Children and the Civil War: The Role of Children in the War
            By Charlie

    What do you think of when I say “The Civil War?” You might think of men fighting in such places as Gettysburg and Antietam. But have you ever thought of the role of children in the war? What did children do during these years of war?

     In the beginning of the war, most men would go off to fight. This left wives and mothers with children behind. In some cases, the fathers who went to fight in the war would ask their eldest son to protect the rest of the family. This was an important role of a child in the war: protecting the home and the family.

     Meanwhile, in the South, as fathers left for the war, children felt responsible to care for the slaves who had cared for them all their lives, especially at a time when the slaves were vulnerable.

     Further into the war, children would join the war, not to fight, but to play music. In the heat of the battle, it wasn’t really “music” anymore when you heard it being played. It was telling you what to do. The different kinds of instruments that they played were drums, flutes, and bugles. Drums were used mostly for music, but if you heard them in a battle, it was telling the soldiers an instruction like march, charge, or hold position. Flutes were used for music and entertainment and motivation for the men who had to march long distances. Bugles were the most used instrument. They would be used to wake the men up, to order them to march or charge, and at the end of the day, they would tell the men to rest.

     In a war, you can’t just think of soldiers. You also should think about the soldiers who were wounded and about those who helped them, like doctors, nurses, and children. There were some doctors and some women nurses, but there were also children who would help the wounded by changing their bandages, giving them water, and changing their beds.

     Finally, children were also spies during the Civil War. If you think about it, it’s a really good idea to have children as spies. You could tell them to walk past the enemy, count how many men they have, see what kind of weapons they have, and maybe listen in on a plan, and the enemy wouldn’t suspect a thing. They would think it was just a child walking down the street and looking, when really they were collecting valuable information for the other side.

     After all this, I think we should recognize children fighters who were brave enough to take up arms in a time of need. And with all this information, I think it’s fair to recognize that a lot of children fought and died in the Civil War.
 

    The Civil War, was a time when brother was pitted against brother, father against son, and friend against friend. But, here we take a look at the smaller fighters of the War. For not only brave men fought in it, but also children, 10, 11, 12 and even some 7 years olds, and all in between!

    In the 1860’s, the population was not quite as old as it is now and almost 40% of the population was children. So, obviously they had a great part in the war, and the war raging around them changed them.

    During the 1860’s, children were treated as short adults, and “ “spare the rod, spoil the child”, “children should be seen, not heard” were things that stuck. But, the war changed it all. After the war, the harsh ways of treating children (treating them like young adults) changed, and they were more, “children-ish”. Also, things outside home were changing. Instead of children making their toys, they would beg their parents like “Oh please! Please can I get that magazine!? All the other kids have it!” But, yet again, things changed, and things often taken for granted, such as proper food, were lost.

    A lot of kids (especially in the South) had to make sacrifices, and in the South war was “pounding on their door” and children hid in cellars and basements while cannons roared, bullets whined, and the earth shook. Up North, the sacrifices weren’t as bad, but still the “war’s heavy hand” took its toll. But, the worst sacrifice, was when people lost brothers or fathers for years, or maybe… forever. The children wrote letters, to try to cheer up themselves and their family in the war, no matter how “short or awkwardly childish they were”.

    There was so much children’s literature trying to lure kids into the war, that everywhere you looked you saw some of it. Many magazines and books encouraged children to fight in the war (imagine, you either join the terrible, bloody war, or let your family, friends, and honor down) so it was hard to resist- most of the ads were “aimed for young readers”. They gave them ideas of “how they could help”, why the war started, and gave them exciting and romantic stories.

    Though most of the war was fighting, the children kept themselves busy out of battle with games. The most popular was baseball that was the most rapidly growing sport at the time. Football (soccer) was played a lot, since it was easier to get supplies than in baseball. 10 pins was the third most popular. It was like bowling- only in the 1860’s.

John Lincoln Clem By Sam

    Born in 1852, when the war started in 1861 he was determined to play a role in the war.  He was only 8 and, since you had to be 10 to be a drummer, time, and time again he was turned down until some men in the 22nd Michigan let him “tag along”. Soon, he was their mascot! He had a rag-tag old drum, and a “cut uniform”. Soon, (after 3 months) the regiment commander decided to make him permanent, and he paid him the $13 per month that the government refused to pay. (He wasn’t officially enrolled).
    When the 22nd finally got some action on the “bloody fields of Shiloh” John was ten, and he was “regularly enrolled”. While fighting, he “supposedly” had his drum beaten-up by a stray bullet. Soon, a news reporter got the story, and John was famous. He was called “The Drummer of Shiloh” or “Johnny Shiloh” and he was famous in the North (who loved him) and the South (who “grew to hate him”).
    In 1863, Johnny Boy struck fame again in Chickamauga. Instead of his drum, the men gave him a beat up musket, and when the 22nd came up along the Confederate flank, there was Johnny marching with them, the musket at his shoulder. Soon, the 22nd had to retreat, and a Confederate soldier who recognized him chased the artillery wagon he was on and yelled at him “ordering him to surrender”! “Johnny Clem didn’t say a word”, “wrote an aid to Major General George H. Thomas.” He just took his sawed off musket, and shot the guy.
    Once again, he was a hero. He had songs and stories written about him, and after the fight, he was given the proper reward. This included: “honorary sergeants, chevrons, a pony, and the duties of a courier.” He was a courier until Lee surrendered at Appomattox in 1865. He came close to death. Once a bullet hit his pony, but he got the papers he had and ran.
After the Civil war, when the fighting was done, Johnny applied to West Point didn’t get in since his education ended in the third grade. He kept trying, but kept getting declined. Soon he wrote to President Grant, who gave him a job as 2nd lieutenant.

    Drummers, what were they really like? Well, let’s see! First, they did not walk along with the men, drumming beside them, they usually stood behind lines, and if they were on the battlefield (which was unusual) they were carrying medical supplies, like medicine or even a stretcher. They were mostly medics, told to help the wounded, sent to round them up. The smaller ones had bandages, tobacco, and whiskey with them. If a soldier was in need, they would help. And, the smaller ones would be used to carry messages from officer to officer. (“And sometimes would steal away behind a fence with a cup of coffee”) But some boys saw action, like Julien Scott (at age 16) famous for dragging wounded out of a creek. If he didn’t, they would have died.