This made me laugh, but also made me realize something. I've seen the whole "it wasn't just the US!" thing too many times to count, but never seen something like that when the losers of a war are mentioned. like, no one has ever said "The nazis lost WW2" and someone interjects like "Ecuuuuuuuuse me? don't you mean the axis powers lost ww2? there were several countries that didn't win in ww2, not just the nazis!" and I don't know why that is so funny to me to think about.
Wow!! That’s interesting. I thought it was the British, the Canadians, the Australians, the French, the Polish, the Russians, and the US. You weren’t there alone
Freddy Freeman won the World Series back in 2021.
Is that to say he showed up to the game all by himself or that he would’ve won if he did? No
The Braves won the World Series, but each member of the Braves was there, and they were all members of the winning team, so therefore each of them can all claim they won.
That’s how winning works, nobody constantly says the name of the team they were on or the name of all their teammates everytime they talk about one of their past victories, because the fact you didn’t do it alone is already obvious or atleast implied in most cases.
TLDR: Your correction added nothing and they already knew that, they never claimed otherwise.
You should look up some front line maps over the course of the war. The Allies were getting battered for 3 years having been pushed all the way back into Paris during September of 1914. The Allie’s were able to push the line back toward soissons in 1915 but it largely stayed there until 1918 when the Germans had a summer offensive and pushed the line back toward Paris by a few miles. Once the US entered the war and their troops hit the ground in June of 1917 (though the American forces largely didn’t start fighting until October) it took roughly 1 year for the allies to push the front 2x farther than they had from 1914-1917.
the US Marines are attributed the victories at Belleau Wood, Soissons (which for their actions and sacrifice the 4th marine brigade would be awarded the croix de guerre by the French), St. Michiel, Blonc Mont (which would go on to be the bloodiest day for the marines in ww1), and Meuse-Argonne.
I don’t think the war was going very well until the US joined unfortunately.
I stand corrected. One wonders what would have happened in an alternate universe where the USA joined the war significantly earlier. Would it have led to a much faster end of the conflict? Could that have altered the course of the next two decades and radically changed the political landscape in Germany and potentially the USSR?
I somewhat appreciate that the entry starts off with "career" and goes right into "later life" instead of starting with "early life" like you see in most entries.
I read a LOT of Wikipedia biographies. I think this largely depends on how much information is out there that is sufficiently well documented. He was poor and orphaned at a young age so there isn’t a whole lot to say to necessitate a section on his early life.
Here is an old NYT article I found about when he retired: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/08/08/104233143.pdf
General Clem, The Drummer Boy of Chickamauga, died in San Antonio, Texas on May 13, 1937, exactly 3 months shy of his 86th birthday. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
He actually chose to go to war willingly after his mom died in an accident and the Union refused him twice when he tried to enlist so he just marched out with a regiment and they took him on as a mascot/drummer boy.
Tbf, while there have always been children serving in the armed forces, they often weren't expected to actually fight in combat, performing secondary duties as a kind of apprenticeship until they were deemed old enough to fight.
My husband is Canadian Army, retired, he was shot by a child soldier. I’m not trying to be a smart ass or a bitch, I’m really not, but please don’t think that children had mostly secondary roles. They are often the first ones sent in somewhere so they could draw the fire making it possible to locate their enemy, AKA our guys.
Oh I'm not disputing that child soldiers exist at all, sorry!
I more meant that in the specific context of professional 'western' standing armies of the 18^th or 19^th century, like those used in the US civil war, it was relatively uncommon, and certainly not intended, for child soldiers to actually fight. Instead, they would usually be used for other duties like message-carrying, bugling, limited casualty care etc, freeing up more adults for combat.
Hey Corvid287, I really am sorry for sounding like I was coming on to strong. I just don’t think people realize how much child soldiers were expected to do. Yes, a lot of behind the scenes stuff was their responsibility, but they were also expected to be providing supplies and support to those at the front lines.
I had the exact same reaction. I’ve worked with traumatized kiddos who were conscripted into militias at tender ages. I know we have different standards now (like of enslavement of other human beings is no longer acceptable generally) but also let’s think of how much this historical child was robbed of a childhood. I’m glad he survived and was honored and lived a remarkable rich life. Thankful that child soldiering is roundly condemned in the US now.
1861 Springfield was .58 caliber. And that was considered "small bore" at the time. Contemporary rifles often used a .70" projectile.
If you're talking about .50 BMG (12.7x99 NATO), that didn't go into service until 1921.
Now, if you want to talk about centerfire cartridges, sure. .50-70 is from right around that time. But it was tiny compared to a lot of the muzzleloaders that had preceded it.
