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The Tragic History of the U.S. Child Warriors

Khalid Elhassan June 9, 2020 34 min

22. Rising to the Occasion

John Cook and General Gibbon servicing a gun at the Battle of Antietam. Concept Art and Digital 3D

With his battery section in a jam, fifteen-year-old John Cook saved the day. Spotting a dead comrade with a full pouch of ammunition, he unstrapped it from the corpse and rushed to the guns, which were in danger of being captured by advancing Rebels. Displaying remarkable valor and heroism as he serviced the guns, Cook played a key role in beating back three separate enemy attempts to charge and capture the exposed guns. The last Rebel charge came within 5 yards of the cannons before recoiling.

As Cook was engaged in his heroics, the division’s commander, General Gibbon, saw what was happening and rushed to the endangered battery. Ignoring rank during the emergency, the general pitched in as a common artilleryman and personally took part in the fighting, servicing one of the guns until the threat receded. In recognition of his conspicuous courage that day, Cook was (eventually and belatedly) awarded the Medal of Honor in 1894.

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.