Throughout the American Civil War, approximately 250,000–420,000 males under the age of 18 were involved in both Union and Confederate forces. It is estimated that 100,000 Union soldiers were 15 years of age or younger. By one estimate, approximately ten percent of Union soldiers were underaged (the Confederate army likely had a similar proportion of underage soldiers).

Reasons for joining

When the surrender of Fort Sumter was announced, boys and men of all ages (7–17) on both sides of the conflict were permitted to enlist. Abraham Lincoln initially called for 90-day enlistments. However, after the Union army was driven out of Richmond in the Peninsula campaign, and after the Confederate Army began to march to Washington, Lincoln issued a call for 300,000 three-year volunteers.

Boys had many of the same motives for joining the military as their adult counterparts did. In the North, boys felt a desire to defend the North and the union. Southern boys wanted to repel the North, whom they viewed as hostile invaders.

A key difference between boys and adults was their attitude towards slavery: in general, boys on both sides had neutral feelings towards slavery. Thus, few were motivated to fight for or against it.

The most popular reason boys joined the military was to escape farm work or an abusive family life. (In 1860 the population of the United States was mostly rural.)

Methods of enlistment

Although the official minimum enlistment age was 18, there were various ways boys got around this.

First, a boy's appearance often fooled recruiters. It was common for teenagers to appear much older than they were. This was made easier during the chaos that often occurred at recruiting stations when new units were hastily formed.

Secondly, it was easy to lie about one's age, especially given the fact that modern methods of identification (social security, driver's license, computer databases) did not exist at that time. Furthermore, recruiters were anxious to fill recruitment quotas. So, even though they were required to certify on the enlistment papers that they judged the volunteer to be of lawful age, they often turned a blind eye to an underage recruit. Such recruitment passivity increased as the manpower on both sides dwindled and both sides were desperate for more help. One trick was to have an underage recruit write "18" on his shoes and truthfully reply to the recruiter "I am over 18."

Third, some underage boys were able to enlist with the endorsement of an adult. Ned Hutter, sixteen years old, joined the Confederate Army in Mississippi. His father vouched for Ned's work ethic and shooting ability. The recruiter then accepted Ned into the unit.

Despite such workarounds, many other boys joined the military legitimately by signing up for non-combat positions. Many such youths signed up as musicians (such as drummers, buglers, flautists). There were places for 40,000 such positions in the Union Armies. They often performed other tasks, such as carrying canteens, bandages, and stretchers, to assist surgeons and nurses with the wounded; relaying orders on the battlefield; few participated in the fighting.

Conditions

Food

Perhaps the biggest complaint of underage soldiers during the Civil War was the lack of food. Feeding an army relied on many factors, including gathering, loading, and transporting food. If any of these processes were delayed, or if any miscommunications would occur, it could be days or weeks before the army was fed.

Hardtack was a staple food item, to the boys' chagrin: "After we had been in the field a year or two the call, 'Fall in for your hard-tack!' was leisurely responded to by only about a dozen men.... Hard-tack was very hard. This attributed to its great age, for there was a common belief among the boys that our hard-tack had been baked long before the beginning of the Christian era. This opinion was based upon the fact that the letters 'B.C.' was stamped on many, if not, indeed, all the cracker-boxes."

Other staples included pork, coffee, and bread.

Starving boys often devised intricate ways to sneak out of their camps and forage for food. They found food by either gathering it from the local land, or stealing it from local farmers. In the Union Army, some soldiers initially objected to this practice as violating the Ten Commandments. But as the war wore on, it became evident that "such tender regard for Rebel property" strengthened the enemy and weakened the Union cause. Consequently, "conscientious scruples stepped to the rear, and the soldier who had them at the end of the war was a curiosity indeed." Commanding officers forbade foraging, but often connived it and shared in the spoils.

Clothing

Clothing was a crude procedure for both armies, especially towards the beginning of the war. Once colors and patterns were agreed upon, uniforms were more easily standardized. However, boys often found themselves in uniforms that were too big. Additionally, many boys continued to grow after being assigned a uniform, and many outgrew their uniforms.

Some units did not have the resources to provide uniforms to boys, so many had to wear their own clothes from home.

As a result, many boys often resorted to stealing uniforms from deceased soldiers, or bartering food and supplies in order to have their clothes tailored by locals.

Marching

Excitement over enlistment swiftly gave way to the boring routines of camp life and marches.

"Day after day and night after night did we tramp along the rough and dusty roads 'neath the most broiling sun with which the month of August ever afflicted a soldier; thro' rivers and their rocky valleys, over mountains—on, on, scarcely stopping to gather the green corn from the fields to serve us for rations.... During these marches the men are sometimes unrecognizable on account of the thick coverings of dust which settle upon their hair, eye-brows and beard, filling likewise the mouth, nose, eyes, and ears."

