their death certificate.

The Chevalier d'Eon had always had a naturally androgenous appearance, a fact which they capitalized on frequently throughout their life. The child of a minor French nobleman, d'Eon enjoyed the benefits of an education, excelling in school, and earning a law degree. After school, they took work as a political writer for a time, and then became secretary to a series of Parisian administrators, working in areas of finance as well as in history and literature.

But in 1756, they joined a secret network of spies known only to King Louis XV, and working without the official knowledge or sanction of the French government. d'Eon's mission was to infiltrate the court of Empress Elizabeth of Russia, and there, conspire with members of a pro-French faction of the Russian government against the Habsburg monarchy of Austria. At the time, Russian border crossings were restricted only to women and children. So, according to d'Eon's memoirs, they were forced to pass convincingly as a woman or risk execution. Thus disguised as "the Lady Beaumont", they served as maid of honor to the Empress.

Years later, d'Eon returned to France, awarded an enormous sum of money for their service to the King, and became Captain of Dragoons - a military title involving mounted cavalry. Later, they served in the Seven Years' War against England. When the war ended, d'Eon themself drafted the peace treaty, and was awarded another handsome sum of money for their efforts, receiving the title "Chevalier" - a French title of nobility roughly translating to "Knight".

In 1763, a series of political machinations saw d'Eon embroiled in a scandal. Having lived in London now for years, d'Eon published a series of letters detailing some (though not all) of their secret dealings as a spy. This breach of diplomatic discretion was scandalous in the extreme, but secured them the sympathy of the English public. In these letters, d'Eon claimed that the new ambassador to England, a man named Guerchy, had tried to poison them at a dinner. Guerchy sued for libel, and d'Eon strangely offered no defense at the trial. They were thus declared an outlaw and went into hiding. Eventually, Louis XV granted d'Éon a pension (possibly a pay-off for d'Éon's silence) and a 12,000-livre annuity, but refused a request to pay off the rest of their debts. d'Eon continued to work as a spy for Louis XV, but lived in political exile in London.

And here is where our story truly begins to get strange.

It was around this time that rumors began circulating in London that d'Eon was actually a woman, despite the fact that they routinely wore their military dragoons uniform, and claimed to be, and have always been a man. A betting pool over their true gender was started on the London Stock Exchange. d'Eon was invited to participate but declined, stating that an examination would be dishonoring whatever the result. After a year without any further updates, the wager was abandoned and the monies returned.

Then, in 1774, King Louis XV died, and d'Eon, sensing an opportunity to return to their homeland, attempted to negotiate an end to their exile. The resulting twenty page treaty permitted d'Eon to return to France, but demanded that they turn over any documents and correspondence from their time as a spy under Louis XV. Additionally, a clause in the treaty demanded that they present themselves as female during the voyage.

So the Chevalier d'Eon, now stylizing themself as the Chevalière d'Eon (a feminized form of the title given to them by Louis XV at the end of the war), and wearing their dragoon uniform, began making plans to return to France. However, now claiming to have always been a woman, they demanded recognition by the French government as such. They claimed that their father had to raise them as a boy, because his father could only inherit from his in-laws if he had a son. King Louis XVI complied with this demand, but required in turn that d'Eon no longer wear the military uniform and instead dress as a woman. Included with the offer was a substantial sum of money for a complete women's wardrobe. Whether it was because d'Eon really was assigned female at birth, as they claimed, or whether it was merely the money and station offered by the new King, d'Eon agreed. So, d'Eon returned to France a woman, and as punishment, was summarily banished to Tonnerre.

For the rest of their life, d'Eon would maintain this presentation, even offering to join with the Americans in the War of Independence, leading a battalion of female fighters against England, though their banishment ultimately prevented it. During this time there are accounts of the Chevalière d'Eon fencing, fighting, and participating in duels with other French nobility, always presenting as the woman they claimed to always have been. After the French Revolution, the king's pension vanished, and d'Eon was forced to sell much of their possessions to survive - though they did not give up their female attire. In 1809 at the age of 80, d'Eon suffered a fall and became paralyzed and bedridden. They died in poverty in 1810 at the age of 81.

But their story doesn't quite end there.

The surgeon who examined d'Éon's body after their death attested in their post-mortem certificate that d'Eon had "male organs in every respect perfectly formed", while at the same time displaying feminine characteristics such as "unusual roundness in the formation of limbs", as well as "breasts remarkably full". Though buried in an unmarked pauper's grave, there exists to this day a memorial in London listing the Chevalier d'Eon as one of the important graves lost to time.

Even by modern standards, the Chevalier/Chevalière d'Eon's gender identity is a bit of an enigma. Some have suggested they may have been intersex. Some choose to interpret their story as transgender or gender fluidity. Some have even coined a term - "eonism" - to describe similar cases of gender nonconformity.

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In July of 1862, at age 18, Albert D.J. Cashier, wearing male clothes, and presenting as a man, enlisted in the Army, answering President Lincoln's call for soldiers. Even before this, he had already adopted his male name and presentation for many years prior, working at a shoe factory and on a farm as a hired hand.

Albert was then trained to be an infantryman of the 95th regiment at Camp Fuller and assigned to Company G, where he fought to liberate the Confederate strongholds of Columbus, KY, and Jackson, TN. His regiment was then ordered to become part of the Army of the Tennessee under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. At one point, he was actually captured by the Confederate army, but managed a daring escape, rejoined his regiment, and then laid siege to Vicksburg against the very army that had captured him just days prior. The siege lasted over a month, and was the last remaining Confederate stronghold along the Mississippi River. The importance of this battle cannot be understated. Capturing Vicksburg completed the second phase of Lincoln's "Northern Strategy", called the Anaconda Plan. Lincoln himself called Vicksburg "the key to the war". Under Grant, Albert Cashier fought in at least 40 battles, including Vicksburg and the Battle of Spring Hill.

After the war, Albert returned to civilian life and continued to live and work as a man until his declining mental health finally placed him in a mental institution where his birth sex was discovered and he was stripped of his military pension and forced to wear a dress. Fortunately, Albert was able to prove he was the same person who fought in the war, and his pension was reinstated. He is buried with full military honors in his uniform.

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