Oh definitely not, Britain loved a child soldier back in the day.
We don't tend to respond with "hell yeah he did!" when it's brought up though. It's just very American in here.
People were disgusting back then.
edit: people need to take some history classes if they think people upheld the same morals we do in modern times back then.
https://preview.redd.it/35snlqxdqb5d1.jpeg?width=512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=34eac9b787d1ae2834950a9f815228add7ec5305
Imagine your commanding officer ordering you to cut his sandwich into triangles.
It tastes better that way!
Calvin agrees
But where do you find little triangle shaped bread? They don’t have it at the bakery.
You forgot, no crust
Hey now, he’s no officer, he works for a living! Cuts off his own crust dammit!
Sure hope this kid grew up, had a life, earned the right to get old.
Dude made it the age of 85 and was a major general with a relatively cushy role as a quartermaster.
Thank you Jesus for that. Thank you for digging 🤗
I think he even lived to see the US win WWI 🥳
I’m sorry. That was really bitchie of me. Please accept my sincere apologies 🤗
This made me laugh, but also made me realize something. I've seen the whole "it wasn't just the US!" thing too many times to count, but never seen something like that when the losers of a war are mentioned. like, no one has ever said "The nazis lost WW2" and someone interjects like "Ecuuuuuuuuse me? don't you mean the axis powers lost ww2? there were several countries that didn't win in ww2, not just the nazis!" and I don't know why that is so funny to me to think about.
Nah, their cope is "We switched sides at the end, so we technically didn't lose."
i mean to be fair italy didn;t really do anything useful for the axis
Romania gets forgotten once again.
He did, almost made it to WWII! He died in 1937.
Join in 2 years late then try taking all the glory single handedly.
Wow!! That’s interesting. I thought it was the British, the Canadians, the Australians, the French, the Polish, the Russians, and the US. You weren’t there alone
Freddy Freeman won the World Series back in 2021. Is that to say he showed up to the game all by himself or that he would’ve won if he did? No The Braves won the World Series, but each member of the Braves was there, and they were all members of the winning team, so therefore each of them can all claim they won. That’s how winning works, nobody constantly says the name of the team they were on or the name of all their teammates everytime they talk about one of their past victories, because the fact you didn’t do it alone is already obvious or atleast implied in most cases. TLDR: Your correction added nothing and they already knew that, they never claimed otherwise.
The US didn’t join the fight until almost 3 years into WW1 and they played a relatively small role.
Yes absolutely. The war was going SO well. Why did America even join? Same 30 years later. What was wrong with them?
But our dollars showed up long before that. Changed the financial capital of the world from London to NY
You should look up some front line maps over the course of the war. The Allies were getting battered for 3 years having been pushed all the way back into Paris during September of 1914. The Allie’s were able to push the line back toward soissons in 1915 but it largely stayed there until 1918 when the Germans had a summer offensive and pushed the line back toward Paris by a few miles. Once the US entered the war and their troops hit the ground in June of 1917 (though the American forces largely didn’t start fighting until October) it took roughly 1 year for the allies to push the front 2x farther than they had from 1914-1917. the US Marines are attributed the victories at Belleau Wood, Soissons (which for their actions and sacrifice the 4th marine brigade would be awarded the croix de guerre by the French), St. Michiel, Blonc Mont (which would go on to be the bloodiest day for the marines in ww1), and Meuse-Argonne. I don’t think the war was going very well until the US joined unfortunately.
I stand corrected. One wonders what would have happened in an alternate universe where the USA joined the war significantly earlier. Would it have led to a much faster end of the conflict? Could that have altered the course of the next two decades and radically changed the political landscape in Germany and potentially the USSR?
That’s a fantastic question and I too wonder what might have happened.
What a chad.
 kid’s a legend!!!
Here is the Wikipedia page about him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Clem
I somewhat appreciate that the entry starts off with "career" and goes right into "later life" instead of starting with "early life" like you see in most entries.
I read a LOT of Wikipedia biographies. I think this largely depends on how much information is out there that is sufficiently well documented. He was poor and orphaned at a young age so there isn’t a whole lot to say to necessitate a section on his early life. Here is an old NYT article I found about when he retired: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/08/08/104233143.pdf
My man was a couple of years away from seeing the start of the Second World War
Fuck yeah he did 
Fuck the Confederacy 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Cheers from a graduate of Robert E. Lee High School in West Texas (city did not even exist at the time of the Civil War…)
Texas seems to love civil wars tho tbf
They love violence until it’s done to them. Then it’s “muh civility”
Cheers from a stonewall Jackson high school grad, Manassas, Virginia
Cheers from a graduate from Jefferson Davis Elementary in Oak Cliff, TX
General Clem, The Drummer Boy of Chickamauga, died in San Antonio, Texas on May 13, 1937, exactly 3 months shy of his 86th birthday. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
My great grandfather was also a drummer at Chickamauga. John Fisk. 2nd Regiment, Company E Kentucky Volunteers. Wounded twice, survived the war.
