Children On The Battlefield Analysis

The article “children on the battlefield” by marie schwariz describes the experience of being in the civil war.

During the civil war, Boys that were under the age of 18 often signed up for the military. A Lot of the young boys were under the age limit to be in the military, their parents, religious leaders and school teachers would support their decisions to enlist.Most of the time the boys would lie about their age, Or they would run away from their house’s and their families, And they would change their names so they could enlist and if the young men died in battle they would be remembered as their fake name. If their was a honests soldier they would be assigned to the job for their age limit. If they were 16 years old they would be a

musician. They would use drums and bugles to communicate so the other soldiers could hear them. If you were 17-18 you could be a powder monkey and in order for them to be a powder monkey you had to be short enough so the side of the ship was taller than you so it was hard to shoot you. You also needed to be very fast at carrying the gun powder to the canons so they could shoot the cannons at the enemies.The young soldiers would also often get homesick because they were always thinking about their families. It was also very hard to find uniforms that would fit you so they would have to go around the battlefield and find dead soldiers that was the same size as them.The boys in the military had to face adult vices and they also had to face life threatening challenges on the battlefield, The young men would hardly see each other on the battlefield.