Underaged soldiers in the US civil war?

Answer 1

The United States has its own history of child soldiers. During the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), thousands of boys under the age of 18 served in the Union and Confederate armies. But most of those boys didn't carry weapons as they were armed with Musical Instruments: drums, bugles, and fifes!

In fact, Army rules prevented boys from enlisting as soldiers but did permit them to be military musicians. Most of the boys knew very little about music. They were just anxious to be a part of the war effort. Playing an instrument during the Civil War didn't mean entertaining troops between battles. Musicians played an important role in the war. There is controversy in this however. One web site has statistics that are staggering. More than 2,000,000 Federal soldiers were twenty-one or under (of a total of some 2,700,000)-

More than 1,000,000 were eighteen or under.

About 800,000 were seventeen or under.

About 200,000 were sixteen or under.

About 100,000 were fifteen or under.

Three hundred were thirteen or under were mostly fifers or drummers, but regularly enrolled, and sometimes fighters. Twenty-five were ten or under.

Confederate figures are skimpier, but one sample of 11,000 men produced about 8,000, the great majority, between eighteen and twenty-nine. There was one of thirteen, and three were fourteen; 31 were fifteen; 200 were sixteen; 366 were seventeen; and about a thousand were eighteen. The Confederate figures during the war was unreliable as some states did not keep accurate statistics such as Alabama. The statistics above is referenced to a book titled "The Civil War, Strange and Fascinating Facts" by Burke Davis.