Mr. Lincoln's Drummer
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Wisler, G. Clifton. Mr. Lincoln's Drummer. 1995. New York: Scholastic, 1997.
Willie Johnston is the son of a St. Johnsbury, Vermont tailor. Willie is just ten years old at the time of the fall of Ft. Sumter. When his father joins an infantry regiment, Willie signs on as drummer boy. Many of his experiences in camp life near Washington, D.C. are of the mildly humorous kind, but when Willie's unit heads with McClellan to the Peninsula in 1862, the action turns grisly, and Willie distinguishes himself during a harrowing retreat. He draws particular notice from President Lincoln, and wins the Congressional Medal of Honor.