Ill and Injured Children on Antebellum Slave Plantations: A Dangerous Childhood

By Marie Jenkins Schwartz

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Childhood was the least healthy stage of a slave’s life (Steckel 449). Prone to accident and disease, many children never lived to adulthood. Planter Martin W. Philips became so inured to high rates of childhood morbidity on his Mississippi plantation that he did not even bother to tally the number who died in the farm journal he used to keep track of daily events. When the adult slave Jane died in 1859, he noted that her death had brought to five the number “grown negroes” who had passed away since the plantation’s establishment in 1840. There was “no telling the number of younger ones,” he added (Philips 463). Of the five children born in bondage to Edna and Bob Jones in North Carolina, only one son—Hyacinth—lived long enough to be given a name, and even he died in infancy (Rawick ser. 2, vol. 15, pt.2: 25).

High rates of mortality, morbidity, and injury among enslaved children worried antebellum slaveholders because it threatened the Southern way of life. The United States had ended its participation in the international slave trade as of 1808, and slaveholders knew that slavery could remain profitable for future generations only if enough enslaved children survived to replace older slaves who died each year. Moreover, high rates of sickness and death suggested failure on the part of owners to care adequately for the youngsters, which encouraged a growing number of people, particularly in the North, to call for its end. Sentimental notions about childhood were gaining ground throughout the nation, which placed pressure on slaveholders to show concern for the enslaved youngsters living in their midst. The human quality that causes a person to empathize with someone who is suffering further motivated planters to worry about the children’s health. Slaveholders cultivated an image of themselves as paternalistic stewards of slaves. High rates of death, [End Page 56] disease, and injury called into question the ability of an owner to live up to this ideal. In more practical and immediate terms, neglect of children roiled relations with adult slaves rendering them less willing to cooperate in the workplace. Yet slaveholders proved reluctant to take steps that might have given enslaved children a better chance of survival.

Simply put, slaveholder desire to care for children was tempered by a desire for profit. To deflect criticism for the children’s poor health, they employed negative stereotyping of parents and other child caregivers and pointed to their own supposed benevolence. Rather than be horrified by what was happening to individual girls and boys, owners congratulated themselves on demographic trends that showed the enslaved population to be increasing. They considered home care—not professional care—the best approach to children’s health: indeed they had few medical allies in caring for enslaved children. They lauded whatever attention white mistresses gave to the children as superior to the care and nurture provided by enslaved parents, particularly mothers. They delegated nursing and childcare duties to black nurses, whom they said performed poorly. And they refused to acknowledge their own role in creating conditions that put children at risk for illness and injury and even death.

Slave owners took more interest in the overall birth and survival rate of slaves than in the fate of individual boys and girls. As long as the birthrate remained high enough and the death rate low enough to replenish a plantation’s slave population, planters considered the health status of enslaved children and adults acceptable. George Noble Jones refused to heed a warning that harsh punishments by one of his overseers were damaging his slaves’ health because he was satisfied with “their natural increase which in the last year has been over ten percent, in a gang of 120” (Phillips and Glunt 124). As long as planters could tally more births than deaths in their farm journals, they were satisfied.
Physicians in the era took little professional interest in childhood ailments, which meant they were not strong allies in the fight against childhood mortality and morbidity. Doctors were eager to treat slaves at the behest of owners: the...

From: The Southern Quarterly, Volume 53, Numbers 3/4, Spring/Summer 2016, pp. 56-69

From: muse.jhu.edu

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General Longstreet's Children Die of Scarlet Fever

Original research by Longstreet Society member Jan Vanderheiden

In Richmond, VA during winter 1862, the three youngest children of General James and Maria Louisa Longstreet died from scarlet fever. This personal tragedy is mentioned in biographies and discussions of Longstreet the General. However events that happened, or did not happen in regards to little Mary Ann, James Jr. and Augustus Baldwin Longstreet following their deaths seem vague and troubled.  For many decades it was believed that in those dark hours James and Louise were too distraught to see to the children’s funeral arrangements, or even attend the services.

Longstreet’s friend Brigadier General George Pickett, who was in Richmond at the time with 16 year-old LaSalle Corbell, intervened. It was George and Sally (soon to be the third Mrs. George Pickett) who took care of all arrangements and attended for the grief-stricken parents. However, this long established tale rings false for some Longstreet scholars, especially since the only source for its authenticity is contained within a letter of condolence written by LaSalle herself to Longstreet’s  second wife, Helen, upon the General’s passing on January 4, 1904.

Cavalier Tales
After Pickett’s death in 1875 LaSalle began to write and lecture about her famous husband. Her tales of Pickett and the times he lived in were highly romanticized and unfortunately, also suspect in terms of their truthfulness. In the introductory pages of her biographical work, “General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend”, Lesley J. Gordon describes the difficulty of separating fact from fiction when attempting to study Pickett’s life, due to the writings of LaSalle. “Civil War historians have tried to tell George Pickett’s story without LaSalle and found it immensely difficult…Her fabricated and romanticized tales have become accepted parts of not only the Pickett legend but also Civil War canon,” Gordon bemoans, noting that famous Civil War historian Gary Gallagher “denounced her (LaSalle) not only as author of the published George Pickett letters but also plagiarizer of Walter Harrison’s history of Pickett’s division.” According to Gordon, LaSalle Pickett wrote at a time when “Public memory of the antebellum South and the Civil War focused on noble causes and honorable actions…” It would seem possible that her account of the Longstreets and their children’s death’s fit into this thought process. LaSalle’s exact words to Helen Longstreet, as taken from “Lee and Longstreet at High Tide” were: “My love and sympathy go out to the dear children whose mother was my beloved friend, whom I have held in my arms in childhood, and whose little brothers and sisters faded away before my loving eyes when their flower of life had not yet unfolded from the bud of their sweet infancy and the mortal casket was entrusted to General Pickett and myself to be laid away among the church-yard lilies when the jewel of the pure soul had been taken beyond.” If LaSalle’s words are to be regarded as something more romantic than actual, what did happen following the children’s deaths?

