Disir
Platinum Member
- Sep 30, 2011
- 28,003
- 9,610
- 910
So named as there were at least 100,000 kids under 15 enlisted in the Union Army. This is not even counting the Confederate child soldiers. You were supposed to enlist at age 18 but that isn't what happened. There were runaways, orphans, kids that joined with their fathers, and those that had no choice and were servants. In some cases the boys were tall enough that they lied about their age. In some instances, it was simply overlooked as the need for soldiers grew and the kids were considered cheaper.
Really young ones started out as drummers and memorized different drum calls which told the soldiers what they needed to do. The most famous is Johnny Clem who tried to enlist at age 10 and was finally accepted at age 12 and discharged at age 13. He turned around and reenlisted.
John Clem | Civil War Trust
Sometimes the kids were powder monkeys.
Edward Black joined when he was 8 years old:
The youngest Union soldier and the youngest soldier to fight in the Civil War was a boy named Edward Black. Edward was born on May 30 in 1853, making him just 8 years old when he joined the Union army on July 24, 1861 as a drummer boy for the 21st Indiana volunteers. He is also considered one of the youngest soldiers ever to serve in the history of the U.S. Army.
Black was captured at the Battle of Baton Rouge in August of 1862 but was freed when the Union army won the battle. After the army discharged him in September of 1862, Edward reenlisted with 1st Indiana Volunteer Heavy Artillery in February 1863. He continued fighting until the end of the war and was honorable discharged in February of 1866.
Child Soldiers in the Civil War
There was a good deal of harassment from the older soldiers but the younger ones had much more stamina and could out march them. Elisha Stockwell (Union), 15, had an issue with a burly guy that used to punch him around and claimed he had to do that to all the new kids. This irritated Elisha to no end and he finally told the guy to go get his gun and meet him outside the camp. That guy didn't harass him after that.
The same occurred on the Confederate side.
There was a 15 year old boy that was harassed by an older soldier for several weeks until the boy got ticked off and grabbed his gun. The kid told the man he needed to apologize. The man picked his gun up and shot the kid dead. (The Boys' War by Jim Murphy page 22)
You can see some decent photos here in the gallary
Haunting Photos Of The American Civil War's Child Soldiers
The above is A.H. Johnson at age 15.
Really young ones started out as drummers and memorized different drum calls which told the soldiers what they needed to do. The most famous is Johnny Clem who tried to enlist at age 10 and was finally accepted at age 12 and discharged at age 13. He turned around and reenlisted.
John Clem | Civil War Trust
Sometimes the kids were powder monkeys.
Edward Black joined when he was 8 years old:
The youngest Union soldier and the youngest soldier to fight in the Civil War was a boy named Edward Black. Edward was born on May 30 in 1853, making him just 8 years old when he joined the Union army on July 24, 1861 as a drummer boy for the 21st Indiana volunteers. He is also considered one of the youngest soldiers ever to serve in the history of the U.S. Army.
Black was captured at the Battle of Baton Rouge in August of 1862 but was freed when the Union army won the battle. After the army discharged him in September of 1862, Edward reenlisted with 1st Indiana Volunteer Heavy Artillery in February 1863. He continued fighting until the end of the war and was honorable discharged in February of 1866.
Child Soldiers in the Civil War
There was a good deal of harassment from the older soldiers but the younger ones had much more stamina and could out march them. Elisha Stockwell (Union), 15, had an issue with a burly guy that used to punch him around and claimed he had to do that to all the new kids. This irritated Elisha to no end and he finally told the guy to go get his gun and meet him outside the camp. That guy didn't harass him after that.
The same occurred on the Confederate side.
There was a 15 year old boy that was harassed by an older soldier for several weeks until the boy got ticked off and grabbed his gun. The kid told the man he needed to apologize. The man picked his gun up and shot the kid dead. (The Boys' War by Jim Murphy page 22)
You can see some decent photos here in the gallary
Haunting Photos Of The American Civil War's Child Soldiers
The above is A.H. Johnson at age 15.