Is a 14-year-old conscript possible?

[Bruce Vail]

Unless I am misunderstanding the info gathered from the net, it appears that Co. B of the 3rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment (Confederate) enlisted a 14-year-old boy as a private. The name is Elias Hutton and he is described as a "conscript."

How is this possible? Am I missing something?

BTW -- Young Hutton is recorded as dying from wounds received at the battle of Antietam.

 

[DaveBrt]

Unless I am misunderstanding the info gathered from the net, it appears that Co. B of the 3rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment (Confederate) enlisted a 14-year-old boy as a private. The name is Elias Hutton and he is described as a "conscript."

How is this possible? Am I missing something?

BTW -- Young Hutton is recorded as dying from wounds received at the battle of Antietam.

What is your source? I don't find him in Fold3.

 

[Bruce Vail]

What is your source? I don't find him in Fold3.

Must be some temporary kink in Fold3 system. I find him there now at Elias Sutton, 3rd North Carolina Infantry.

See also https://antietam.aotw.org/officers.php?officer_id=4892

 

[Nathan Stuart]

Think that might have been Elias Sutton, Co. B, 3rd​ North Carolina Infantry Regiment. The regiment was formed in May, 1861, and originally consisted of volunteers. Don't think Sutton was a conscript, he was a volunteer.

Sutton was a 14 year old (born circa 1848) laborer who voluntarily enlisted in Duplin County on February 7, 1862, as a private. (Believe Conscription was not introduced in North Carolina until April, 1862).

He was mortally wounded at Antietam on September 17 and captured. He later died of his wounds on October 1, apparently in a U.S. field hospital.

 

[Gary Morgan]

Mistakes can happen with the draft. When I was in high school, my classmate Tracy got a notification from the draft board. As I recall, SHE had to actually go down and appear in person to show that she was not eligible for the draft.

 

[Bruce Vail]

Think that might have been Elias Sutton, Co. B, 3rd​ North Carolina Infantry Regiment. The regiment was formed in May, 1861, and originally consisted of volunteers. Don't think Sutton was a conscript, he was a volunteer.

Sutton was a 14 year old (born circa 1848) laborer who voluntarily enlisted in Duplin County on February 7, 1862, as a private. (Believe Conscription was not introduced in North Carolina until April, 1862).

He was mortally wounded at Antietam on September 17 and captured. He later died of his wounds on October 1, apparently in a U.S. field hospital.

Yes -- sorry for the error on the spelling of the last name.

This is the guy, and one of the Fold 3 cards notes he was a "Con." (a Conscript, as opposed to a "Vol." for Volunteer).

The Feb. 17, 1862 enlistment date does suggest the Con. designation is an error, since the first Confederate draft law was passed in April 1862.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

Yes -- sorry for the error on the spelling of the last name.

This is the guy, and one of the Fold 3 cards notes he was a "Con." (a Conscript, as opposed to a "Vol." for Volunteer).

The Feb. 17, 1862 enlistment date does suggest the Con. designation is an error, since the first Confederate draft law was passed in April 1862.

Glad you resolved it.

 

[Bruce Vail]

Glad you resolved it.

Well, I don't consider it resolved at all. The reason I bring the question to CWT is because I am hoping that the specialized knowledge and informed perspective of so many members here might shed some light on it for me.

One of the things the first Confederate conscription law did was involuntarily extend the enlistments of many volunteers who would otherwise be entitled to go home. I'm supposing for the moment that the enlistment of a 14-year-old is of questionable legality to start with, so it seems possible to me that young Sutton was entitled to go home basically at any time he chose, but may have been prevented from doing so by the conscription law. That's all speculative, of course, but does suggest to my mind that it may have been possible that this teenager fought and died as a draftee.

I'm also wondering about the officers of Sutton's company. Wasn't it their obligation to send this kid home? What were they thinking?

 

[Nathan Stuart]

I understand that the official minimum age for enlistment, either voluntarily or under force of conscription, was 18 years.