Dearth of Information
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch on January 27 - “In this city, on the 24th inst., Mary J and on the 25th inst., James, children of Maj. Gen. Longstreet, Confederate States Army. The former aged 13 months, the latter 4 years and 6 days. The funeral will take place this afternoon at 3 o’clock, from the Arlington House.” An obituary notice for Augustus, who died one week later, never appeared in the Dispatch. A search for its publication in another Richmond newspaper goes for naught, since copies for winter 1862 are missing. Information or photos of the Arlington House is elusive. Only one other mention of it in the Dispatch during the fall 1861/winter 1862 is found. In the advertisement column, it states simply, “Arlington House located at the northeast corner of Main and 6th Streets.” In “General James Longstreet, the Confederacy’s most controversial soldier”, Jeffry Wert says “Louise and the children boarded with friends in the capital” during that time, but does not mention the Arlington.  No data on it is readily available from the Library of Virginia, or the Richmond Historical Society. The Arlington could seem more ghostly than real if not for diarist Mary Chestnut. The Chestnuts were good friends of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his wife, Varina. Due to overcrowding they left the Spotswood Hotel, where the Davis’s temporarily lived, in favor of the Arlington House during August, 1861. Chestnut had high praise for her newest place of abode: “On the front steps every evening we take our seats and discourse at our pleasure. A nicer or more agreeable set of people were never assembled than our present Arlington crowd.” Were the Longstreet’s staying at or near the Arlington? Chestnut was away from Richmond during winter 1862, so doesn’t mention them. Nothing concerning Longstreet is reported in the Dispatch, nor is the epidemic that took his children’s lives even mentioned there, although its ravages seemed to have traveled as far north as Washington D.C. (A check of internet resources concerning the epidemic reveal the story of a Dr. Richard Stuart, who smuggled medical supplies from the Northern capital to the Confederacy. Stuart and his wife lost two of their children to the same scourge that claimed the Longstreet children’s lives.) If the Longstreet’s did not have the fortitude to attend their children’s funerals, what happened at the cemetery? From reading LaSalle Pickett’s words to Helen Longstreet, it would seem that the children were interred in Hollywood Cemetery ground during the winter when they died. However, it has since been discovered that the children’s bodies were placed in a vault owned by the John W. Davies family. Though it was supposed to be a temporary situation, the children remained there for eight years, along with numerous other bodies that awaited burial.  In April 1870 the president of the Hollywood Cemetery ordered all 29 unclaimed bodies in the Davies vault to be buried. During a check of records at the Hollywood Cemetery office, it was revealed that on June 29, 1870, James Longstreet purchased the lot where the children presently rest. The cost to him was $28, and his signature supposedly appears on the transaction. The children were interred at the site on August 18, 1870. Again referencing Wert, it can be seen that in 1870 James Longstreet held the position of surveyor of customs for the port of New Orleans, was appointed adjutant general of the state militia, and was named president of the newly organized New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad. The three positions earned him between ten and fifteen thousand dollars – “a very substantial sum for the times”, according to Wert. It can be surmised that with his comfortable earnings, if James paid for the burial plot, he also bought the headstone that marks the children’s grave. Whether or not James or Louise were present for the interment cannot be said at this point. The children’s grave can be found in the officer’s section of Hollywood Cemetery. It is located next to General John D. Imboden. The vault that served as a temporary repository for the children’s remains is still there, too. It is now the W.W. Pool vault. The structure is built into the side of a hill, and is adorned at its crown by a statue of a lamb.

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Eleven-Year-Old Wins the Medal of Honor

By W.W. Minsinger, M.D., Vermont

June 25, 1862. With the Peninsula Campaign in full swing, McClellan's Army of the Potomac was just miles from Richmond. Between June 25 and July 1, Lee went on the offensive, attacking McClellan repeatedly in a series of battles known as the "Seven Days." In the Seven Days Battles the conduct of Willie Johnston, a drummer boy from St. Johnsbury, made him the youngest recipient of the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor, which had only recently been created. Willie was eleven years old.

Each day Robert E. Lee's forces attacked General George McClellan's troops, and every night McClellan had his forces fall back. With soldiers fighting all day and marching all night, many discarded all their equipment to lighten their load as they retreated to Harrison's Landing and the protection of the artillery of the Federal gunboats on the James River. Willie was the only drummer in his division to come away with his instrument.

As the troops were regrouping after their retreat, a Divisional Review was set for July 4th at Harrison's Landing, and young Willie Johnston was selected by General William F. (Baldy) Smith to play for the whole division in recognition of his service in keeping his drum while others threw away their equipment. Smith also noted that fact in his report; President Lincoln learned of the story and suggested to Secretary of War Stanton that the boy be decorated. Some have speculated whether the death of his son Willie, also eleven years of age, only five months earlier influenced the President's response to the story. Willie was awarded the Medal of Honor by Stanton personally on September 16, 1863.

Willie had become a drummer boy because when Willie's father enlisted in December 1861, Willie begged to go with him, and the commanding officer agreed.

Both Willie and his father survived the war.

"Taps" Played for the First Time

It was at the same gathering at Harrison's Landing immediately after the Seven Days Battles that the bugle call "Taps" as we know it today was created.

"The music for Taps was adapted by Union General Daniel Butterfield for his brigade (Third Brigade, First Division, Fifth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac) in July, 1862. . . . General Butterfield was not pleased with the call for Extinguish Lights, feeling that the call was too formal to signal the day's end, and with the help of the brigade bugler, Oliver Willcox Norton (1839-1920), wrote Taps to honor his men while in camp at Harrison's Landing, Virginia, following the Seven Days battle. . . . The new call, sounded that night in July, 1862, soon spread to other units of the Union Army and was reportedly also used by the Confederates. Taps was made an official bugle call after the war."

Image: Drummer boy Willie Johnston

From: archive.constantcontact.com

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The Drummer Boy of Shiloh: Louis E. Rafield

Mobile Register 25 July, 1921

Funeral services for Louis E Rafield, pioneer of the Mobile oyster industry, who died Saturday (23 Jul 1921), will be held at Coden this morning at 8:30 from the family residence and at 9 o'clock from the Catholic Church. Interment will be made in the Coden Catholic Cemetery.
Mr Rafield was well known over the entire gulf coast where he had lived and worked for more than half a century. He was a Confederate veteran, entering the service when a youth, and winning the title of "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh." Survivors are a widow, Mary T Rafield; a daughter, Mrs Louise W Graham and three sons, Frank, Edward, and James Rafield.

MOBILE REGISTER 26 JUL 1921
LOUIS E RAYFIELD
The funeral of Louis E Rayfield, well known Confederate Veteran and pioneer oysterman of the Alabama coast, was held Monday morning at his home at Coden. During the funeral hour all business in the little coast town was suspended in honor of the deceased. The first service was held at the home of the deceased at 8:30 o'clock, followed by requiem mass at 9 o'clock at St Michael's Catholic Church with Rev Father O'Donoghue officiating. The attendance at the funeral of the well known Mobilian was very large. Burial was in the Catholic Cemetery at Coden, and the following were the pallbearers: F J Girard, Edward Laurendine, J S Schambeau, Henry Glass, Millard Deakle, and Jake Rabby.

Learn more about drummer boys and children in the Civil War at www.CivilWarRx.com.

