history on Johnny Shiloh

In the civil war it was vary common to even have young boys go to war.
John Clem was one of those cases.  he became a Union Army drummer boy after the tragic death of his mother in a train accident.
He first tried to enlist in the 3rd Ohio, but was rejected  do to his small size.  He then tried the 22nd Michigan. they also refused him he tagged along with them anyway soon becoming a mascot and drummer boy.  Officers would chip in to raise the solders wadge of $13 a month for him. he then was aloud inlist 2 years later.


 A popular legend suggests that Clem served as a drummer boy with the 22nd Michigan at the Battle of Shiloh. The legend suggests that he came very near to losing his life when a fragment from a shrapnel shell crashed through his drum, knocking him unconscious, and that subsequently his comrades who found and rescued him from the battlefield nicknamed Clem "Johnny Shiloh."

Clem graduated from high school in 1870. In 1871, he was elected commander/captain of the "Washington Rifles" a District of Columbia Army National Guard militia unit. After he attempted unsuccessfully to enter the United States Military Academy, after failing the entrance exam, President Ulysses S. Grantappointed him second lieutenant in the Twenty Fourth United States Infantry in December 1871. Clem was promoted to first lieutenant in 1874. Clem graduated from artillery school at Fort Monroe in 1875. He was promoted to captain in 1882 and transferred to the Quartermaster Department where he stayed for the rest of his career. He was promoted to major in 1895.

During the Spanish–American War in 1898 he served as depot quartermaster in Portland, Oregon as well as department quartermaster for the Department of Columbia. He then served in the occupation of Puerto Rico as depot and chief quartermaster in San Juan.

Clem was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1901 and to colonel in 1903. He then served from 1906 to 1911 as chief quartermaster at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.

Clem reached the mandatory retirement age of 64 on August 13, 1915, when he was retired and promoted to the rank of brigadier general, as was customary for American Civil War veterans who retired at the rank of colonel. Clem was the last veteran of the American Civil War serving in the U.S. Army at the time of his retirement,^[2] though another Civil War veteran, Peter Conover Hains, re-entered the service in 1917. On August 29, 1916, Clem was promoted on the retired list to the rank of major general.^[6]

sited from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Clem