The Backstory: The 9-year-old Union soldier

War is a terrible thing under any circumstance. But imagine the Civil War. There were more deaths than the combined total in WW1 and WW2. Food, uniforms, medical supplies, working weapons, and more, all in short supply with con artists stealing as much as 25% of government war funds. But the passion and ideology so many soldiers brought to battle was astounding. This is the story of Johnny Clem who desperately wanted to fight for the Union. He joined the military at 9 years old and retired as a general 55 years later after marrying a Confederate’s daughter!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, So when you think about going to war, doesn't
it seem like it would be the most frightening experience
of your life. Well, now imagine it's the Civil War,
the bloodiest war in US history, with hand to hand
combat using guns that misfire, rusty blades and makeshift uniforms.
There's a severe lack of food, clean water, and basic

(00:21):
supplies including blankets and shoes. Worst of all, disease is rampant. Well,
now imagine you go into this war at the age
of nine, just a little boy. I'm Patty Steele. The
Unbelievable Life of General Johnny Clem. Next on the backstory.

(00:44):
The backstory is back. The Civil War was the bloodiest
war in US history. It's the last big war fought
with hand to hand combat, using guns that misfire, rusty
knives and swords and primitive, badly made cannons and gatling guns. Uns.
Soldiers are lucky if they have shoes and they're wearing
makeshift uniforms. In fact, many were made using shadi that

(01:08):
was a fabric made from scraps of wool and lint
that was pressed together but tears really easily and literally
disintegrates in the rain. Not really great qualities for combat uniforms,
and that's where the term shoddy merchandise originated. Plus there's
a severe lack of food, with con artists selling the

(01:28):
government sugar which turned out to be sanded coffee that
was just rye seeds and putrid meat. Clean water, decent
horses and donkeys, and basic supplies including blankets are almost
impossible to get. There are few doctors, no real medical supplies,
including anesthesia, and worst of all, illness is epidemic, including dysentery, typhoid,

(01:52):
and malaria, to name just a few. At least six
hundred thousand people died in this war, with two thirds
dying from disease, and that total toll is more than
the death tolls of World War I and World War
Two combined. And you were thirteen times more likely to
die fighting in the Civil War than in Vietnam. And

(02:14):
yet there was an intense passion on the part of
those joining up ideology, honor, patriotism, and just being part
of the cause with their motivation. Now, imagine you feel
that passion and attachment to the cause. You're anxious to
go into this war to defend the Union, and you're
only nine years old, just a little boy. In May

(02:37):
of eighteen sixty one, nine year old John Lincoln Clem,
an orphan, runs away from the home of the people
he lives with in Ohio to join the Union Army.
But big surprise here, the army is not all that
interested in signing up a nine year old. The commander
of the third Ohio Regiment told him he was an

(02:59):
enlisting in, and he said take a hike. Then Johnny
tries the twenty second Michigan Regiment and he gets the
same feedback, But this time Johnny simply tags along with
that regiment, acting as a drummer boy, and they decide
to keep him. He actually gets a soldier's pay of
thirteen bucks a month by dight, he's all donated by

(03:21):
the officers, not official pay. In one battle, Johnny's drum
is shot by an artillery round, but he's okay. The
press calls him Johnny Shiloh, the Smallest Drummer. A year later,
he rides with an artillery case onto the front clutching
a musket trimmed to his size. Suddenly, a Confederate officer

(03:43):
runs after him and the cannon he's riding with and yells,
surrender you damn little yankee. Johnny shot him dead. Now
he gets national attention. Johnny stayed with the army throughout
the war. He was even shot and wounded twice, but
he stayed on. Now by the time he turns eleven
years old, he's regularly enrolled in the military, and he

(04:07):
gets his own pay. By twelve, he's promoted to the
rank of sergeant, the youngest non commissioned officer in military
history to this day. After the Civil War ended, Johnny
tried to get into West Point, but he was turned
down because he had hardly gone to school and thus
failed the entrance exam. But he appealed to President Ulysses S. Grant,

(04:30):
who had been his commanding general at the Battle of Shiloh.
Grant then appointed him a second lieutenant. At the age
of nineteen, Johnny was a lifer. He stayed in the army,
becoming a colonel in nineteen oh three. He finally retired
as a major general in nineteen sixteen, having served an

(04:50):
amazing fifty five years, even fought in the Spanish American War.
He had married the daughter of a Union general back
in eighteen seventy five, but she died twenty four years later.
His next wife was actually the daughter of a Confederate soldier,
which Johnny said made him the most United American alive.

(05:12):
General Johnny Clem died in Texas in May of nineteen
thirty seven, just shy of his eighty sixth birthday. What
a life he lived. He's buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
We have to ask ourselves where did these kind of
people come from? At nine years old, John Lincoln Clem

(05:32):
had the fortitude to fight for what he believed in,
even after living through the reality and not just the dream.
I hope you like the Backstory with Patty Steele. I
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(05:54):
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to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram
Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production
of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel
Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner.

(06:18):
We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free
to reach out to me with comments and even story
suggestions on Instagram at real Patty Steele and on Facebook
at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the backstory with
Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't know you
needed to know.