Essay --

Children In The Civil War For my project on the Civil War, I researched the children that were around to see it. I think it’s important to know how this war impacted children, or even the involvement of children, because of what kids are like today. Today kids sit around and play video games about shooting people, back then, sometimes kids had to. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, kids from both the Union and the Confederacy said goodbye to some of their family members or even joined the military themselves. In fact, roughly twenty percent of Civil War soldiers were younger than eighteen. For the Union, this was the minimum recruitment age. However in times of war, laws were easily overlooked. The Confederacy, however, had no set age limit. Most youngsters weren’t exactly the fighters, but rather musicians. Technically, their job description didn’t include fighting, but if need be, it wasn’t uncommon for one to arm themselves and defend their lives. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/grant-kids/) I find it interesting to think that teenagers today’s biggest concerns compared to those during the war. Today you’ll find teenagers whose biggest problems in life are getting a five page essay on the Civil War in on time, acne, or those shoes they saw at the mall being ten dollars over the spending limit that their mom gave them. Back then teenagers were running through a hailstorm of bullets, watching as their friends and brothers fell inches away from them. They were thirsty for clean water, hungry for food, yearning for their mothers, or sometimes, even just wishing to be dead so it would end. Some assisted surgeons and sawed off damaged arms and legs. They endured the terrors that were associate... ...ive. (http://www.ducksters.com/history/civil_war/life_during_the_civil_war.php) Slave children were also impacted by this war, however slightly more positively. For many, this war meant freedom. Before the war had quite started, enslaved children had escaped to the North, either with their families or individually. When the war started, many of these families and children would slip into Union territory. Once Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, floods of these families came over. Homes for freed slaves was often no more than a wooden packing crate. Food was treasure, and disease was everywhere. Hope was not lost though. Northerners established schools that would teach blacks of all ages how to read and write. Soon, young African Americans â€Å"pulled a white teenager† and joined the army. They fought for the Union cause and thus experienced the terrors of war.