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Post by 7th on May 5, 2010 14:28:58 GMT 12.75
Well, SunnyBuck (My eviltwin) is 12 and doing a 4-H Project on living history and needs a book he can study about a Reb 12 year old. Thanks for the help guys, this 4-H club is about the best thing I have seen: it is about shooting, outdoor sports and living history.
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Post by shiloh on May 6, 2010 6:31:12 GMT 12.75
Is there a specific book written about a 12 year old boy in the CW you are looking for? I am confused as to exactly what you are looking for. E-mail me direct at libertytree@peoplepc.com if you can because I don't check this site much.
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Post by Toby Benoit on May 6, 2010 9:16:21 GMT 12.75
The Red Badge Of Courage by Steven Crane is awesome, but I think the young man's quite a bit older'n twelve.
Get him the movie, Shenandoah, with James Stewart and Patrick Wayne. It's the story of a family of Virginian's that try to stay out of the war until their twelve year old son gets picked up mistakingly as a Reb by a Yankee patrol and is sent to prison. His subsequent escape and the family's struggle to find him makes a pretty good story. I know it's not a book, but it's the right age and era.
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Post by OLKoot on May 6, 2010 11:36:44 GMT 12.75
For my modest library of tapes, I was able to get a copy of "Birth of a Nation"....It's a silent film, made in 1915, but shows how boys went to war and came home men.....Very interesting....Check out Amazon.com
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Post by 7th on May 7, 2010 4:09:20 GMT 12.75
Thanks for all the help guys. SunnyBuck is taking living history in 4-H and wants to do it about a kid his age in the Reb army. I really think he will do well with the right book (he also needs the help in getting his ready up some).
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Post by Toby Benoit on May 7, 2010 6:48:03 GMT 12.75
Maybe Shiloh can help us out here and correct me if I'm wrong, but youngsters that age usually held jobs behind the lines.
There is a story about a boys school that turned out and held a brief skirmish against a troop of Yankee Cavalry in Mississippi. Ran off the Yanks and saved their school and pride. It's mentioned in John Wayne's film, "The Horse Soldiers".
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Post by shiloh on May 19, 2010 4:00:54 GMT 12.75
That is mostly correct. Both sides held to the convention that to be in the ranks you had to be 17+ in age. Some boys did lie and often did so with the help of older cousins or siblings. I recenlty researched a young man aged 19 on his Muster-In card of the 9th KY Inf (US). He enlisted as a 2nd Lt, was immediately promoted to 1st Lt. and wounded at Shiloh. His father was a prominent KY politico and worked with their Congressman to gain the lad an appointment to West Point. He resigned his rank and went to the Point. I researched his enrollment at the Point and he enlisted as aged 16. His sister kept a diary and it has been published. In it she describes the boy drilling the local "Zouove Militia" and doing very well at it. He must have really been something.
I have also found a couple of boys that enlisted as aged 17 or 18 and in a year or 2 were killed. Their true ages at time of death when verified by fathers claiming the bodies prove they enlisted at age 16.
But I have not found any that would have been 12 actually in the ranks. These boys would have been drummers sometimes, but this was then an actual soldier's rank, not just a thing to let kids come play Army. It is very difficult for a kid to be an effective drummer because the drum was large, and was banging on his leg as he marched. And, he had to keep accurate cadence with the drum for the MEN and their length of step. A BOY has a shorter step and therefore cannot keep cadence for himself. I see this all the time at re-enactments. Boys can't do it very well at all.
The notion of 12 year olds in the artillery is also false romaticism. The guns are big and unless the kid is unusually strong and tall he simply can't properly service a piece.
But, the boys did and could serve with wagon trains, or as artificers like blacksmiths, ferriers, etc. if they had those skills. Some of these boys did in fact act as scouts or spies if opportunity afforded.
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Post by 7th on May 21, 2010 15:36:07 GMT 12.75
Thanks Shi, I was looking into something like the drummer boy or such, did not think about the blacksmith or such. I did not know about the powder monkey or not, I had heard stories about it but did not say anything to my son. I have a good weekend set up for him; I have to be in Virginia Beach here in a few weeks and will be taking him up through the Wilderness and that area. Should make up for the briefings I have to go through for this trip.
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Post by shiloh on May 27, 2010 6:50:18 GMT 12.75
The so-called "Powder Monkey" was a British Naval slang that carried over probably to most navies. The youngsters could quickly navigate up and down ladders and close active decks carrying powder from the magazine to the guns. THey moved like little monkeys anyway, and if a heavy powder bag and ammo was slung around their shoulder and neck that probably added to their forward position as they ran. Then, they also became black from the soot. So the men saw these little fellas scurrying and jumping around crouched over all black from soot and that is probably why the slang came about.
In garrison artillery, or heavy artillery, they might have been around, the term probably was, but the small boy would be incapable of carrying a 50# case for a Columbiad. Even in field artillery the #5 man was RUNNING from the gun's front to the back of the caisson about 50 yds behind, and was having a full load placed into his haversack to RUN back to the gun's front. A Napoleon's load would have weighed 15-17 lbs. The artillerists all were cross-trained in all positions so a #5 man may arrive at the gun to find the #4 man killed, drop the load and start in the #4 position as the #7 man would immediately take over the #5 position and so on. I do not think many small lads worked the guns at all for this reason unless they were unusually large and stout. But, working as artificers in the rear, repairing harness, tack, as a carpenter, etc., sure they probably did some.
The small lad drummer boys problem was experienced by me this past weekend at teh Sacremento, KY event. We had 4 drummer boys. One could somewhat keep a cadence, but the other 3 had 3 individual cadences and 3 unique sizes of body/step. The men were ready to kill them after only a few short minutes marching and lots of angry words were grumbled and even shouted at teh drummers. Hope that they grow and learn from that rather than get hurt feelings and quit. Sunday, the bigger one kept cadence alone with the 3 others just struggling along trying to keep up the march.
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