Child Soldiers in the Civil War

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A few of the hundreds of child soldiers who fought in the Civil War.

Three drummer boys in the Confederate army. By the time this picture had been taken, these boys were veterans of nine battles.

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From ati. By Mark Oliver

The Civil War claimed 620,000 lives – nearly as many American casualties as every other war fought by the United States combined. And one out of every five people who enlisted to risk their lives fighting their fellow countrymen was less than 18 years old.

The child soldiers of the American Civil War were often musicians, drummers, scouts, servants, or messengers who marched alongside fighting men. Others, however, experienced the violence firsthand. Some served as “powder monkeys” on warships, carrying gunpowder to the cannons. Others picked up rifles themselves and went straight into the trenches, fighting and dying among grown men.

The best known of these child soldiers is John Clem, a drummer boy who earned the nickname “Johnny Shiloh” after shrapnel from a shell crashed through his drum and knocked him out cold. Clem earned his place in history in the Battle of Chickamauga when he put down his drum, picked up a rifle, and shot and killed a Confederate officer. He was 11 years old.

Clem was made sergeant – the youngest officer in the American history. He fought through the war to the bitter end, though he was captured and taken prisoner by Confederate soldiers.

Clem, though, was by no means the only child who fought and risked his life in the Civil War. Edward Black became the youngest enlisted American to be injured in battle when a blast of shrapnel shattered his left arm. He was eight years old.

Edward Black, the youngest soldier to be injured in active duty, was 12 years old when his arm was hit by an exploding shell.

Countless other children fought, with white children carrying drums, bugles, and guns and black children working as servants for white officers. Some children were captured, some were injured, and some were killed – but everyone saw the horrors of war firsthand, watching grown men kill and die. Every one of them had to pray each night that they would live long enough to ever become grown men.

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From: The Boys of War: Child Soldiers in the Civil War

Johnny Clem ~

A few months after the attack on Fort Sumter, Johnny tried to join the 3rd Ohio Infantry. When he presented himself to the commanding officer, Captain Leonidas McDougal, the captain emphatically told the small boy that he was “not enlisting infants.” His father soon learned of his son’s attempt to enlist and quickly forbade him from joining the military. Beyond this point very little is known definitively of Johnny’s military service. What is known for sure is that he officially enlisted in Company C of the 22nd Michigan Infantry on May 1, 1863 under the name John Lincoln Clem. He was also reported to have run away from home on May 24, 1861. What happened in the two years between running away and enlisting with the 22nd Michigan is very much a mystery.

Johnny Clem would survive the war, despite being captured and held prisoner by Confederate soldiers. He would even stay in the American Army after the war. When he left the service in 1915, he was a General and the last Civil War soldier still in the army.

One possible explanation is that Johnny joined the 24th Ohio Volunteer Infantry on May 27, 1861, possibly catching a train carrying the 24th Ohio to Cleveland that passed through Newark. His uncle, Christian Weber, enlisted with the 24th Ohio on May 30, 1861, lending credence to the possibility of Johnny joining this regiment as well. Johnny unofficially joined the regiment by following the camp and running errands for the men. Eventually, he gained their trust and respect enough to earn a position as a drummer. This account helps to explain the nickname he came to acquire as “Johnny Shiloh.”

1862 ~

On April 6, 1862, in Tennessee, Johnny was asked to beat the drumroll call to battle by General Ulysses S. Grant. He did so without wavering throughout the majority of the battle, even while men retreated around him, only stopping when his drum was hit by a shell fragment. Later, as president, Grant remembered the boy’s bravery and awarded him the rank of 2nd Lieutenant on December 18, 1871.

The 24th Ohio Infantry was present at the Battle of Shiloh, while the 22nd Michigan was not. Grant would not have remembered the boy enough to give him the appointment had Johnny not been at that battle. The difficulty with this scenario is that Johnny is never listed on any official record pertaining to the 24th Ohio. This is fairly common, however, as many young boys took unofficial roles within regiments, never signing any documents or taking any pay for their services.

