The Drummer Boy of Chickamauga, John Lincoln Clem
Clem served as a drummer boy for the 22nd Michigan at the Battle of Chickamauga. He is said to have ridden an artillery caisson to the front and wielded a musket trimmed to his size. In the course of a Union retreat, he shot a Confederate colonel who had demanded his surrender. After the battle, the "Drummer Boy of Chickamauga" was promoted to sergeant, the youngest soldier to ever be a noncommissioned officer in the United States Army. He was 12 years old. He graduated high school in 1870. Lithograph By James Fuller Queen.