The Civil War had up to 3 million soldiers participate in the conflict. Most people think of the War as fought by the men of the North and South; men being adults. What many folks don't know, and regrettably what we don't tell our children in order to make this history a little more meaningful, is that many of the War's soldiers were children. Here are the figures, though disputable, presented by the Photographic History of the Civil War:
-Over 2 million Federals were under the age of 21
-More than 1 million were 18 or under
-Roughly 800 thousand were under the age of 17
-About 200 thousand were 16 and under
-Nearly 100 thousand were under 15
-300 were under 13
-25 were 10 years of age and under (Davis, 63)
The above figures are attributed to the Northern armies. Confederate numbers are a little less. As stated by Burke Davis, author of The Civil War: Strange and Fascinating Facts, "one sample of 11,000 men produced about 8,000, the great majority, between eighteen and twenty-nine (years old). There was one of thirteen, and three of fourteen; 31 were fifteen; 200 were sixteen; 366 were seventeen; about a thousand were eighteen" (Davis, 63).
Most of the youths were musicians-drummers and fifers and some buglers. Some did actually engage in combat, and many died for a country that they lived in for less than two decades.
Source Used: Davis, Burke. The Civil War: Strange and Fascinating Facts, 1982.
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