Читать книгу The American Civil War: History in an Hour - Kat Smutz, Kat Smutz - Страница 11

The Soldiers

While the leaders of the two armies were plotting and planning, the soldiers in the camps were waiting for their orders. The required age to join the military was eighteen, but recruiters were under pressure to fill the rolls, and there were plenty of underage men who saw the war as a great adventure in which they could participate and return home as heroes after banishing the enemy. Some boys would write the number ‘18’ on a slip of paper and tuck in under their heel inside their shoe so that when a recruiter asked if they were over eighteen, they could honestly reply yes.