THE YOUNGEST AND OLDEST SOLDIERS OF THE CIVIL WAR

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William Black

Dead Confederate boy of fourteen at Petersburg

Sixty Year Old Confederate

 The average age of Civil War soldiers was from 18 to 30. William Black was a drummer boy that joined the Union Army at the age of 9 and was the youngest soldier ever wounded in the Civil War, shown here at the age of 11. He was wounded by an exploding artillery shell. Toward the end of the war when the South became desperate for troops the ages of soldiers became younger and older. The second picture is of a dead Confederate boy of 14 lying in a trench at Petersburg Virginia. He died in the early part of April and notice that he is barefooted. A third of the Confederate Army that fought at Nashville in December during one of the coldest winters on record were barefooted. The third picture is of a 60 year old Confederate soldier. The oldest soldier on either side was Curtis King who was 80 years old but he was mustered out after only four months. The legal age for joining the army was 18. Teenagers too young to join would write the number 18 on a piece of paper and place it in their shoe. Then when the mustering officer asked their age they could truthfully say that they were over 18.

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 31, 2016 at 7:45 PM

    A critic is someone who never actually goes to the battle, yet who afterwards comes out shooting the wounded. See the link below for more info.

    #wounded
    www.ufgop.org

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMay 10, 2021 at 7:10 AM

    Captain Henry Sturm of Company K of the 31st Virginia Infantry was 67 when he was mustered out May 1, 1862. He served from May of 1861.

    ReplyDelete

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