Children of the War- Meg- Deborah Artist statement

Hermela and I made a quilt square representing the boy soldiers serving and fighting in the civil war. The line of drummer boys is a primary document that was taken in 1862. They are a Union drum corps and they are posing for the picture and it seems like they are all under 17. In 1861, President Lincoln announced that boys under eighteen could enlist only with their parents’ consent. The symbols drawn at the bottom represents multiple things that boys under 18 did. The generals had many jobs for them, including drummer boys, soldiers, messengers, polishing shoes and firing cannon balls. They suffered hunger, fatigue, and discomfort, and gradually lost their innocence in combat. The youngest boy who entered being a soldier in the civil war was ten years old. More than 300 Northern Soldiers were under the age of thirteen and a few were under ten. A lot of the boys who joined the war lied about their ages or used fake names. Back then, fighting in a war seemed like an extraordinary adventure. About 800,000 boy soldiers were seventeen or under and about 100,000 were fifteen or under. The colors in the quilt square represents the Union and Confederate uniform colors. Our quilt square shows the importance of the boy soldiers and how they worked hard and had bravery to just be standing on the battlefields. The boys had extreme talent and they were a  HUGE part of the civil war.