Drummer Boy of the 17Th In. Reg.

By Martha Earles

This book follows the life of an Irish orphan boy found on the streets of New York City about 1857. Johnny, among other children, was captured and placed in a facility on Randalls Island, New York, for their protection. He was later transferred by railroad on the orphan train to Princeton, Indiana, where he was chosen by a gunsmith to help in his trade and at home. During the American Civil War, Johnny joined the service first at eleven years old and then again at age thirteen to serve to the end of the war. A veteran of the Civil War, Johnny mustered out of service at the age of fifteen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984535283

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 by Martha Earles.

Library of Congress Control Number:               2018907018

ISBN:                  Hardcover                     978-1-9845-3527-6

                            Softcover                       978-1-9845-3526-9

                            eBook                            978-1-9845-3528-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 06/14/2018

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

780007

I would like to take this opportunity to say a very grateful thank you to some very special people. Without their help and encouragement I would not have attempted this project.

Thanks to Terry, my cousin, for heeding my plea and producing the illustrations to enhance my story.

To the Princeton Public Library for their store of information and their presentation of a set of drums that sat my imagination on the course to learn all I could about a special young man, who landed in Princeton as an orphan and became a household name in a special era of its history.

To Betty Ahlemann and Bonita Johnson, of the genealogy department, to whom I owe a special thank you. They assisted with research as well as encouraged me to trust in myself.

A special thank you is sent out to Peter Greene of Franklin, Pennsylvania for his assistance with information of John E. Butler, citizen of Franklin. Thank you Peter

There is no way I could appropriately thank my late husband, Phillip or his mother, Violet. They were my rock to lean on when things become over whelming. They encouraged me to reach inside myself for the story I wanted to tell.

Thank you Johnny Butler for the life you lived and for your service to our country.

Martha A. Earles

CONTENTS

The Nursery

The Orphan Train

Princeton, Indiana

The Call To Arms

The Seventeenth Indiana Regiment

The 120Th Indiana Regiment

Epilogue

One morning, long ago, in a stable in New York City, a seven-year-old boy named Johnny lay asleep on the hay. He was dressed in a dirty tattered shirt and knee pants. The sun peeked through a separation in the boards of the wall and shined in his face, waking him. He stretched real big and rose to his feet to greet the day.

01.jpg

Johnny, with his