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| Boy Soldiers of the American Revolution
ISBN: 9781469627557
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / The University of North Carolina Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Children; Child soldiers;
Between 1819 and 1845, as veterans of the Revolutionary War were filing applications to receive pensions for their service, the government was surprised to learn that many of the soldiers were not men, but boys, many of whom were under the age of sixteen, and some even as young as nine. In Boy Soldiers of the American Revolution , Caroline Cox reconstructs the lives and stories of this young subset of early American soldiers, focusing on how these boys came to join the army and what they actually did in service. Giving us a rich and unique glimpse into colonial childhood, Cox traces the evolution of youth in American culture in the late eighteenth century, as the accepted age for children to participate meaningfully in society--not only in the military--was rising dramatically.
Drawing creatively on sources, such as diaries, letters, and memoirs, Caroline Cox offers a vivid account of what life was like for these boys both on and off the battlefield, telling the story of a generation of soldiers caught between old and new notions of boyhood.
Caroline Cox was born in Glasgow, Scotland. She moved to the U.S. in 1978, developing a career in finance. At 32, she enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley to study history. She earned an AB, MA, and PhD, all in history, from Berkeley in 1990, 1993, and 1997. Her area of expertise was America's colonial and Revolutionary War history. She wrote several books, A Proper Sense of Honor: Service and Sacrifice in George Washington's Army (2004), The Fight to Survive: A Young Girl, Diabetes and the Discovery of Insulin (2009), and Boy Soldiers of the American Revolution (completed after her death by friends, colleagues and mentors). Cox was professor of history at the University of the Pacific for 15 years. She received many awards for her teaching and scholarship at the University of the Pacific, including the Faye and Alex Spanos Distinguished Teaching Award, the Pacific Distinguished Faculty Award, and the Order of Pacific, awarded posthumously at the university commencement in 2015. She died on July 11, 2014 at the age of 59. (Bowker Author Biography) |
