Valor Friday

The American Civil War saw unprecedented levels of American military service. During the war 3.3 million men entered the military services of their respective countries (2.2 million Union and 1.1 million Confederate). That’s nearly 10% of the US population at the time (from the 1860 census). This hadn’t been seen since the Revolutionary War (in which 230,000 men served from a population of 2.5 million), when just over 9% served at some point during the conflict.

For comparison, about 4% of the US population served during the First World War. The Civil War’s proportional number of military service wouldn’t be surpassed until World War II, when more than 12% of America served. This number is unlikely to ever be exceeded. If that many people served today, the US military (now about ~1.3 million active duty and 800,000 reserve) would have more than 40 million men and women in uniform.

With large numbers entering the service during the Civil War, it’s not surprising that recruits came from all walks of life. Most of the units that participated in the Civil War (on both sides) were raised locally by politicians, business men, or other respected community figures. This lack of professional organization led the armies of the war to have a colorful and eclectic group of soldiers within any one unit. This also included those who we would think now that are far too young to bring to war.

The Union Army’s official age of enlistment was 18, but that was not strictly enforced. It was very common that drummers, buglers, and dispatch runners were boys aged 13 to 17.

John Clem was one such unique soldier. Sometimes known as “Johnny Shiloh” (though it doesn’t appear he actually served in the namesake battle), he was just nine years old in 1861 when his mother died in a train accident. He ran away to join the Union Army as a drummer boy at the start of the Civil War.

Hailing from Newark, Ohio, Clem attempted to enlist in the 3rd Ohio Infantry, but they rejected him as too young. He then spirited away to attempt to join the 22nd Michigan Infantry. They too rejected him as too young.

The young man with nowhere else to go just started marching along with the 22nd Michigan when they mustered into federal service in August 1962. It wasn’t too long before he was unofficially given the job he wanted. Initially adopted as the unit’s mascot, he soon became the 22nd Michigan’s Drummer. The officers each pitched in to give the youngster the standard private’s wage of $13 a month. In 1864 he was finally allowed to enlist officially.

Clem was said to have been the 22nd Michigan’s drummer at the Battle of Shiloh, but the 22nd Michigan hadn’t even been organized until four months after that battle. The 22nd Michigan first saw combat, albeit limited, in the Defense of Cincinnati in the first two weeks of September 1862. The city’s defense involved 25,000 Union Army troops, 45,000 militia, and 15,000 “squirrel hunters” (militiamen from other parts of Ohio with little training and meager equipment).

The Confederates numbered about 8,000 going into the battle. The “battle” itself consisted of a few skirmishes over the course of a few days before the Rebels fled in a rout. Confederate losses are unknown, but suspected to be minimal. Union losses consisted of one killed in action and five others wounded.

The Michiganders’ next combat experience would be in Georgia a year later in September 1863. The Battle of Chickamauga was the second bloodiest battle of the Civil War behind only the Battle of Gettysburg.

Sixty thousand Union men under General William Rosecrans faced 65,000 Confederates under General Braxton Bragg. After two days of hard fighting, the Union Army was forced to retreat to Chattanooga. When the dust settled, nearly 4,000 men lay dead (1,600 Union and 2,300 Confederates), more than 24,000 lie wounded (9,700 Union and 14,600 Confederate), and more than 6,000 men were captured or missing.

During the fateful battle, Dummer Clem was said to have wielded a musket cut down to his size. Arriving to the battle by riding an artillery caisson, Clem is said to have fired on a Confederate colonel who demanded his surrender at the end of the day as they were in retreat.

The “Drummer Boy of Chickamauga” as he was then known was an instant celebrity among his compatriots and gained some national notoriety. In recognition for his bravery on the field of battle, Clem was promoted to sergeant. At just age 12 (his birthday had been the month before), Clem was the youngest non-commissioned officer in the US Army. A record that is very unlikely to ever be broken. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P Chase (future Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) decorated Clem personally.

The next month, October 1863, Clem was detailed as a train guard in Georgia. It was here that he was captured by Confederates. They removed Clem’s specially tailor Union uniform, the hat of which had three bullet holes in it, angering the young NCO something fierce.

Clem was returned to Union control two months later in a prisoner swap. The Confederates though used Clem’s age and his celebrity for propaganda purposes. They wanted to show to
“what sore straits the Yankees are driven when they have to send their babies out to fight us.”

The 22nd Michigan was part of the Army of the Cumberland. Clem meanwhile was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland’s commanding general’s staff. Clem served as a mounted orderly to Major General George H. Thomas, the “Rock of Chickamauga.”

Sergeant Clem would see further combat during the war in the Chattanooga-Ringgold Campaign, the Atlanta Campaign, and the Battle of Peachtree Creek before he mustered out in September 1864. Clem had been wounded twice in battle and was only 13 years old.

Clem’s combat wounds consisted of getting hit by a shell fragment to his hip. Later, he’d have a musket ball scrape his ear as he was carrying a dispatch near Atlanta. On this latter occasion his horse was killed out from under him.