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The Drummer Boy of Chickamauga

From: civilwar.org

John Clem: August 13, 1851-May 13, 1937
When President Abraham Lincoln in May 1861 issued the call for volunteers to serve in the Union army for a three year term, one of those who tried to answer was Ohio resident John Clem. Not yet 10 years old, Clem’s service was refused by the newly formed 3rd Ohio. Undeterred, Clem later tried to join the 22nd Michigan, where his persistence won over the unit’s officers. They agreed to let him follow the regiment, adopting him as a mascot and unofficial drummer boy. The officers also chipped in to pay his monthly salary of $13 before he finally was allowed to officially enlist in 1863.

Clem became a national celebrity for his actions at Chickamauga. Armed with a musket sawed down for him to carry, Clem joined the 22nd Michigan in the defense of Horseshoe Ridge on the afternoon of September 20. As the Confederate forces surrounded the unit, a Confederate colonel spotted Clem and shouted either “I think the best thing a mite of a chap like you can do is drop that gun” or called him a “damned little Yankee devil,” according to various sources. Rather than surrender, Clem shot the colonel and successfully made his way back to Union lines. For his actions, Clem was promoted to sergeant, the youngest soldier ever to become a noncommissioned officer in the U.S. Army, and became known as the “Drummer Boy of Chickamauga.”

Clem’s legend grew following the battle, although some stories may be apocryphal. One holds that his drum was destroyed at the Battle of Shiloh, earning him the nickname “Johnny Shiloh” and serving as inspiration for the song, “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh.” However, the 22nd Michigan, Clem’s unit, was not mustered until the summer after the Battle of Shiloh, making it unlikely Clem saw action in the battle with that regiment.

Clem went on to fight at Perryville, Murfreesboro, Kennesaw and Atlanta, where he was wounded twice. Clem was discharged from the Army in 1864 at age 13, but sought to rejoin the military in 1870. Nominated to West Point by President Ulysses S. Grant, Clem failed the entrance exam several times before Grant appointed him a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Clem enjoyed a successful second military career, rising to the rank of colonel and assistant quartermaster general by 1906. He retired on the eve of U.S. entry into World War I with the rank of major general, the last Civil War veteran to actively serve in the U.S. Army. Clem died in 1937 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

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A Memorial for a Teenage Soldier: Charles Edwin "Charlie" King

From: findagrave.com

Birth: Apr., 1849
West Chester
Chester County
Pennsylvania, USA
Death: Sep. 20, 1862
Antietam
Washington County
Maryland, USA

Civil War Folk Figure. At age 13, he served as a drummer boy in Company F of the 49th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, which was part of the Union Army of the Potomac's VI Corps. During the September 17, 1862, Battle of Antietam, Maryland, the 49th Pennsylvania was stationed in the East Woods near the Miller Cornfield. During an artillery salvo of Confederate cannons, a shell exploded nearby, wounding several soldiers including Charlie King. Several of his company members carried him to a field hospital where three days later he died. He is known to be the youngest soldier of both Union and Confederate Armies to be killed in action in the Civil War. King's burial location is unknown to historians; he may have been laid to rest in a mass grave at Antietam. His parents are buried at Green Mount Cemetery, and a monument for King was later erected there as an Eagle Scout Project.

Family links:
 Parents:
  Pennell King (1828 - 1902)
  Adaline King (1837 - 1900)

Burial:
Green Mount Cemetery *
West Chester
Chester County
Pennsylvania, USA

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Boys in the Civil War

From: acws.co.uk

It might have been called the Boys’ war. Authorities differ, and statistics bristle in the controversy, but this is the offering of the Photographic History of the Civil War:

More than 2,000,000 Federal soldiers were twenty-one or under (of a total of some 2,700,000). More than 1,000,000 were eighteen, 800,000 were seventeen, 200,000 were sixteen, 100,000 were fifteen and under. three hundred were thirteen or under, but most of these were fifers or drummers. They regularly enrolled and were sometimes fighters. There were twenty-five ten year olds or under.

A study of a million Federal enlistments turned up only 16,000 as old as forty-four, and only 46,000 of twenty-five or more.

Yet by other authorities, the Union armies were made up as follows: 30 per cent of men under twenty-one; 30 per cent from twenty-one to twenty-four; 30 percent from twenty five to thirty; 10 percent over thirty.

Confederate figures are skimpier, but one sample of 11,000 men produced about 8,000, the great majority, between eighteen and twenty-nine. There was one thirteen year old, three were fourteen; 31 were fifteen; 200 were sixteen; 366 were seventeen and about a thousand were eighteen. Almost 1,800 were in their thirties, about 400 in their forties, and 86 in their fifties. One man was seventy, and another seventy-three.

Most of the youths of tender age slipped in as musicians, for there were places for 40,000 in the Union armies alone. There are numerous tales of buglers too small to climb into saddles unaided, who rode into pistol-and-sabre battles with their regiments. Most famous of these on the Union side was Johnny Clem, who became drummer to the 22nd Michigan at eleven, and was soon a mounted orderly on the staff of General George H Thomas, with the "rank" of lance sergeant.

 No one knows the identity of the war’s youngest soldier, but on the Confederate side, in particular, there was a rush of claimants. Some of their tales belong with the war’s epic literature:

 George S Lamkin of Winona, Mississippi, joined Stanford’s Mississippi Battery when he was eleven, and before his twelfth birthday was severely wounded at Shiloh.

 T D Claiborne who left the Virginia Military Institute at thirteen, in 1861 reportedly became captain of the 18th Virginia that year, and was killed in 1864, at seventeen. (This likely belongs with the war’s apocrypha.)

E G Baxter of Clark County, Kentucky, is recorded as enlisting in Company A, 7th Kentucky Cavalry in June 1862, when he was not quite thirteen (birth date: September 10, 1849), and a year later was a second lieutenant.

John Bailey Tyler, of D Troop, 1st Maryland Cavalry, born in Frederick, Maryland, in 1849, was twelve when war came. He fought with his regiment until the end, without a wound.

T G Bean of Pickensville, Alabama, was probably the war’s most youthful recruiter. He organised two companies at the University of Alabama in 1861 when he was thirteen, though he did not get into service until two years later when he served as adjutant of the cadet corps taken into the Confederate armies.

M W Jewett of Ivanhoe, Virginia, is said to have been a private in the 59th Virginia at thirteen, serving at Charleston, South Carolina, in Florida and at the siege of Petersburg.

W D Peak of Oliver Springs, Tennessee, was fourteen when he joined Company A, 26th Tennessee, and Matthew J McDonald, of Company I, 1st Georgia Cavalry, began service at the same age.

