Charleston County Public Library

Of age, boy soldiers and military power in the Civil War era, Frances M. Clarke and Rebecca Jo Plant

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Of age

bibliography

1350527335

Frances M. Clarke and Rebecca Jo Plant

boy soldiers and military power in the Civil War era

"Enormous numbers of boys and youths served in the American Civil War. The first book to arrive at a careful estimate, Of Age argues that underage enlistees comprised roughly ten percent of the Union army and likely a similar proportion of Confederate forces. Their importance extended beyond sheer numbers. Boys who enlisted without consent deprived parents of badly needed labor and income to which were legally entitled, setting off struggles between households and the military. As the contest over underage enlistees became a referendum on the growing centralization of military and political power, it was the United States, more than the Confederacy, that fought tooth and nail to retain this valuable cohort. How far could the federal government breach the sanctity of the household when the nation's very survival was at stake? Should military officers bow to the will of local and state judges? And what form should the military take to ensure victory while remaining true to the nation's republican principles? As they detail how Americans grappled with these questions, Clarke and Plant introduce readers to common but largely unknown wartime scenarios-parents chasing after regiments to recover their sons, state judges defying the federal government by discharging boys, and recently enslaved African American youths swept up by Union recruiters. Examining the phenomenon from multiple perspectives-legal, military, medical, social, political, and cultural-Of Age demonstrates why underage enlistment is such an important lens for understanding the Civil War and its transformative effects"--, Provided by publisher

Part I: Parental rights and the duty to bear arms: Congress, courts, and the military -- Competing obligations: debating underage enlistment in the War of 1812 -- A great inconvenience: prewar legal disputes over underage enlistees -- Underdeveloped bodies: calculating the ideal enlistment age -- Part II: The social and cultural origins of underage enlistment -- Instructive violence: impressionable minds and the cultivation of courage in boys -- Pride of the nation: the iconography of child soldiers and drummer boys -- Paths to enlistment: work, politics, and school -- Part III: Male youth and military service during the Civil War -- Contrary to all law: debating underage service in the United States -- Preserving the seed corn: youth enlistment and demographic anxiety in the Confederacy -- Forced into service: enslaved and unfree youth in the Union and Confederate armies -- Epilogue: a war fought by boys: reimagining boyhood and underage soldiers after the Civil War -- Appendix A: counting underage soldiers -- Appendix B: using the early indicators of later work levels, disease, and death database to determine age of enlistment in the Union Army, by Christopher Roudiez