However, don't think the presence of boy soldiers on both sides was that unusual.

According to NPS rough estimates, about 100,000 served in the Union army at fifteen or younger with 300 under thirteen and 25 under ten. Suspect the proportions would have been somewhat similar in the Confederate army. Most of these boy soldiers would have served as musicians, but not necessarily all of them. (Some boy musicians also joined in the fighting in some battles).

Apparently, boys on both sides were in fact permitted to enlist. As the war prolonged, and manpower shortages became more pressing, can believe that restrictive recruitment processes would have become more lax, especially on the Southern side.

Specific factors that would have made it easier for underage boys to enlist include: no identification papers to verify age; recruiting officers anxious to fill their recruitment quotas; and determined lads using means of trickery to attain enlistment.

Am unaware of any officer sending home an enlisted soldier who was accepted by fellow soldiers in their unit, because he was underage.

An example of boys in combat was at the Battle of New Market (May 15, 1864). Here, 257 cadets from the VMI were organized into a combat battalion and used by authorities to fight in the battle by joining the attack on Union lines. Apparently some of the cadets were child soldiers no older than 15 years. (In the battle, 47 cadets were wounded, with 10 killed in action or mortally wounded).

 

[tony_gunter]

Unless I am misunderstanding the info gathered from the net, it appears that Co. B of the 3rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment (Confederate) enlisted a 14-year-old boy as a private. The name is Elias Hutton and he is described as a "conscript."

How is this possible? Am I missing something?

BTW -- Young Hutton is recorded as dying from wounds received at the battle of Antietam.

It's not like they had birth certificates? Conscription patrols basically consisted of armed groups riding around seizing people that looked of age, right?

 

[Bruce Vail]

Well, I don't consider it resolved at all. The reason I bring the question to CWT is because I am hoping that the specialized knowledge and informed perspective of so many members here might shed some light on it for me.

One of the things the first Confederate conscription law did was involuntarily extend the enlistments of many volunteers who would otherwise be entitled to go home. I'm supposing for the moment that the enlistment of a 14-year-old is of questionable legality to start with, so it seems possible to me that young Sutton was entitled to go home basically at any time he chose, but may have been prevented from doing so by the conscription law. That's all speculative, of course, but does suggest to my mind that it may have been possible that this teenager fought and died as a draftee.

I'm also wondering about the officers of Sutton's company. Wasn't it their obligation to send this kid home? What were they thinking?

Interesting. I wasn't aware that historians agreed that the Union armies had about 100,000 child soldiers. That's a big number. My guess is that the Confederate number would be somewhat smaller, if only because the Confederacy was drawing from a smaller pool of the larger population. Still, these estimates are all pretty horrifying.

I still can't get past the idea that it was the affirmative obligation of the officers involved to send these kids home, no matter what twisted rationale had brought the teens into the ranks.

 

[John Winn]

As to the issue of 14 year old's I can say that in my research of CW vets buried in the cemetery where I volunteer I found two Union vets who were 14 when they enlisted. They both used aliases. Now, it seems like it should have been obvious they weren't of age but they were accepted. One was made a drummer (I think obviously realizing he wasn't of age) but got converted to a private when his regiment had too many drummers. The other just went into the ranks.

So, I'm sure such things happened frequently on both sides.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

My guess is that the Confederate number would be somewhat smaller, if only because the Confederacy was drawing from a smaller pool of the larger population. Still, these estimates are all pretty horrifying.

Agree. Just to clarify. In relation to Confederate enlistments, I was referring to the proportions of total numbers, not the absolute numbers, being somewhat similar.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

One was made a drummer (I think obviously realizing he wasn't of age) but got converted to a private when his regiment had too many drummers. The other just went into the ranks.

Given the estimated number of underage enlistments, it seems plausible that boy soldiers who were assigned to non-combatant duties initially might have found their way into fighting roles in desperate circumstances.