Tar Heel. History
By Billy Arthur
Young Guns
Affectionately known as the *infant-ry\ hundreds of
adventurous boys from ages 10 to 16 served North ( 'arolina
admirably in the Civil War.
Today the minimum age lor
military service is 17. and the
word "infantry" suggests fool
soldiers. Rut from 1861 to
1865 hundreds of adventurous young
North Carolina boss, almost children in
every age and aspect, served laudably in
the Civil War.
The youngest was almost 10 years old.
Most were between 1 3 and If».
They ran away from home, falsified
their ages, left schools, academics and
universities to join up. Especially wel¬
come were those who came from mili¬
tary schools and served as drillmasters.
It must have been a strange sight to see
adolescents commanding and training
men. many of them old enough to be
their fathers. Some became officers, the
others color and stretcher bearers, couri¬
ers. cooks and musicians. In the fortuity
of warfare many were c asualtics.
Even when turned away in 1862
because of their youth, a goodly number
stuck around and didn't go home.
Historian Archibald Henderson sug¬
gested aptly that all these young soldiers
lx* called "the infant-ry."
In his North Carolina: The Old North
State and The New. I lenderson writes that
when General Robert K. Lee "regarded
one of these Hi-year-old lads.J.F. Click
of Hickory, and a munlx-r of other gan¬
gly youths, more hands and feet than
anything else, he remarked with a wry
sense- ol lutililv. 'll that is what I have to
work with. I might just as well sur¬
render.'"
Novel theless. llieii resolve, doughti¬
ness. abilities and useful service to the
cause and their state, both during and
after the war. belied their early appear¬
ance.
Space here |>ei mils c iting only a few of
these juveniles who thus served early in
the regular army and later in the Junior
ol S C Dwu*»(«nN>o»oHi»<)
Reserves.
Two outstanding models of these gal¬
lant boys came from Colonel
С.
C. Tew's
Hillsboro Military Academy. They were
Walter Clark, who later was North Car¬
olina Supreme Court Chief Justice, and
William Cain, who became an in¬
ternationally famous engineer and head
of the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill math de¬
partment.
Other brave youths
included William
Shipp Bynum, subse¬
quently a learned
and famous Episco¬
pal minister. He ran
away Iron» home and
enlisted. As a
sergeant he was in
many battles. He was
captured and impris¬
oned but eventually
released without tak¬
ing an oath of alle¬
giance to the United
States.
When George
Jacobs of Camden
County enlisted May
30. 1861. bis age was
recorded as age 12.
However. Three Hundred Yean Along the
Pasquotank by Jesse F. Pugh cites the
birthdate on bis tombstone as reading
August 28. 1851. If that is correct, he was
about 10 years old at enlistment and "to
him may In- the distinction of being the
youngest."
Another singularity is that he was a
member of the fife and drum corps of
the 32nd Regiment, of which his father
was music director. According to one his¬
torian. when General Lee reviewed the
troops at Gettysburg, he doffed bis hat
in special recognition ol Jacobs’ corps
The Slatf/FetxMary 1WJ
13
"both as to their tender youth and the
excellence of their music."
Another youngster. Cicero R. Barker,
volunteered at age 13 and became drum
major of the 8th N.C. Regiment.
Moses Harris Russell of Rockingham
enlisted at age 15. carrying his father's
shotgun. I le later told kin that he "would
go out to the barn and cry for feat the
war would Ik- over before he got there."
Sixteen-year -old Thomas Payne of
Davidson County was captured at
Roanoke Island in 1862. Another enlis¬
tee at that age was Captain Leonard
Henderson, who died in action in 1864.
A kinsman, young Archibald Henderson
Boyden. was a 16-ycai-old courier to
General Rolx-rt F. I lokc.
Among the youngest commissioned
ollicers was John Phifer Young of Cabar¬
rus County, who became a second lieu¬
tenant before age 16 and was made ra|>-
tain in March 1863.
Two months later, he
was killed in action.
Returning to the
drillmasters, 14-year-
old Walter Clark
enlisted in May 1861
over the objections
of his parents and
made first lieutenant
in July. Nicknamed
"Little Clark" be¬
cause of his small
stature, this “mere
boy" served gallantly
at 2nd Manassas.
Harper's Ferry.
Sharpsbtng and
Fredericksburg.
Keeping up his
studies while in the
army, he resigned in
1863. entered UNC
and graduated at the head of his class
the next year. The day following his
graduation, he became a major in the
junior Resetves and rose to lieutenant
colonel of the 70th N.C. Regiment. That
regiment figured in the battles of South¬
west Creek and Bcntonville and subse¬
quently surrendered at I ligh Point when
Clark was a few months short of In-ing HI
years old.
I le then went to law school, practiced
in his home county of Halifax and
moved to Raleigh in 1873. In 1885 he
was appointed a Superior Court judge.
