Youthful Soldiers

1920

J. H. Monroe, famed after the Civil War as "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh," is dead. He enlisted in the Northern Army when 10 years of age and his death recalls the fact that the war between the States was largely fought by boys under 21.

Soldiers of 16 were common and "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" had his confederate counterpart in George S. Lamkin, who enlisted in Mississippi at 10 years of age, was seriously wounded at Shiloh and twice again at Chickamauga. He was living a few years ago at Nashville, Tenn.

Farragut held a midshipman's warrant at 10. Andrew Jackson joined a body of dragoons and fought in the Revolutionary War when he was 13. Oliver Hazard Perry became a midshipman at 14. John Paul Jones went to sea at 12, and Lord Nelson boarded a 64-gun man of war when he was 12. Buffalo Bill was an Indian fighter and buffalo hunter at 12.

The World War is not without its heroic figures of tender years, but with the exception of the German armies, the gaps of which were filled with mere boys toward the end, it was a struggle on the part of men who had reached maturity. As the world grows wiser, childhood is looked upon as a state which is best to prolong as long as possible and children make better men and women for being longer aloof from the realities and vicissitudes of life.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 6.