John T Mason of Fairfax County, Virginia, went through the first battle of Manassas as a "marker" for the files of the 17th Virginia at age fourteen, was soon trained as a midshipman in the tiny Confederate Navy, and was aboard the famed cruiser Shenandoah.

One of Francis Scott Key’s grandsons, Billings Steele, who lived near Annapolis, Maryland, crossed the Potomac to join the rangers of Colonel John S Mosby, at the age of sixteen.

Source of the above statistics - The Civil War, Strange and Fascinating Facts by Burke Davis.
The above article appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, December 2001

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The Youngest Soldier Wounded

By Kayla

Although army drummers were usually adult males, young boys were trained to take their place—some even starting as young as eight years old.

These boys were responsible for memorizing up to 40 beats to communicate to the troops. Some of the boys were carried on the shoulders of fellow soldiers, protected and endeared by their older companions. These young drummers were not intentionally put near dangerous areas of battles, but it wasn’t rare for them to receive injury as they marched with the troops to fight.

William Black is believed to be the youngest soldier wounded in the Civil War. When he was twelve years old, his left arm and hand were severely injured by an exploding shell as he marched.

From: spotlights.fold3.

Learn more about children in the Civil War at www.CivilWarRx.com.

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The Youngest Wounded: Drummer Boys

Excerpted from: wikipedia.org

Drummer boys were children recruited as drummers for use on the battlefield.

Until well into the 19th century, western armies recruited young boys to act as drummers. The drums were an important part of the battlefield communications system, with various drum rolls used to signal different commands from officers to troops. Although there were usually official age limits, these were often ignored; the youngest boys were sometimes treated as mascots by the adult soldiers. The life of a drummer boy appeared rather glamorous and as a result, boys would sometimes run away from home to enlist. Other boys may have been the sons or orphans of soldiers serving in the same unit. The image of a small child in the midst of battle was seen as deeply poignant by 19th-century artists, and idealised boy drummers were frequently depicted in paintings, sculpture and poetry.

Thirteen year old Charles King was the youngest soldier killed in the entire American Civil War (1861–1865). Charles enlisted in the 49th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry with the reluctant permission of his father at the age of 12 years, 5 months and 9 days. On September 17, 1862 at the Battle of Antietam or Battle of Sharpsburg he was mortally wounded near or in the area of the East Woods, carried from the field and died three days later.

Twelve-year old drummer boy William Black was the youngest recorded person wounded in battle during the American Civil War. John Clem, who had unofficially joined a Union Army regiment at the age of 9 as a drummer and mascot, became famous as the ""The Drummer Boy of Chickamauga" where he played a "long roll" and shot a Confederate officer who had demanded his surrender.

An 11 year-old drummer in the Confederate Orphan Brigade, known only as "Little Oirish", was credited with rallying troops at the Battle of Shiloh by taking up the regimental colors at a critical moment.

Another noted drummer boy was Louis Edward Rafield of the 21st Alabama Infantry, Co. K, known as the "Mobile Cadets". He had enlisted at age 11 and while 12 at the Battle of Shiloh he somehow lost his drum; he then obtained an enemy drum and kept on going, thus earning the title of "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh".

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Child Soldiers in the Civil War

By Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, 12-16-11

Although most Civil War soldiers were between 18 and 39 years old, many young children also served. It is estimated that at least 100,000 Union soldiers were boys under 15 years old and about 20 percent of all Civil War soldiers were under 18. Since soldiers had to be at least 18 years old to enlist in the military, many of these boys lied about their age in order to join. Other times, especially as the casualties climbed and more soldiers were needed, recruiters looked the other way when underage boys signed up. Coincidentally, it was this abundance of young, boyish-looking men in the ranks that made it easier for young women to disguise themselves as men and also sign up as soldiers.

These boy soldiers usually served as drummer boys, musicians, messengers, nurses and scouts for the troops. Yet, during the heat of battle, many of these boys put these duties aside and joined the troops in combat. One such soldier was Johnny Clem, an 11 year-old drummer boy for the Union army. Johnny became a celebrity during the battle of Chickamauga when he picked up a gun and shot a Confederate officer after he demanded Johnny to surrender. The army later promoted Johnny to sergeant and awarded him a silver medal. Johnny eventually earned the nickname “Drummer Boy of Chickamauga” or “Johnny Shiloh.” He was also commissioned by President Ulysses S. Grant as a second-lieutenant in 1871. Johnny was the last Civil War soldier still actively serving in the army when he retired, as Brigadier-General, in 1915. Another such soldier was John Cook, a 15-year-old Union bugle player, who put down his instrument and volunteered to operate a cannon during the famous battle of Antietam. Cook later received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the battle.

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.

According to the book “The Fighting Men of the Civil War,” the youngest Confederate soldier was probably a boy named Charles C. Hay who joined the Alabama regiment when he was eleven years old.

The youngest soldier injured during the war was a boy named William Black, who was just 12 years old when his left hand and arm were shattered by an exploding shell.

The youngest recruits often served as musicians and drummers, yet this did not prevent them from being wounded or injured like Orion Howe, a 14 year-old drummer who was severely wounded when he volunteered to retrieve some much-needed ammunition for Colonel Malmborg from General Sherman during the battle of Vicksburg. His regiment’s historian wrote an account of Howe’s deed, which was published in the book “Sherman: Fighting Prophet”:

“We could see him nearly all the way…he ran through what seemed a hailstorm of canister and musket-balls, each throwing up its little puff of dust when it struck the dry hillside. Suddenly he dropped and hearts sank, but he had only tripped. Often he stumbled, sometimes he fell prostrate, but was quickly up again and he finally disappeared from us, limping over the summit and the 55th saw him no more for several months.”

Howe later received the Medal of Honor for his actions and Abraham Lincoln appointed him to the United States Naval Academy in July of 1865.

Many of these children joined the army because they were either runaways, orphans or they wanted to fight alongside their brothers and fathers. Although they held romantic and heroic notions of war, it wasn’t long until they experienced the full horrors of war. One boy from Wisconsin, Elisha Stockwell, described his experience during the battle of Shiloh in 1862:

“I want to say, as we lay there and the shells were flying over us, my thoughts went back to my home, and I thought what a foolish boy I was to run away and get into such a mess as I was in. I would have been glad to have seen my father coming after me.”

Another boy, 16-year-old John A. Cockerhill, also described his experience at Shiloh:

“I passed… the corpse of a beautiful boy in gray who lay with his blond curls scattered about his face and his hand folded peacefully across his breast. He was clad in a bright and neat uniform, well garnished with gold, which seemed to tell the story of a loving mother and sisters who had sent their household pet to the field of war. His neat little hat lying beside him bore the number of a Georgia regiment… He was about my age… At the sight of the poor boy’s corpse, I burst into a regular boo hoo and started on.”

