Editor’s note: part of a series on Civil War notables.
John Lincoln Clem was a drummer boy who became one of the most famous child soldiers of the Union Army. He later retired as a major general. His Civil War story, which includes service at the Battle of Chickamauga, sits at the intersection of fact and legend.
Johnny was born in August 1851 in Newark, Ohio, and encountered tragedy at an early age when in 1861 his mother was killed by a train crossing Railroad Street in his hometown. After President Abraham Lincoln put out a call for Union Army volunteers later that year, the youngster ran away from home to enlist. Standing at just four feet tall, Johnny first tried to volunteer for the 3rd Ohio Infantry Regiment but was turned away due to his age. He then pestered the 22nd Michigan Infantry Regiment until it eventually adopted him as mascot and drummer boy. The regiment’s officers chipped in to pay him $13 a month and two years later allowed him to officially enlist. Before long, Clem began making a name for himself. He served in the Western Theater with the Army of the Cumberland and was wounded twice during the war.
(READ MORE: Local History: Pvt. Sam Watkins’s brutally honest Civil War account)
Clem gained national fame in September 1863, when at age 12 he became known as the “Drummer Boy of Chickamauga.” His was a rope-tension field drum – the standard infantry drum used for marching cadence, camp routines and battlefield signaling, especially when officers’ voices could not be heard in battle.