The Role Of Soldiers In The Civil War

Many people may not know that The Civil War was also known as, “The Boy’s War”, and there is a reason behind that name. It is said that at least 100,00, or 20%, of soldiers in the civil war were under the legal age of eighteen (PBS.org). Both the Union army and Confederate army loosely followed that rule. It seems as though the Confederate ignored this rule more than the Union. According to Confederate Cavalrymen of the Civil War, “The men ranged in age from a bottom limit of 13 and an upper limit of 58…”. Even though the legal was eighteen, many recruiters turned their heads because they were desperate for men. The boys who wanted to enlist, most likely want to fight for adventure whether than for a cause. Most boys lied about their age so that they could enlist. As stated in Union Infantrymen of the Civil War, “…some anxious boys placed pieces of paper in their shoes with the number ‘18’ scribbled on the scraps or wrote the figure on the soles of their footwear so that they could swear that they were ‘over eighteen’ when asked if they met the minimum age requirement”. Some boys were able to enlist by getting a parent’s consent. The last option for boys who could not get a parent’s consent was to enlist under a fake name. According to CivilWar.org, “Some boys enlisted under a false name so their …show more content…
Since some boys used fake names and lied about age, there are mostly likely more than rough amount of 100,000. Since these boys were young, it is possible that they made up stories about themselves. Since the stories were so interesting, the stories were just passed on from soldier to soldier, from generation to generation. What stands true is that the boys of the Civil War had many roles in the civil war from barbers to fighters. There is still so much more to be learned about the young boys of The American Civil War. One of the most important that these young boys took on was the role of