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America’s Youngest Warriors – Children Who Fought for the US

Khalid Elhassan April 4, 2025 17 min

Children - US Army Sergeant John Lincoln Clem — US Army Sergeant John Lincoln Clem. Metropolitan Museum of Art

10. This Child Warrior Was So Tiny, They Had to Saw Off a Rifle to Fit His Size

The Battle of Chickamauga. Warfare History Network

At the Battle of Chickamauga, September 19^th – 20^th, 1863, John Lincoln Clem earned his place in Civil War lore and legend. During the two-day-battle, the twelve-year-old displayed conspicuous courage, after riding to the front atop an artillery caisson. The child soldier fought with his signature weapon, a sawed off rifle that had been trimmed to fit his diminutive size. Clem impressed his comrades with his bravery and steadiness under fire, and proved his mettle. In bouts of hand-to-hand combat, he demonstrated that it is not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. As Rebels and Yankees charged and counter charged each other and came to close quarter grips amidst the ferocious fighting that marked that battle, tiny Clem proved himself the equal of giants.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.