Although young children, these boys served their country with as much bravery and dedication as any of the full grown men they fought alongside. About 48 young boys under age 18 won the Congressional Medal of Honor for their bravery during battle and many continued to serve in the army long after the war ended.

Image: Johnny Clem

From: civilwarsaga.com

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The Youngest Casualty: The Life of Charlie King

By Andy Lefko

Charles Edwin King, eldest son of Pennell and Adaline Bennett King was born in April of 1849. Charlie was the first of eight children born to the couple. Pennell and Adaline owned a tailoring shop and lived in the 100 block of Barnard St. Charlie grew up in a difficult period of our history. West Chester and its Quaker population was a hub on the underground railroad. Slave-catchers were looking for runaway slaves. William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglas had made abolitionist speeches in the county. Charlie would have been about ten years old when the abolitionist John Brown made his famous raid on Harper’s Ferry, VA in 1859. To an intelligent boy like Charlie, we can assume that he heard the conversations of his elders and probably realized how polarized the country was becoming.

After the fall of Fort Sumter in April of 1861, men from West Chester went with their 3 month militia units to Harrisburg to train for the “short” war that would soon begin. Captain Sweney, a grocer from town, was the leader of Company G, of the 2nd PA Infantry Regiment and Charlie headed off with this group with as their Company drummer. However, when the regiment was ordered to the front, Pennell and Adaline ordered young Charlie home to the safety of West Chester. This did not sit well with Charlie and as the Village Record indicates, “He was so taken with going that his father would very frequently at nights, find him settin up in bed, Marking time on the head board of his bed.”

After the Union defeat at Bull Run, the 3 month enlistments were over and the 2nd Regiment came home and in September of 1861, Captain Sweney formed Company F of the 49th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. On September 12th, 1861, Charlie officially enlisted. The Kings, persuaded by Captain Sweney’s promise to protect Charlie and probably Charlie’s own persuasive powers, allowed him to join the regiment and go off to the front. Soon after becoming company drummer, Charlie was made Drum Major of the entire regiment.

After the winter of 1862, the Spring Campaign had begun and General McClellan’s army was on the outskirts of Richmond. The 49th PVI, was part of Hancock’s Brigade of the VI Army Corps. They had won praise at the Battle of Williamsburg, when they successfully defeated General Early’s brigade on a flanking maneuver around the confederate fortifications. However, those victories were short lived, and the confederate forces pushed Charlie King and the Army of the Potomac back to Harrison’s Landing and eventually off the peninsula. These were hard battles and hard marches. Charlie probably saw death and destruction that he could not have imagined.

In September of 1862, Charlie King was 13 years old and marching after the Confederate army which was attempting to invade Maryland. In Pennsylvania, Pennell had enlisted in the 2nd PA Emergency Militia of 1862 and was stationed on the Pennsylvania - Maryland border. Catching up with the confederates at Sharpsburg, MD the bloodiest day in American history began on September 17, 1862. By this time the glorious vision of a quick and easy war had been shattered, and the battle that would later be dubbed, “Artillery Hell” had begun early that morning in a farmer’s cornfield. However, Charlie King and the 49th PVI, were still miles away from the battlefield, but were on the march by 6 AM.

The following information was taken from Private B.F. Clarkson of Company C, who wrote the following account of the battle: Near the Pry House, they halted and could see and hear the battle on the far right of the Union Line. He noticed that playing cards were scattered along the roads, but there were never any bibles left there. General Hancock rode up to the 49th which was the lead regiment in the VI Corps and said, “Boys, do as you have done before, be brave and true, and this will be your last battle!” They then waded the Antietam Creek and double-quicked to the far right of the Union Line. As they ran they could see off to their left, the fighting happening around the Mumma Farm and wounded men limping. They heard the screams, the roar of cannons, the bursting of shells and the whizz of the minie balls. It was into this environment that fate had drawn young Charlie.

The brigade was formed around three batteries of cannon that were about to be taken by the enemy. The 49th were on the far right of the line protecting Cowan’s guns which lay just North of Miller’s Cornfield and the East Woods. The whole brigade was in an open field. So exposed was the brigade that Hancock was forced to pull the line back to a more protected area near the woods. As this was happening, the confederates were mounting an attack against the brigade, and confederate artillery was ranging in on the brigade from around the Dunker Church. At the appropriate moment the brigade opened a tremendous volley on the approaching enemy and stopped the advance. Simultaneously, the rebel artillery was picking up. Private Clarkson wrote, “I looked into the face of the comrade who stood at my right, and it looked pale as a ghost. Poor fellow I thought, you’re frightened. I wish you were away from here. A few moments later he was knocked to the earth with a grape-shot and taken to the hospital, just then Gus Heller had his feet shot off and a moment later, Charlie King was shot through the body and fell into a comrade’s arms.”

The 49th came onto the battle field around 11 AM, and held the same position the rest of the day. They sustained very few casualties, but Charlie was indeed one of them. Another account in Sgt. Westbrook’s History of the 49th PVI, recalls the events of Charlie's death: “Gus Heller lost a foot on the skirmish line and Charley King of Company F, was shot through the body and fell into the arms of H.H. Bowles of the 6th Maine Regiment.” He then states that Charlie died, September 20th at a temporary hospital nearby.

Eddie Bennett of the 51st PA, who had been wounded at the stone bridge wrote to his father, “I am sorry to hear of poor little Charley King, and will do all that lays in my power to find him, and if I do, I will send you word right away.”

From this point on, accounts vary. Some say, Pennell learned of the news of his son’s death and went right to the battlefield, claimed the body and brought it back to West Chester. And perhaps he is buried here in Greenmount or somewhere else nearby. Another account is that Pennell didn’t learn the news until he returned home after being discharged between September 23-25. Then he went to the battlefield but could not find where Charlie had been buried. The Jeffersonian, a local paper reported in October that when Pennell got to Sharpsburg, he found Charlie’s grave but didn’t bring him home. We know this much, he is not buried at Antietam National Cemetery, nor is he listed in any of the local cemeteries.

So today, we can say that wherever his earthly remains lie, he is home again in spirit, so that his heroic and patriotic service to his country can be remembered forever. His and his parent’s sacrifice was not in vain, people were freed from bondage and a country was preserved so that a democracy built on the will of the majority and the protection of the minority would be preserved. He is a hero in the truest sense of the word, as all of these men and women with flags beside their headstones are heroes, for eternity.

