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The Weirdest Ways Children Were Treated in History

Khalid Elhassan March 28, 2021 36 min

Baby dangling over the street in a cage. The Sun

Edward (William) Black. The Photographic History of the Civil War in Ten Volumes, Vol. 9

17. The Civil War’s Youngest Child Soldier

Born in 1853, Edward (William) Black was the youngest child soldier known to have served during the Civil War. He also holds the unfortunate distinction of being the youngest known soldier to have been injured during the conflict. Joining the 21^st Indiana Infantry Regiment in 1861 when he was eight, Edward served as a drummer in that regiment. Sent home after a few months, he returned, this time with his father, and reenlisted in the regiment as a drummer boy.

During the war, Edward traveled widely throughout the United as the 21^st Indiana’s drummer. Early in his service, he served in the regiment as it garrisoned Baltimore. He then accompanied the 21^st Indiana on an expedition to the Eastern Shore, and from there to Newport News, Virginia, before getting shipped to serve in the Department of the Gulf. There, the young lad’s unit fought in Louisiana as part of the campaign that resulted in the Union’s capture of New Orleans.

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.