1863 ~

Despite the mystery of Johnny’s two missing years, he officially enlisted with the 22nd Michigan on May 1, 1863 in Nashville, Tennessee at only 11 years, 8 months and 18 days. While Johnny earned a nickname and a future career as an officer for his actions at the Battle of Shiloh, he is best known for his bravery at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19, 1863 while with the 22nd Michigan.

Johnny was acting as a regimental marker in the early hours of the battle; his kepi hit by 3 bullets within the course of one hour. In the midst of the battle, he managed to pick up a gun from a dying soldier. An unknown Confederate Colonel on a horse came upon the boy and ordered him to surrender. Johnny steadfastly refused, and instead brought his gun up and shot the colonel off his horse. Not long after this incident, Johnny was taken prisoner. He and fellow soldier 2nd Lieutenant Albertson, only 19, played dead when the prison company stopped to rest. The Confederate guards left them, and Johnny and Albertson were able to sneak their way back to friendly territory in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

For his bravery during the battle, he was promoted to Lance Sergeant, becoming the youngest non-commissioned officer in the Union army. Wounded twice more before the end of the war, once in the ear and once in his thigh, he was taken prisoner for three weeks in October of 1863.

1864 ~

After being released from the prisoner of war camp, Johnny served as the personal messenger of General George Henry Thomas until being discharged on September 19, 1864.

After the war ~

After the war, Johnny was appointed by President Grant to West Point but failed both the academic and physical exams and was not accepted. He went on to work for the Census Bureau in Washington, D.C., where he was able to gain an audience with President Grant, in which Grant appointed Clem as a 2nd Lieutenant.

John Clem in 1871.

He stayed in the army for another 43 years, finally retiring as a Brigadier General on his 64th birthday, August 13, 1915. The following year, an act of Congress promoted him to Major General, USA, Retired on August 29, 1916. Married twice, he had five children, only two of whom survived to adulthood. John Lincoln Clem died May 13, 1937 at the age of 86 and was buried in Arlington Cemetery.

In 1959, a school in Clem’s hometown of Newark, Ohio was opened: John Lincoln Clem Elementary School. Named after a young drummer boy who rose through the ranks to become a Major General, the school stands as a testament to the stalwart bravery of one young boy.

John Clem around 1922.

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From: Find A Grave

Civil War Figure, United States Major General. On May 24, 1861, at just 9-years of age, he left his home in Newark, Ohio, to join the fighting that had recently erupted in what would become the Civil War. His mother had been killed in a train accident, and he was now free to do his part to protect the Union. The first thing he did was to change his name. He was born John Joseph Klem, but changed his middle name to Lincoln because of his admiration for President Abraham Lincoln. He then changed the spelling of his last name, spelling his name with a C instead of a K which was used by his German immigrant family. Although he would become the youngest soldier ever to serve in the United States Army, he quickly found the army wasn't interested in boys his age. When he applied to the commander of the 3rd Ohio Regiment, the officer turned him down. He then tried the 22nd Michigan, and its commander said roughly the same thing. Determined, he tagged after the regiment, acted just as the other drummer boys did, and wore down resistance. Though still not regularly enrolled, he performed camp duties and received a soldier's pay, $13 a month, a sum donated by the officers. The next April, at Shiloh, his drum was smashed by an artillery round and he became a minor news item as "Johnny Shiloh," the smallest drummer. More than a year later, at the Battle of Chickamauga, he rode an artillery caisson to the front and wielded a musket trimmed to his size. In one of the Union retreats, a Confederate officer ran after the cannon he rode with. Clem shot him, although it's uncertain if the officer was killed or wounded, and later eluded capture by playing dead. Once reunited with his regiment, he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant, becoming the youngest American soldier ever to hold that rank. His heroic action also earned him national attention and the name, "Drummer Boy of Chickamauga." The remainder of the war found him at Murfreesboro, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and Atlanta. He was captured by Confederate forces shortly after Chickamauga, but was exchanged two months later. Twice he had ponies shot from under him, later served as a courier, and was wounded in the hip by a shell fragment. Between Shiloh and Chickamauga he was regularly enrolled in the service and thereafter received his own pay. He was discharged from the Army in 1864, at the age of 13. After the war, he tried to enter West Point but was turned down because of his slim education. He then made a personal appeal to President Ulysses S. Grant, his general at Shiloh. The appeal was heard by Grant, who personally handed him his second lieutenant's commission on December 18, 1871. He saw action during the Spanish-American War, and in 1903 became a Colonel and assistant quartermaster general. In 1915, he was promoted to Brigadier General; and retired in 1916 as a Major General after 53 years of active duty, the last Civil War veteran on active duty. When the United States entered World War I, Clem, now 65, sought permission to be activated to join the fighting in France, however President Woodrow Wilson refused his request. He retired to San Antonio, Texas, where he would later die. Bio by: Ugaalltheway.

