America’s Child Soldiers
About a fifth of military personnel during the American Civil War were under 18, and more than 100,000 soldiers in the Union Army alone were under 15. There were even children as young as eight in uniform. They were usually used as drummers, buglers, cooks’ assistants, nurses, orderlies, general gophers, or in other non-combatant positions. However, they were frequently just as exposed to fire as were the adults on the front line.
On land, children being children, full of curiosity and often oblivious to danger and risk to life and limb, underage soldiers often snuck off to the firing lines to see the excitement of battle for themselves from up close. While there, many picked up rifles in the heat of the moment, and rushed into the maelstrom, fighting and dying alongside the adults.
In the US Navy, children served as “powder monkeys”. Tasked during combat with rushing gunpowder from magazines to canons, they were just as exposed to danger as everybody else aboard ship. Indeed, considering that they were running around with sacks of gunpowder that could go off if they came into contact with any spark, the powder monkeys might have been at greater risk than the rest of the crew.
There were age restrictions – in the Union, enlistees had to be over 16 – but they were frequently ignored. Many under-aged Northern boys, for example, had little trouble finding recruiters willing to sign them up, provided they swore that they were “over 16”. Some reconciled their consciences with the lie by writing the number “16” on a piece of paper and sticking it to the bottom of a shoe, so they could honestly swear that they were “over 16”.