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The Tragic History of the U.S. Child Warriors

Khalid Elhassan June 9, 2020 34 min

23. The Young Hero of Antietam

When the Civil War began, John Cook, a thirteen-year-old child from Cincinnati, Ohio, enlisted as a bugler in the 4th United States Artillery Regiment. On September 17^th, 1862, during the Battle of Antietam, Cook – by then fifteen – secured his place in history. His battery section was ordered to support the attack of General John Gibbon’s division up the Hagerstown Pike. As the battery reached its assigned position and began to unlimber, a column of Rebels unexpectedly emerged from the nearby West Woods.

The Rebels poured a devastating volley that immediately felled most of Cook’s section, and pinned down the survivors with withering rifle fire. When Cook’s captain was shot off his horse and seriously injured, the lad sprang into action. Dragging his wounded commander to safety, Cook returned to the battery section and discovered that all the artillerymen had been struck down. The young lad rose to the occasion, seized the moment, and became a hero.

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.