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Fascinating Civil War Facts that Won’t be in the History Books

Khalid Elhassan February 8, 2021 33 min

Battle of Fort Sanders - American Civil War — Confederates in action during the Civil War. Buyenlarge Archive Photos

13. A Typical Civil War Child Soldier’s Enlistment in the Union Army

Charlie King. Pennsylvania’s Emergency Men

Another Civil War child combatant was Charles Edwin King, who was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1849. After the fall of Fort Sumter in April, 1861, many locals answered Abraham Lincoln’s call for 90-day volunteers to help defend the Union. Departing with their militia units for what was expected to be a short war, they set off for the training camps at Harrisburg, accompanied by young Charlie as their drummer boy. However, when the militia was ordered to the front, Charlie’s parents ordered him back home to the safety of West Chester.

That did not sit well with the boy, who moped and pined for the excitement of the military camp. When the militia returned upon the expiry of their three-month-enlistment, local volunteers were again sought, this time for three-year terms in the newly formed 49^th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The town’s grocer, Benjamin Sweeney, was elected as captain of Company F of that unit. He assured Charlie’s parents that he would look after and protect their son if they allowed him to enlist.

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.