Death, injury, and capture

These children were not spared from the horrors of war that their adult counterparts faced, including violent deaths, injuries, poor medical treatment, and appalling living conditions when captured.

Young soldiers' romantic illusions about military glory evaporated under the harsh realities of combat. They suffered hunger, fatigue, and discomfort, and gradually lost their innocence in combat. Every aspect of soldiering comes alive in their letters and diaries: the stench of spoiled meat, the deafening sound of cannons, the sight of maimed bodies, and the randomness and anonymity of death.

The accounts of young Union prisoners at Confederate prison camps are especially harrowing. Sixteen-year-old Michael Dougherty was shocked by the sight of "different instruments of torture: stocks, thumb screws, barbed iron collars, shackles, ball and chain. Our prison keepers seemed to handle them with familiarity." William Smith, a fifteen-year-old soldier in the 14th Illinois Infantry, was shaken by the physical appearance of prisoners at Andersonville in Georgia, a "great mass of gaunt, unnatural-looking beings, soot-begrimes, and clad in filthy trousers."

Michael Dougherty was the only member of his company to survive imprisonment at Andersonville Prison in Georgia.

"No one, except he was there in the prison can form anything like a correct idea of our appearance about this time. We had been in prison for nearly five months and our clothing was worn out. A number were entire naked; some would have a ragged shirt and no pants; some had pants and no shirt; another would have shoes and a cap and nothing else. Their flesh was wasted away, leaving the chaffy, weather beaten skin drawn tight over the bones, the hip bones and shoulders standing out. Their faces and exposed parts of their bodies were covered with smoky black soot, from the dense smoke of pitch pine we had hovered over, and our long matted hair was stiff and black with the same substance, which water would have no effect on, and soap was not to be had. I would not attempt to describe the sick and dying, who could now be seen on every side."

Offenses and punishments

Boys committed the same offenses as their adult counterparts, and their commanding officers did not spare them from punishment.

Offenses included:

"Back talking" (i.e. addressing a superior with insolence) or refusal to follow military etiquette Drunkenness Absence from camp without leave "Turbulence after taps" (i.e. causing a commotion after lights-out) Sitting while on guard Gambling Cowardice Theft

Punishments included: Hard labor Carrying a log by oneself Forcing the offender to stand on a barrel for an entire day Confinement to the "guard-tent." A veteran of the Civil War observed that this punishment "may not be though a very severe penalty; still, the men did not enjoy it, as it imposed quite a restriction on their freedom to be thus pent up and cut off from the rest of their associates." Confinement in a box Lashing the offender to a wheel Wearing a board describing the offense Being tied up by one's thumbs "Drumming out of camp" (usually for cowardice). This punishment involved stripping the offender of his equipment and uniform, and marching him through the camp with a guard on either side, four soldiers behind, and a fife and drum corps bringing up the rear. This gave the rest of the army the chance to publicly humiliate the offender. Death by firing squad or hanging (usually for desertion). Abraham Lincoln was so reluctant to approve the death penalty that he became famous (or, at least from the perspective of those in favor of the military's ultimate sanction, infamous) for his last-minute pardons and reprieves. Over time, Generals increasingly demanded executions be carried out before the President would have an opportunity to review them.

Notable examples

Elisha Stockwell, Jr. joined the Union Army at age fifteen. Since this was against his father's wishes, he tricked his father by claiming that he was going to a Dutch dance. He told his sister he'd be back for dinner, but did not return home for two years. He was in the Union Army for the entire duration of the war, participating in battles such as the Battle of Shiloh, the Siege of Vicksburg, and Sherman's March to the Sea. He survived the war and wrote a memoir of his wartime experiences at age 81. His story is cited extensively in the award-winning children's book, The Boys' War.

The most celebrated schoolboy performance of the war was the baptism of fire of the Virginia Military Institute Cadet Corps at the Battle of New Market. The corps was 215 strong when it reached the battle. The boys were eighteen or under (tradition has it that some were only fourteen).

Washington and Lee University provided a company of sixty-four boys in the first days of the Civil War. Their average age was about seventeen, and their average weight was about 130 pounds. Of a total of 65 present in the two battles of Manassas, 23 were killed or wounded. In the forty battles in which it fought with the 4th Virginia Infantry, the company lost 100 dead or wounded, and 46 captured, of a total strength of 150 from recruitments.

Union Mancil V. "Manny" Root. Root was the youngest soldier in the Union Army on record. He was born in Ohio in 1854 and enlisted as a drummer boy at the age of 11, serving in the 36th Wisconsin Infantry. He died in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1929. Joseph Francis Goss, the youngest combat soldier, serving in the 31st Wisconsin Infantry from December 16, 1862, to July 8, 1865. He was involved in the March to the Sea, Siege of Atlanta and Savannah, and many other battles.