A Nine Year Old at War

Johnny Clem; Library of Congress

He was nine years old when his mother died.  No one today knows whether it was grief, patriotism or some other emotion, but not long after, John Joseph Klem decided to join the army.  When men from his hometown of Newark, Ohio left to join the 3rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Johnny saw his chance.  The Colonel of the regiment, however, had different ideas.  Johnny was two months shy of his 10th birthday--too young and too small for Colonel Isaac Morrow to accept his service.  But Johnny was undeterred. 

​Johnny next attempted to enlist with the 22nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry. They, too, found Johnny both too young and too small.  But Johnny tagged along with them anyway.  Eventually, the members of the regiment adopted him as an unofficial mascot and drummer boy. Until he was officially mustered into the service of the regiment, the wages he received--$13 a month like every other regular soldier--were provided by donations from officers in the regiment. 

​Johnny was with the regiment when it engaged the Confederate army on the afternoon of September 20, 1863 along a creek in north Georgia called Chickamauga.  On that day, Johnny shed his drum and instead carried a rifle musket, trimmed down from regulation length to fit his short stature.  The battle was chaotic and the 22nd Michigan was being surrounded when a Confederate Colonel noticed the child soldier with his shortened weapon.  The Colonel demanded that Johnny surrender by saying “I think the best thing a mite of a chap like you can do is drop that gun”.  Johnny disagreed. In his opinion, the best thing he could do was to use it. He refused to surrender and instead shot the Colonel and headed back to his unit. 

Johnny, who at some point during the war officially changed his name to John Lincoln Clem to honor the President, was rewarded for his bravery under fire with a promotion to sergeant, becoming the youngest non-commissioned officer in the history of the United States Army.  And the American public granted him another laurel wreath, deeming him “The Drummer Boy of Chickamauga.”

The harrowing times were not over for Johnny.  In October of 1863, he was detailed as a train guard when Confederate cavalry captured him.  He was take prisoner and had taken from him his Union uniform, including his prized hat which sported three bullet holes it had received at Chickamauga.  He was released in a prisoner exchange not long after, and would go on to fight in other battles as the armies marched toward Atlanta.

John Clem was officially discharged a year after his harrowing experience at Chickamauga in September 1864. 

But John Lincoln Clem was not done with the army.  After graduating high school in 1870, he tried--and failed--to pass the entrance exam for the West Point Military Academy. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him second lieutenant in the 24th US Infantry and over the years, he steadily moved up the ranks and upon retirement was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.  In honor of his service, upon his death in 1937, he was buried in Arlington Cemetery,

​By any measure, Johnny Clem had an eventful life, and yet, he is still most famous for something that, as far as can be proven from records and contemporary accounts, never happened.  Johnny Clem, the true “Drummer Boy of Chickamauga” is often called Johnny Shiloh.  Legend has it that during the battle of Shiloh, in early April 1862, Johnny’s drum was smashed to pieces by an artillery shell, inspiring a popular song written by William Shakespeare Hays in late 1862 called The Drummer Boy of Shiloh.  The weight of historical evidence is against the veracity of this legend.  Neither of the two units Johnny Clem was associated with were at Shiloh.  If he was somehow attached to another unit in April 1862, there is no record of it, official or otherwise.  And he would have had to find his way from the Army of the Tennessee near Corinth, Mississippi all the way to Pontiac, Michigan where the 22nd Michigan mustered into service on August 29, 1862.  Even if he hadn’t joined the 22nd Michigan when it was initially formed, he still would have had to have found the unit while it was serving in the defenses around Cincinnati...a long way for a solitary boy to travel without the support of anyone else.

Sergeant John Clem; Library of Congress

Even without the feats ascribed to "Johnny Shiloh", the events that young Johnny Clem experienced before he turned 14 make his life a fascinating story that shows that often, children are capable of more than we could ever give them credit for.

​References and Further Reading

​John Clem, Drummer Boy of Chickamauga

​The Boys of War

​The Drummer Boy of Shiloh by WS Hays