{"id":3916,"date":"2023-11-13T11:10:38","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T16:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/?p=3916"},"modified":"2023-11-13T11:45:49","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T16:45:49","slug":"the-true-story-of-the-youngest-soldier-to-die-in-the-american-civil-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/the-true-story-of-the-youngest-soldier-to-die-in-the-american-civil-war.html","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Charley – The True Story of the Youngest Soldier to Die in the American Civil War."},"content":{"rendered":"

Author Brendan J. Lyons, the Boy Scouts of America, and Charles “Charley” Edwin King<\/h2>\n
\"Civil<\/a>

Civil War Drummer Boy Charley King<\/p><\/div>\n

As a young man, Charley<\/em> author Brendan J. Lyons of West Chester, Pennsylvania was a Boy Scout. He\u2019d earned the rank of Life and began working on earning the Eagle rank, the highest and most prestigious rank in Scouting. The Eagle rank requires the Scout to complete a community service project and Lyons needed to find just such a project. These projects are not always easy to find. Lyon’s interest in history helped him to find his community service project.<\/p>\n

Lyons learned from his scout leader, who was a member of the Sons of Union Veterans, about Charley King, he was a twelve-year-old drummer boy from West Chester who went off to fight and die in the Civil War.<\/p>\n

Charley King\u2019s story intrigued Lyons, especially the part about how no one knew for sure where the young Civil War drummer boy was buried. For his Eagle Scout community service project, Lyons decided he would raise money (along with help from the Sons of Union Veterans and others who had an interest in history) for a monument to honor Charley King that would be placed in the Green Mount Cemetery, where members of the King family are buried.<\/p>\n

Brendan J. Lyons completed his Eagle Scout community service project and earned the rank of Eagle. But for many years afterward, Lyons now an adult, felt like his work with Charley King was incomplete.<\/p>\n

Lyons wanted to tell the story of the Civil War drummer boy. The trouble was, there was that not much known of Charley\u2019s actual history. After all, Charley died when he was only thirteen years old, he did not have the chance to make much life history. What is known is the factual history of Company F of the 49th Pennsylvania Volunteers, the company in which Charley King served. Brendan J. Lyons began researching and writing.<\/p>\n

Charley<\/em> is a novel that combines historical fact and creative fiction to tell a story as accurately as possible about Charley King. It\u2019s a convincing effort. Lyons\u2019 Eagle Scout community service project became one of his life\u2019s works with his book: Charley – The True Story of the Youngest Soldier to Die in the American Civil War.<\/em><\/p>\n

Charley King\u2019s Early Life Before the Civil War<\/h2>\n

I have chosen some excerpts from Charley<\/em> to introduce you to Lyons’ story about Charley King and how the young lad became a drummer in the Civil War. Included too, I have added some explanatory comments of my own. Note that April 3, 1861, was a Wednesday.<\/p>\n

My Comments:<\/h3>\n