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The Tragic History of the U.S. Child Warriors

Khalid Elhassan June 9, 2020 34 min

16. Commitment to Duty

Contemporary illustration depicting Willie Johnston during the Peninsula Campaign. Harper’s Weekly

As the Union Army retreated from the gates of Richmond, falling back under relentless enemy pressure, its men suffered from the unaccustomed heat of a Virginia summer. Many weary federal troops grew demoralized and discarded all of their equipment during the retreat from Richmond in order to march unencumbered. Although still a child, Willie Johnston dutifully hung on to his drum throughout the tiring ordeal, and brought it with him to safety at retreat’s end in Harrison’s Landing.

There, as the 3^rd Vermont and other regiments of the division were assembled for a Fourth of July parade, it was discovered that Willie was the only drummer in the entire division who had held on to his drum during the retreat. As such, he had the honor of drumming for the whole division that day.

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.