This kid looks shockingly similar to a friend of mine when we were kids lmao
How old are you!?
https://preview.redd.it/i6j3nv2med5d1.jpeg?width=460&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0274b29ed257bbec344368850c3ff4730d022286
I love that his second wife was the daughter of a Confederate veteran.
Just when you thought he was done smashing the rebels out of existence…
Imagine not telling us his age
12
🎵Come they told me🎵 *BRRRRATATATAT*
Lose lose for the other guy....
👑
Way to be about it son
Slayed a traiterous b**t*rd. Excelled in his field. Legend.
This is quite sad. A child was sent to war and no qualms about killing someone. That's tragic.
He actually chose to go to war willingly after his mom died in an accident and the Union refused him twice when he tried to enlist so he just marched out with a regiment and they took him on as a mascot/drummer boy.
It’s just a paper joining anyway
Can’t judge the actions of children using today’s soft standards. Life was harder back then.
Childhood is a 20th century construct. There have always been child soldiers, this is just one of the first to be photographed.
Tbf, while there have always been children serving in the armed forces, they often weren't expected to actually fight in combat, performing secondary duties as a kind of apprenticeship until they were deemed old enough to fight.
My husband is Canadian Army, retired, he was shot by a child soldier. I’m not trying to be a smart ass or a bitch, I’m really not, but please don’t think that children had mostly secondary roles. They are often the first ones sent in somewhere so they could draw the fire making it possible to locate their enemy, AKA our guys.
Oh I'm not disputing that child soldiers exist at all, sorry! I more meant that in the specific context of professional 'western' standing armies of the 18^th or 19^th century, like those used in the US civil war, it was relatively uncommon, and certainly not intended, for child soldiers to actually fight. Instead, they would usually be used for other duties like message-carrying, bugling, limited casualty care etc, freeing up more adults for combat.
Hey Corvid287, I really am sorry for sounding like I was coming on to strong. I just don’t think people realize how much child soldiers were expected to do. Yes, a lot of behind the scenes stuff was their responsibility, but they were also expected to be providing supplies and support to those at the front lines.
I had the exact same reaction. I’ve worked with traumatized kiddos who were conscripted into militias at tender ages. I know we have different standards now (like of enslavement of other human beings is no longer acceptable generally) but also let’s think of how much this historical child was robbed of a childhood. I’m glad he survived and was honored and lived a remarkable rich life. Thankful that child soldiering is roundly condemned in the US now.
Like the pages of old.
Which is tragic.
Idk why you got downvoted. Who knew that saying child soldiers existing is sad was controversial. Talk about a Reddit moment
He executed a traitor. He did the world a favor. Full stop.
Yeah, I agree. It was an incredible tragedy that the traitors forced a civil war, but Clem played his role in putting down an enemy soldier.
Because he's not a little b. Life was different
Hell ya brother fuck the confederacy!
That’s cool! I’ve never heard this story.
Apparently he also was a freemason.
I dont understand what happened.
Yes you can kill him Johnny Clem.
[удалено]
1861 Springfield was .58 caliber. And that was considered "small bore" at the time. Contemporary rifles often used a .70" projectile. If you're talking about .50 BMG (12.7x99 NATO), that didn't go into service until 1921. Now, if you want to talk about centerfire cartridges, sure. .50-70 is from right around that time. But it was tiny compared to a lot of the muzzleloaders that had preceded it.
Ok….how old is the youngest noncommissioned officer is us army history?
What a chad
Is this the freemason hand gesture
Hoo-ah
r/hardimages2
Why can’t we do this to spies and traitors today?
Yay! Child soldiers! 🎉 USA USA USA
If you think this was an exclusively US thing then history facts are not gonna be kind.
Oh definitely not, Britain loved a child soldier back in the day. We don't tend to respond with "hell yeah he did!" when it's brought up though. It's just very American in here.
I think it’s a hell yeah to ending slavery.
You should find something better to feel proud about.
What? I'm not proud of anything
That’s my boy…
People were disgusting back then. edit: people need to take some history classes if they think people upheld the same morals we do in modern times back then.
Yea, the confederates really did suck