A young man anticipates leaving home

The official minimum age to enlist was 18, but between 250,000 and 420,000 boys under 18 were involved in the Civil War. Their reasons for joining ranged from a desire to escape the dull life of the farm, to the dream of coming home a hero, to a desire to set the opposing side straight.

While some underage boys were able to enlist with endorsement of an adult, others used tricky methods to get around the age requirement. At recruiting stations, the surrounding chaos helped confuse recruiters into thinking teenage boys, who often looked older than they were, were of age. It was fairly easy to lie about one's age, because modern methods of identification did not exist. Additionally, recruiters were required to fill recruitment quotas, and often turned a blind eye to underage recruits. One trick was to have an underage recruit write "18" on his shoes and truthfully reply to the recruiter "I am over 18."

Once in the army, boys complained of a lack of food necessary for their growth, and uniforms that were often too big for them. They were not spared from the horrors of war that their adult counterparts faced including capture, violent death, and injury.

Some boys joined the military legitimately by signing up for non-combat positions, mostly as musicians.

The youngest soldier to fight in the Civil War was a boy named Edward Black, who was just 8 years old when he joined the Union army on July 24, 1861. He served as a drummer boy for the 21st Indiana volunteers. He died at 19 in 1872. His drum is in the collection of the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.