Estimates vary, but as many as one million boys under the age of eighteen may have served in the armies of the Civil War. There are accounts of children twelve years old or even younger being present on the battlefield. Many ran away from home and lied about their age to join the fighting, but the the reality of a brutal war soon dispelled their boyish enthusiasm for war.
"As we lay there and the shells were flying over us, my thoughts went back to my home, and I thought what a foolish boy I was to run away to get into such a mess I was in. I would have been glad to have seen my father coming after me" Elisha Stockwell, 1862
Quoted in The Boy's War by Jim Murphy
Clarion Books - 1990
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Photograph on the left is from the Library of Congress
Portrait of Boy Soldier #LC-B8184-10573
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