The Most Unlikely Soldiers In The US Civil War

The US Army’s Youngest Sergeant

After the Battle of Chickamauga, twelve-year-old John Clem was officially promoted to the rank of sergeant. That made him the youngest noncommissioned officer in the history of the United States Army. A distinction he holds to this day. Clem’s conduct was widely reported in contemporary newspapers, and he became a nationally-known figure. Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury and future Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, decorated Clem for his courage. A popular Civil War song, “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh“, written by William S. Hays and published in Harper’s Weekly soon after the Battle of Chickamauga, was reportedly inspired by Clem’s exploits.

A month after the Battle of Chickamauga, John Clem was captured by the Rebels and became a prisoner of war. He was eventually released in a prisoner exchange. He returned to the ranks, and resumed the fight with the Army of the Cumberland. Clem was twice-wounded, before his discharge in September, 1864. After the war, Clem graduated high school in 1870. He rejoined the US Army in 1871, when he was commissioned a second lieutenant by President Grant. Clem married twice, raised a family, and served until 1915. He retired as a brigadier general, and as the last Civil War veteran still serving in the US Army. A year later, a special act of Congress promoted him to major general. John Lincoln Clem died in 1937, aged 85, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

American Battlefield Trust – Chinese-Americans in the Civil War

American Battlefield Trust – John Clem

Brown, Dee – Grierson’s Raid (1954)

Catton, Bruce – Bruce Catton’s Civil War: Three Volumes in One (1984)

Clarke, Frances M., and Plant, Rebecca Jo – Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era (2022)

Davis, Burke – Sherman’s March (2016)

Extra History – US Civil War Surprising Soldiers

Find a Grave – Gustav Albert Schurmann (1849 – 1905)

Foote, Shelby – The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 3, Red River to Appomattox (1974)

Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era, Volume 9, Article 5, May 2019 – ‘Mulatto, Indian, or What’: The Racialization of Chinese Soldiers and the American Civil War

History Collection – 18 Little Known Facts About Abraham Lincoln

History Net – George W. Kincaid and the 37^th Iowa Infantry in the US Civil War

Iowa in the Civil War – Roster and Records of Iowa Soldiers, War of the Rebellion, Historical Sketches of Volunteer Organizations, Vol. V: Historical Sketch, Thirty Seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry

Keesee, Dennis M. – Too Young to Die: Boy Soldiers of the Civil War (2001)

Loring, William Wing – A Confederate Soldier in Egypt (1884)

Military History Now – Confederates on the Nile: Meet the Civil War Vets Who Volunteered to Fight For the Egyptian Army

Military Network – The ‘Graybeards’ Were an Infantry Unit Just for Men Too Old for Military Service

National Museum of the United States Navy – Powder Monkeys and the American Civil War

Ohio History Central – Johnny Klem

Sears, Stephen W. – To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign (1992)

Time Magazine, June 29^th, 2015 – The Civil War Was Won by Immigrant Soldiers

United States Navy Memorial – Aspinwall Fuller

Warfare History Network – Grierson’s Raid: Wrecking the Railroad With the Butternut Guerrillas