-Willie
Johnston, drummer of Company D, 3rd Vermont Volunteer
Infantry, was the seventh soldier in the U.S. Army to be
honored with the Congressional Medal of Honor. He
received the award on September 16, 1863 for bravery
during the Seven Days Battles, he not being quite 12
years old. Willie still remains as the youngest to ever
take the nation's highest honor.
*Get
this:* Willie's friend, fifteen year old Julian Scott,
was the fifer of Company E of the 3rd Vermont. For his
courage during the same battle, Julian was also awarded
the Medal of Honor, and it was presented to him in
February of 1865. Julian, though, may be better known for
his paintings of the Civil War, which he composed a few
years after the end of the war.
-The U.S.
Army purchased more than 32,000 rope-tension drums
between 1861 and 1865.
-Musicians
ranged greatly in age, from the ever famous Johnny Clem
at age 10, to Almon Laird of the 27th Massachusetts who,
in 1864, died in a prison camp in Savannah, Georgia at
the age of 48.
An
interesting email receieved March 16,
2000:
"My
Greatx3 Grandfather, Jacob
Bingman,
was a drummer in Co. E 53rd PA Vol. Jacob's son was
also a drummer in the same unit...My grandfather was a
bugler in WWI. My uncle was a trumpet player in the
Navy in the 1950's, and I was in the Marine Drum &
Bugle Corps in Wash. DC for 8 yrs. It's also very
ironic that the 4 of us enlisted on the same day.
Aug.15, 1861, Aug. 15, 1917, Aug. 15, 1957, and me on
Aug. 15, 1984 - and I was married on Aug. 15,
1987...
"I
just read in your interesting facts section about the
old drummer Laird, 48. Well, Jacob Bingman of the 53rd
PA was 54 when he enlisted in 1861, and 56 when he was
discharged for disability in 1863. Jacob lost his leg
during the war and had it amputated. The last 16 yrs.
of his life he used a wooden
leg,
which my family has kept since his death in 1881. I've
had it in my possession since 1988."
-Rich
Z.
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