Photo: Monument dedicated to Charlie King, the youngest Union soldier killed in battle during the Civil War. The monument is located in Green Mount Cemetery in West Chester, PA. It was created as a result of an Eagle Scout project by Brendan Lyons and made possible through the generosity of the West Chester VFW and numerous other individuals and organizations.

From: bradburycamp.home.comcast.net

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Children on the Battlefield: Heroism and Sacrifice

By Marcie Schwartz

“I told [my sister] I had to go down town,” wrote Elisha Stockwell of Wisconsin, recalling his hasty enlistment at the age of 15 “She said, 'Hurry back, for dinner will soon be ready.' But I didn’t get back for two years.”

While the Civil War was called “The Boy’s War”, the enlistment of youths into the armed forces was not a new phenomenon in nineteenth century. Generations of boys had served in minor roles in armies and aboard vessels for centuries on both sides of the Atlantic. On this subject, President Abraham Lincoln sternly wrote to the Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, “The United States don’t need the service of boys who disobey their parents.” Despite the age restrictions and inexperience, a number of young boys did enlist on both sides to find adventure and “take the defiant South and set them straight” or, as one Southern boy pledged, to “die rather than become a slave to the North.”

When Elisha Stockwell signed his recruitment papers, he was not entirely honest: “I told the recruiting officer I didn’t know just how old I was but thought I was eighteen. He didn’t measure my height, but called me five feet five inches high. I wasn’t that tall two years later when I re-enlisted.” For most of the war, the minimum enlistment age in the North was legally held at 18 for soldiers and 16 for musicians, although younger men could enlist at the permission of their parents until 1862. In the South, the age limit for soldiers stayed at 18 until 1864 when it was legally dropped to 17.

There were many different ways that a young boy could get around the legal age limitations. Perhaps the easiest route was to lie about their age to the recruitment officers. Pressured by their superiors, officers often turned a blind eye to the evident youth of willing recruits in order to fill their recruitment quotas. Other recruitment officers who were ministers would use their congregations as recruitment pools. Parishioners were less hesitant to let their boys enlist because their regiment was led by good “Christian gentleman.”

Even schoolteachers used their influence with local recruitment officers to enlist their own students. “The schools in which I had been teaching had more than the usual number of large boys,” recalled Oscar L. Jackson of Hocking County, Ohio “They furnished quite a large squad of recruits of the very best material for good soldiers to start the proposed company.”

If the boy could not get around a stubborn recruitment officer, the line of inquiry then turned to the boy’s parents. When 16 year-old Ned Hutter of Mississippi went to join the Confederate Army, he was honest about his age. When ordered out of line, his father, who was right behind him, stepped in: “He can work as steady as any man, and he can shoot as straight as any who have been signed today.” The officer asked no further questions as he handed young Hutter a pen. Many fathers proved more than willing to help their underage sons sign up, especially when they would be accompanying them. Lt. Cornelius C. White of the Sixty Fourth Ohio was accompanied in December 1861 by his nine-year-old son, Albert, who served as a drummer for the regiment. After enduring the harsh winter and the carnage of the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, White sent his son home without procuring the proper discharge papers. The boy was listed as a deserter, but company officers looked the other way.

The last resort for boys unable to gain a parent’s consent was to simply run away from home and enlist in another town. Some boys enlisted under a false name so their parents (and the authorities) could not track them down. This method had an unforeseen consequence, though.  The young men who died in battle or in hospitals were only known by their assumed names, leaving families without a clue as to their fate. Also, when applying for government pension benefits 30 years or so hence, some efforts ended in futility because the soldiers they served with could not recall who they were.

ROLES
Once enlisted, the boys would perform a number of important functions within a regiment. Some were regular, enlisted soldiers, but others would become musicians, mounted couriers or runners, hospital attendants, guards, orderlies, chaplain assistants, water carriers, or barbers. At sea, they would serve as cabin boys, galley helpers, and powder boys.

The musicians primarily played either the drums or the bugle. These boys marked the daily routine of the camp by signaling reveille, assembly, officer’s call, sick call, taps, and learned more than 40 distinctive calls to be used in battle. Their music also provided a source of entertainment for the troops as well as a festive flair for parades or regimental reviews. The most important job for these young musicians was to use their music to communicate orders during battle. The notes and beats of the instruments could carry commands quicker than a mounted courier, and father and more clearly than the human voice. Generally drummers were assigned to infantry regiments and buglers were assigned to cavalry or horse artillery as the bugle is more convenient to carry and play while mounted.

Powder boy, or powder monkey, like the position of a company drummer or bugler, was an old one in the Navy. Before the days of fixed ammunition, young boys brought up canvas bags or buckets of powder from the magazine to the gun carriage area, thus the name ‘powder monkey’. The powder monkeys, while technically required to follow the legal age regulations, were usually conscripted based on height and speed rather than age. A legal requirement of four feet, eight inches was placed upon the position as it was vital to be strong enough to perform their task, but also be short enough so they could be hidden behind the ships gunwale as they speedily ran back and forth between the cramped space beside their assigned gun and the magazine. While they were not an official member of the gun crew, they were essential during sea battles and were paid $10 a month plus regular seaman’s rations.

CAMP LIFE
Once enlisted and given a position, there were still unique hurdles for the young boys to get over in camp life. Homesickness was a common problem for soldiers of any age but the boys “were so young they had little real sense of who they were or how they fit into the world. The one solid and reliable thing they knew—their families—had been left behind.”

An immediate material matter was finding a properly fitting uniform. The uniform sizes were standardized during the war and it was difficult to find the smaller sizes, let alone replace them. The officers would sometimes provide a favorite musician with an elaborate, but impractical parade outfit. Enlisted boys were paid and drew supplies like a regular soldier, but they could often not even find the basics such as socks or shoes that came in their size. Sixteen year old Abel Sheeks of Alabama had only the clothes he wore when he ran away from home, but their blue color, much too similar to the Union uniform, made them unsuitable for combat. He scavenged battlefields after each battle, looking for dead soldiers his approximate size. “I must confess to feeling very bad doing this … but I had no other course,” he recalled. “In just a few weeks, my uniform was the equal of anyone’s.”

On the parade ground, young drummers often found it difficult to maintain the regulation 28 inch pace during a march while carrying a standard issue drum. The tedium of drilling was also very hard on a young, restless mind. One young Union boy, quite fed up with the routine, snapped at his sergeant, “Let’s stop this fooling and go over to the grocery.” The drillmaster proceeded to order a corporal to take him out and “drill him like hell.” Afterward, the boy remarked, “It takes a raw recruit some time to learn that he is not to think or suggest, but obey.”

