Boy Soldiers of American Civil War

choi

Meghan Cox Gurdon, Young Enough to Fight. During the Civil War, thousands of minors joined the Union army as boy-soldiers. Agitated parents clogged the courts appealing for their release. Wall Street Journal, Feb 6, 2023, at page A 15.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/of- ... o-fight-11675634461
(book review on Frances M Clarke and Rebecca Jo Plant Of Age. Boy soldiers and military power in the Civil War era. Oxford University Press, Dec 15, 2022)

Quote: In American Civil War: "Youngsters who ran off to join the army without permission often became drummers or musicians, freeing adult men for active service while fulfilling valuable functions. In those days, the authors remind us, 'almost all actions that soldiers performed took place to the sound of a drum, fife, or bugle, and every regiment was accompanied by musicians.' Musicians buoyed morale and conveyed battle commands. More important, they 'led armies on the march, determining the speed and, therefore, the distance that a regiment could travel.' "

Note:
(a) "Before her abolitionist novel 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' appeared as a serial in 1851, Harriet Beecher Stowe * * * "
(i) Harriet Beecher Stowe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Beecher_Stowe
(1811 – 1896; "She came from the religious [Calvinist] Beecher family")
(A) Her husband was surnamed Stowe. The English surname Stowe came from names of many places in England called Stowe or Stow, from Old English noun feminine stow place. Dictionary of American Family Names.
(B) Harriet Beecher Stowe has been criticized that her novel was sensational, even though she had never been to the South her entire life.
(ii) Uncle Tom's Cabin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom%27s_Cabin
("In the United States, Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel and the second best-selling book of the 19th century, following the Bible. * * * [section 3 Plot, section 3.3 Tom sold to Simon Legree:] * * * When Tom refuses to tell [new owner Simon] Legree where [Legree's sex slaves] Cassy and Emmeline have gone [read: escaped], Legree orders his overseers to kill Tom. As Tom is dying, he forgives the overseers who savagely beat him. Humbled by the character of the man they have killed, both men become Christians")

(b) abecedary (noun, etymology)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abecedary
means a primer.