- Title Pages
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Part I Children and the Sectional Conflict
- 1 “Waked Up to Feel”
- 2 “Train Up a Child in the Way He Should Go”
- 3 “What Is a Person Worth at Such a Time”
- Part II Children of War
- 4 A “Rebel to [His] Govt. and to His Parents”
- 5 Thrills for Children
- 6 “Good Children Die Happy”
- 7 Children of the March
- 8 Love in Battle
- Part III Aftermaths
- 9 Caught in the Crossfire
- 10 “Free Ourselves, but Deprived of Our Children”
- 11 Reconstructing Social Obligation
- 12 Orphans and Indians
- Part IV Epilogue
- 13 Preparing the Next Generation for Massive Resistance
- Documents: Through the Eyes of Civil War Children
- “I Hope by My Next Birthday We Will Have Peace in Our Land”: Carrie Berry Endures the Fall of Atlanta
- “A Strenuous and Tragic Affair”: Life on the Northern Home Front
- “The Threshold of a New Year”: High School Journalists Weigh In on the Civil War
- “Sports in the Days of the Sixties”: War and Play
- “De drums wus beatin’”: Caroline Richardson Meets the Yankees
- “A Momentous and Eventful Day”: Freedom Comes to Booker T. Washington
- “Born in the First Smoke of the Great Conflict”: Hamlin Garland’s Father Comes Home
- Questions for Consideration
- Suggested Readings
- About the Contributors
- Index
A “Rebel to [His] Govt. and to His Parents”
A “Rebel to [His] Govt. and to His Parents”
The Emancipation of Tommy Cave
- Chapter:
- (p.65) 4 A “Rebel to [His] Govt. and to His Parents”
- Source:
- Children and Youth during the Civil War Era
- Author(s):
Thomas F. Curran
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
This chapter tells the story of fifteen-year-old Tommy Cave, who ran away from his home in Boone County, Missouri, in 1862 and joined the Confederate army against his father's wishes. Six months later the boy was captured just a few miles from his father's farm and, like other prisoners of war taken in the state, was sent to St. Louis. It was not uncommon for Federal authorities in St. Louis to release prisoners under the age of eighteen to their parents. However, after investigating the facts, Provost Marshal General Franklin Dick determined that Cave had rebelled against his parents in the same way that he had rebelled against the Federal government. Instead of returning the boy to his parents, Dick decided that the army would continue to hold Cave as a prisoner of war. By doing this, Dick essentially freed Cave from his parents' control and treated him as any other adult prisoner. Cave was sent to the military prison in Alton, Illinois, with other rebel captives until an exchange of prisoners could be arranged. The boy would be paroled and exchanged with about a thousand other Confederates from Alton in mid-1863. He quickly returned to active duty, and a year later he died far from home on a battlefield in Virginia.
Keywords: Civil War, children, youth, Confederate army, prisoner of war, military prison
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- Title Pages
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Part I Children and the Sectional Conflict
- 1 “Waked Up to Feel”
- 2 “Train Up a Child in the Way He Should Go”
- 3 “What Is a Person Worth at Such a Time”
- Part II Children of War
- 4 A “Rebel to [His] Govt. and to His Parents”
- 5 Thrills for Children
- 6 “Good Children Die Happy”
- 7 Children of the March
- 8 Love in Battle
- Part III Aftermaths
- 9 Caught in the Crossfire
- 10 “Free Ourselves, but Deprived of Our Children”
- 11 Reconstructing Social Obligation
- 12 Orphans and Indians
- Part IV Epilogue
- 13 Preparing the Next Generation for Massive Resistance
- Documents: Through the Eyes of Civil War Children
- “I Hope by My Next Birthday We Will Have Peace in Our Land”: Carrie Berry Endures the Fall of Atlanta
- “A Strenuous and Tragic Affair”: Life on the Northern Home Front
- “The Threshold of a New Year”: High School Journalists Weigh In on the Civil War
- “Sports in the Days of the Sixties”: War and Play
- “De drums wus beatin’”: Caroline Richardson Meets the Yankees
- “A Momentous and Eventful Day”: Freedom Comes to Booker T. Washington
- “Born in the First Smoke of the Great Conflict”: Hamlin Garland’s Father Comes Home
- Questions for Consideration
- Suggested Readings
- About the Contributors
- Index