Bullying from the older soldiers also dampened a young recruit’s spirits. Stockwell encountered one soldier who “liked to try all recruits to see if they could fight.” “I didn’t enlist to fight that way,” Stockwell recalled telling the bully, “but if he would get his gun and go outside of the camp, we would stand thirty or forty rods apart, and I thought I could convince him that I could shoot as well as he could.”

These young recruits were also exposed to the previously forbidden adult vices of tobacco, alcohol, gambling and prostitution. Fourteen-year-old James Dickinson got in over his head while serving on board a gunboat on the Mississippi River. After indulging in some rum, he wrote: “[It] made me drunk. I puked on deck and could not stand up.” Dickinson was demoted as punishment.

IN BATTLE
Boy soldiers faced life threatening challenges on the battlefield. Musicians were more often than not unarmed and this could prove fatal should they come into close quarters with the enemy. For many, the realization of what enlistment meant would truly hit home on the battlefield. “As we lay there and the shells were flying over us, my thoughts went back to my home” recalled Stockwell from his experience at the Battle of Shiloh “I thought what a foolish boy I was to run away to get into such a mess I was in. I would have been glad to have seen my father coming after me.”

While there were uniformed underage boys on both sides of the conflict, they rarely encountered each other except in heart wrenching cases like that of Union musician John A. Cockerill, age 16. “I passed the corpse of a beautiful boy in gray who lay with his blond curls scattered about his face,” he recalled as he walked the field after the Battle of Shiloh. “He was clad in a bright and neat uniform, well garnished with gold, which seemed to tell the story of a loving mother and sisters who had sent their household pet to the field of war…He was about my age…At the sight of the poor boy’s corpse, I burst into a regular boo hoo and started on.”

Even boys under the protection of senior officers, like Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s son, Fredrick Grant, were not immune to the trauma of warfare. “The horrors of the battlefield were brought vividly before me” he recalled from his time in Vicksburg “I made my way with [a] detachment, which was gathering the wounded, to a log house which had been appropriated for a hospital. Here the scenes were so terrible that I became faint, and making my way to a tree, sat down, the most woebegone twelve year old in America.”

Image: Powder monkey on the U.S.S. New Hampshire off Charleston, S.C. (Library of Congress)

Image: Enjoying their time off duty, a few drummer boys play a round of cards with their superiors, Winter 1862. (U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center)

From: civilwar.org

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Children in the Civil War

By Marcie Schwartz

Children were an active, enthusiastic, and critical part of Civil War society. They comprised a much bigger portion of the US population in 1860 than in the 21st century, with persons under age 19 making up nearly half of the population (compared to less than 25% today). Children played an important role on the home front supporting the war effort, and many soldiers on both sides invoked the future of their children as to why the war should be fought and won at any cost. A number of children took up arms with their elders and served as enlisted soldiers or regimental musicians. While we don't know how many children enlisted during the Civil War, we do know that around 48 soldiers who were under the age of 18 won the Congressional Medal of Honor for their bravery and service.

From: civilwar.org

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Children on the Home Front: Keeping Things Going

By Marcie Schwartz

“In these few months” wrote twelve year old Celine Fremaux of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, “my childhood had slipped away from me. Necessity, human obligations, family pride and patriotism had taken entire possession of my little emaciated body.” Children on the Civil War home front encountered trials, hardships, and violence that forced them to grow up quickly amidst a nation at war with itself.

RESPONSIBILITIES
On the home front, both northern and southern children became critical to the war effort in a variety of ways. Children took up jobs that their fathers or brothers had left vacant or those that their mothers could not manage alone as the new head of the household. Children would help tend to livestock and crops, serve as clerks or helpers for the family business, cook meals, and watch their younger siblings while still trying to attend school. At school, children would build little Fort Sumters of mud and wooden blocks […] put up clothespins for soldiers, ruthlessly slaughtering them with shot from cannons made of old brass pistol barrels fastened to blocks of wood. Thirteen year old Dan Beard of Cincinnati, Ohio recalled making little Jefferson Davises "of potatoes and put sticks in them for legs. We hung the desperate potato men by their necks and shot them with squibs from firecrackers.” In the classroom, patriotism was also alive and well. John Bach McMaster of New York City remembered “every morning after Bible reading, the young woman who presided at the piano would sing a war song, the boys joining in, and that done, a second and perhaps a third would follow.” Many children, however, dropped out of school to support their families, and many others turned to homeschooling when their schools were closed for lack of funding or attendance, or when their schoolmaster went off to war.

“I was ten years old today. I did not have a cake;” mourned Carrie Berry of Atlanta “times are too hard. I hope that by my next birthday there will be peace in our land.” Shortages of these little luxuries, as well as household goods, were common, especially in the less industrialized South, and children were often tasked with making ends meet by sewing clothes and blankets, as well as making soap, candles, and gathering herbs for medicinal purposes. As the war progressed, many children scrabbled to have enough to eat, becoming active participants in the Southern Bread Riots that broke out in most of the major southern cities by 1863. Suffering from a lack of provisions, food and money, children formed looting bands to obtain goods for their families, as evidenced by the ultimatum scratched into a young Richmond girl’s journal: “We are starving. As soon as enough of us get together we are going to take the bakeries and each of us will take a loaf of bread. That is little enough for the government to give us after it has taken all our men.”

ENTERTAINMENT
Despite these hardships, children managed to find ways to entertain themselves. “If it had not been for my books” wrote Emma LeConte of Columbia, South Carolina “it would indeed have been hard to bear. But in them I have lived and found my chief source of pleasure. I would take refuge in them from the sadness all around if it were not for other work to be done.” Reading, either from magazines, dime novels or books, was a primary pastime for children on both sides of the conflict.

In the North, magazines like Student and Schoolmate, The Little Pilgrim, and Our Young Folks were popular and contained numerous age appropriate articles, fictional stories, trivia, songs, games, patriotic plays to be put up, and poems related to the war. Oliver Optic’s produced entertaining wartime adventure tales such as The Young Lieutenant, Fighting Joe, Sailor Boy, and The Yankee Middy. While the magazine’s prose and Optic’s adventure stories focused on the drama and heroics of the war, they also promoted patriotism and virtue and the idea that the reader’s individual actions, no matter how small, contributed to something greater than themselves. Children were also able to obtain more factual accounts of the war like Following the Flag or Days and Nights on the Battlefield, battlefield maps, as well as more sensational dime novels.