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Benjamin Franklin Williams ~

At 7 years old, he was the youngest known veteran to have served in the Civil War, either Union or Confederate. He was mostly used as a wagon driver.

Benjamin Williams in later life.

"3rd Infantry Regiment was assembled at Augusta, Georgia, in April, 1861. Its companies were recruited in the counties of Clarke, Burke, Dawson, Dade, Madison, Baldwin, and Oconee. This regiment served in the Departments of Norfolk, North Carolina, and Middle and Eastern Florida before being assigned to the Army of Northern Virginia. Here it was under the command of General A.R. Wright and after November, 1864, General Sorrell. It participated in the difficult campaigns of the army from Seven Pines to Cold Harbor, then was involved in the Petersburg siege north and south of the James River and various conflicts around Appomattox. The unit reported 25 killed, 110 wounded, and 22 missing at Malvern Hill and had 10 killed and 129 wounded at Chancellorsville. It lost more than forty-five percent of the 441 engaged at Gettysburg, and there were 75 casualties at Manassas Gap. The 3rd surrendered in April, 1865, with 12 officers and 236 men. Its commanders were Colonels Edward J. Walker and Ambrose R. Wright; Lieutenant Colonels A.B. Montgomery, R.B. Nisbet, James S. Reid, and Claiborne Snead; and Majors George E. Hayes, John F. Jones, Augustus H. Lee, and John R. Sturges."

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Johnny Clem in uniform, with the stripes showing off his officer's rank.

Johnny Clem, the youngest soldier in the Union Army. At the time of this photo, he was 12 years old. 1863.

Little Johnny Clem became the youngest soldier in the Union Army to kill a man when he put down his drum and grabbed a rifle.

Clem in the 1920s.

Benjamin Franklin Williams, age 85, one of the CW youngest soldiers & veterans, on arrival from Atlanta GA, in 1938.

A child in the uniform of the Washington Rifles.

A portrait of a young boy in a Confederate uniform.

A child at a military camp leans against a wooden barrel with spikes.

A 15-year-old Confederate child soldier lies dead in the trenches at Fort Mahone. Petersburg, Virginia. 1865.

A ''powder monkey'' aboard a ship, identified in some places as the U.S.S. New Hampshire and, in others.

A Union child soldier poses with his rifle.

A Union drummer boy in uniform, holding his drum.

A Union drummer boy in uniform.

A young African-American boy stands next to a Union Officer. He is most likely working as the officer's servant.

A young drummer boy, his cheeks made rosy to emphasize his youth, poses with his drum.

A young Union drummer.

An African-American child poses in front of a painted backdrop in the clothing of an army servant.

Drummer boy Johnny Jacobs in his Union Army uniform.

John Cook.

Edward Jemison.

Elisha Stockwell. This young man appears as if he would rather be somewhere else.

Jimmy Doyle, a drummer boy who was wounded in combat. New Haven, Connecticut. 1863.

Major Luzerne Todd poses for a photograph with his African-American child servant. Arlington Grounds, Virginia. 1861.

Nathan Jones, an African-American servant boy, serving at Camp Metcalf. Virginia.

Soldiers at Camp Cameron, including a young African-American servant boy. Washington, DC.

The crew of a frigate poses in front of a cannon. The boy sitting on top serves as a powder monkey, gathering gunpowder.

This photo, labelled ''Captain Goodrich's Jack'' on the back, appears to show the African-American servant of an army officer.

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