Frances Clarke

Frances Clarke

Contributor

Frances M. Clarke is Associate Professor of History at the University of Sydney. She is the author of War Stories: Suffering and Sacrifice in the Civil War North (Chicago University Press, 2011). Together with Rebecca Jo Plant, Clarke recently published Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era (Oxford, 2023).

History

Too Young for the Hardship of Service: Age and Military Fitness in the US Civil War

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In 1863, US Surgeon General William Hammond published a Treatise on Hygiene, perhaps the most influential medical text of the Civil War. Noting that a soldier’s age had a great deal to do with his health and fitness to serve, Hammond bluntly declared that “Boys do not make good soldiers.” The minimum enlistment age of… Read more →