Cleml/k described his life as a foot soldier;

I slept in a tent with two soldiers, drew the regular army ration—the principal items of which were pork (commonly called ‘sowbelly’), beans, hardtack, and coffee—and, of course, had my own knife and fork, tin plate, tin cup, and tin spoon. In all the hardships of war I endured my share—such as marching in rain or snow, sleeping without protection against the elements, and on occasions going hungry. On the other hand, there was a great deal of fun in camp. We used to play handball, townball, and ‘one-cat and two-cats’—all three of these games being rudimentary forms of baseball.

As for provender, the regular soldiers’ fare was often varied and amplified by the proceeds of foraging expeditions. Boys, being constitutionally devoid of respect for the property rights of other people, are first-class foragers.

Clem returned to peacetime life and finished high school sometime around 1870. He was elected to serve as captain of the Washington Rifles, a District of Columbia National Guard unit. At the time officer positions within the organized militia (what would become the National Guard) were done by election of the men themselves.

Clem was given appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point from President Ulysses S Grant but kept failing the entrance examination. Nonetheless the president gave Clem, just 20 years old, a commission as a second lieutenant in the 24th Infantry Regiment of the regular Army.

The 24th Infantry Regiment had only been formed two years prior. This was the famous Buffalo Soldier regiment that served in the American West. The enlisted men of the unit were all black, but most of the officers were white.

With a promotion to first lieutenant in 1874, Clem then graduated from artillery officer’s school at Fort Monroe in 1875. His career saw steady promotions, which is something that didn’t happen to many officers at the time. The nominally peacetime Army of the antebellum years (though participating in the Indian Wars) had been reduced to little more than a garrison force. Positions for officers were so rare that it was not uncommon for a man to spend a decade or more in a particular grade.

In 1882 Clem was promoted to captain and transferred to the Quartermaster Corps, where he would remain for the rest of a lengthy career. He was made a major in 1885.

When war again came to America, Clem served as depot quartermaster in Portland, Oregon during the Spanish-American War from 1898. He was then department quartermaster for the Department of Columbia. He subsequently served during the occupation of Puerto Rico as depot and chief quartermaster in San Juan.

Promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1901 and colonel in 1903, Clem was the chief quartermaster of Fort Sam Houston. He remained here until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 64 on 13 August 1915. He’d served his country for more than 45 years. He was the last Civil War veteran on active duty with the Army when he retired. As was custom for Civil War veterans retiring with the rank of colonel, he was made a brigadier general on the retired list. A year later he would be advanced on the retired list to major general by an Act of Congress.

Clem married his first wife Anita in 1875. They remained married until her passing in 1899. He then married Bessie in 1903. Bessie was the daughter of a Confederate veteran, leading Clem to claim that he was “the most united American” alive. Clem fathered four children with his first wife (only two survived childbirth and only one survived to adulthood) and one with his second wife.

Clem would not be recalled to active duty as Major General Peter Conover Hains (US Army Corps of Engineers) had been for World War I. Hains would become the only confirmed man to have served in both the Civil War and World War I (albeit only seeing stateside service).

Clem retired to Washington, D.C. and later moved back to San Antonio (where Ft Sam Houston is). He was a member of the veteran’s organizations the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (for officers who served in the Civil War) and the Military Order of Foreign Wars (for officers who had served during a war involving any foreign adversary).

Clem died in 1937 at age 85. He is interred at Arlington National Cemetery. His wife would survive him, passing away in 1967. Clem’s son John Lincoln Clem Jr. appears to have followed his father into military service. His obituary lists him as a colonel. Clem’s daughter lived until 1997.

On the topic of boy soldiers, Clem would give nothing but praise. He would write in 1914 (while still a colonel on active duty);

Boys, generally speaking, were mighty welcome in the regiments. Their youthful enthusiasm counted for a good deal, and, as a rule, they made excellent soldiers. If I had control of affairs in time of war, I would permit, and even encourage, the enlistment of boys. They are good for an army, and for the boys the training and experience are most valuable.

…
Boys make first-rate soldiers. To begin with, they have in highest degree what the French call élan, a word feebly translated as “dash.” They are, above all, ambitious to do things, and in them the spirit of caution is not yet developed. It is notoriously a fact that the fighter most dangerous to the enemy is the man who himself is not afraid of being killed.

War is bald, naked savagery. Disguise the fact though we may try, it properly bears that definition. As compared with the adult man, the boy is near to the savage.

He can fire a gun as well as a man. He endures hardships at least as well. He is as quick to acquire education in the military art. He responds better than the man to discipline, because he is accustomed to obey. In some respects he takes care of his bodily health better, actually. For example, the adult soldier, sleepy, will go to bed without his supper. Not so the boy. He will get a meal somehow before bed, though he has to rout the mess cook out with the cook’s own kitchen poker.

Category: Army, Historical, Real Soldiers, Valor, We Remember