In the South, paper, ink, and skilled printers were scarce, so new material was restricted mainly to hymns and bowdlerized textbooks designed to meet the same aims as their northern counterparts: make children aware of the issues that caused the war and to rally support for the Confederate war effort. The new textbooks spouted nationalism with names like The Dixie Primer, A New Southern Grammar, and The Confederate Spelling Book and their contents promoted values and issues pertinent to the southern cause. The 1863 Geographical Reader for the Dixie Children briefly explained the war from a southern perspective: “Thousands of lives have been lost, and the earth has been drenched with blood; but still Abraham is unable to conquer the “Rebels” as he calls the South. The South only asked to be let alone, and to divide the public property equally. It would have been wise of the North to have said to her Southern sisters, 'If you are not content to dwell with us any longer, depart in peace.'”

While books were the primary forms of entertainment at home, children could venture outside of the home for public shows and events, many of which revolved around the subject of the war. Children and their families often frequented plays, concerts, photography displays, magic lantern shows, martial parades, traveling panorama shows, and, in the North, Sanitary Fairs. The US Sanitary Commission allowed communities to directly support the war effort. Dan Beard recalled “every home and every school, parents, teachers and children were picking lint [for the Sanitary Commission] which was carefully placed on a clean piece of paper and used by the field surgeons to stanch the blood.” Held from late 1863 through 1865, Sanitary Fairs, sponsored by the Commission, raised more than four million dollars and provided some much needed levity and entertainment. After paying a small entrance fee, families could purchase donated goods, homemade pastries, locally grown crops, souvenirs, attend concerts and speeches, and gawk at war relics from the Revolution as well as captured Confederate armaments, trophies, and flags. Children would contribute their own handmade crafts to the fairs to be sold. “I made a model of a saddlebag loghouse which was very realistic,” wrote Dan Beard “I proudly carried that all the way to the Sanitary Fair. It was sold for seven dollars and a half, which was a severe blow to my artistic soul, because I really thought it was worth about fifty dollars.”  Chicago closed its schools during the fairs of 1863 and 1865 so children could attend and support this patriotic event, and newspapers from the time depict children around the country running to see the Fair’s “treasury of useful articles, toys and knickknacks” as well as magic shows, ventriloquists, a “Gipsey tent” , and “a very remarkable animal called the Gorilla.”

THE WAR COMES HOME
The “home front”, however, especially in the South, was constantly under threat. Many of the battles were named after the towns that witnessed them, guerrilla raids harassed non-combatants, troops were garrisoned in houses and barns, and both armies left homes in ruins and fields littered with the dead and dying. In besieged cities, the situation for children and their families became desperate as the weeks turned into months of shelling. In Vicksburg, frightened citizens sought refuge in basements and even in caves. One young girl, Lucy McCrae, was almost hit by a shell and buried under flying rocks and dirt. “The blood was gushing from my nose, eyes, ears, and mouth,” she wrote “but no bones were broken.” On November 16, 1864, , ten year old Carrie Berry huddled with his family as occupied Atlanta burned around them: “They came burning the store house and about night it looked like the whole town was on fire. We all set up all night. If we had not sat up our house would have been burnt up for the fire was very near and the soldiers were going around setting houses on fire where they were not watched. They behaved very badly […] nobody knows what we have suffered since they came in.” Smaller southern cities and towns fared no better. In Winnsboro, North Carolina, a young girl witnessed “streets and vacant lots filled with homeless families […] when bringing bedding, raiment or provisions out of their burning homes, these were destroyed by the brutal soldiers. They stole much that was useless to them, for even Bibles were taken.”  A seventeen year old widowed mother from Sandersville, Georgia lamented as soldiers “would walk up the steps of the back veranda on which we stood, and throwing down the hams and shoulders of our meat would cut them up in our very faces.” After the soldiers left with the rest of their belongings, she “knew that now our last hope for food was gone. I went to bed supperless […] sadder now was the thought, 'The cows are killed. I will be so hungry I cannot nurse Baby.'”

The northern home front also came face to face with the horrors of war, especially when armies collided in the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. On the first day of the fighting, fifteen year old Albertus McCreary watched from his porch as the street filled with “Union soldiers, running and pushing each other, sweaty and black from powder and dust. They called to us for water. While we were carrying water to the soldiers, a small drummer boy ran up the porch, and handing me his drum, said 'Keep this for me.' We were so busy that we did not notice how close the fighting was until, about a half a block away, we saw hand-to-hand conflict. An officer rode his horse up on the pavement and said 'All you good people go down in your cellars or you will all be killed.'” Even when the fighting ceased, townspeople were still left to pick up the pieces of their lives and care for the wounded thrust into their care.

Charles McCurdy, ten years old at the battle of Gettysburg, watched as the wounded in his barn “lay on the threshing floor […]they had received no care and were a pitiful and dreadful sight.” Fifteen year old Tillie Pierce’s house was repurposed as hospital for the wounded of Gettysburg and when she returned home she “fairly shrank back the awful sight presented. The approaches were crowded with wounded, dying and dead. By this time amputating benches had been placed about the house […]I saw the wounded throwing themselves wildly about, and shrieking with pain while the operation was going on. Just outside the yard I noticed a pile of limbs higher than the fence. It was a ghastly sight.” Albertus McCreary’s sister, seventeen year old Jennie, was tasked with rolling bandages. She and her next door neighbors “had not rolled many before we saw the street filled with wounded men. I never thought I could do anything about a wounded man but I find I had a little more nerve than I thought I had. [The first soldier] had walked from the field and was almost exhausted. He threw himself in the chair and said, 'O girls, I have as good a home as you. If I were only there!' He fainted directly afterward. That was the only time I cried.”

CONTRABAND CAMPS
Perhaps the lives most put in jeopardy by the Civil War were those of former slaves and their children. As news of the Confiscation Act of 1861 and the employment of ‘contraband’ (escaped slaves) by the U.S Navy and U.S Army spread, escaped slaves and their families began to congregate at places like Fort Monroe to appeal to become contraband. More than one hundred camps formed around Union held forts or encampments to house the escaped slaves. Despite being a welcome refuge for many, the camps often became overcrowded, and illnesses such as smallpox became endemic in the more makeshift sites. Children maintained an overwhelming numerical majority in the camp and, despite the varied conditions, all camps had a school. Most refugee children and many adults were able to spend at least some of their time in school, often managed by white northern missionaries. The rest of the hours were used to work in the fields to earn enough money to eat, and children as young as ten were send out to labor beside adults and typically given “one-quarter pay.” These camps were the center of the home front experience for escaped slaves, and presented a world of great contrast: they provided a glimpse of freedom, but poor living conditions and disease often ended the dream before it could truly begin.

Photo: This photo of Frank, Frederick, and Alice Humiston was in their father, Sgt. Amos Huminston's hand when he was found dead on the Gettysburg battlefield. (Library of Congress)

Photo: A quartet of African American children sit in the ruins of Circular Church in Charleston, S.C. (Library of Congress)

From: civilwar.org

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