Boy Soldier Isaac Thacker, 40th Kentucky Infantry

The concept of boys fighting in the Civil War is just one of the  numerous topics on the war. One local instance of this was the story of Isaac George Thacker.

Isaac was born on May 2, 1849, in Olive Hill, Carter County, Kentucky, the son of Daniel and America Thacker. 

On September 17, 1863, as the Civil War was in its third year, Isaac enrolled as a private in company E of the 40th Kentucky Infantry, though he was soon listed as a musician.

The 40th Kentucky Infantry had been organized at both Grayson and Falmouth, Kentucky in mid-1863. It then remained in Kentucky, including involvement in operations against the forces of Confederate General John H. Morgan in 1864. This included a fight at Mount Sterling and in the Second Battle of Cynthiana. 

These men then spent the rest of their time in the service in action at Saltville, Virginia and on duty in eastern Kentucky before mustering out on December 30, 1864. 

Isaac was only 14 years old when he enlisted, well under the military’s minimum age of 18 for soldiers. Many youngsters were able to avoid this standard and join the army anyway, especially as musicians or drummer boys, but some ran into trouble when their families found out what they were doing. Isaac did not have any such problems, as his mother (under the name America McClannahan from a new marriage) permitted his enlistment by making her mark on the “consent in case of minor” section of the Declaration of Recruit document that Isaac had signed in a similar fashion. This consent allowed him to leave home at such a young age, soon to face unknown situations and scenarios that scared or scarred many an older man. He apparently found out that military life suited him, despite some hardships, beginning a long life in various military units.

When Isaac joined the Union Army, he appeared as the boy he was, standing 5 feet, 3 inches tall, and featuring dark eyes, dark hair, and a dark complexion. His occupation was listed as farmer, no doubt from his work on the family farm. 

He enlisted for a one-year term, signing up in Olive Hill. 

In February of 1864, he served on “extra duty” on the provost guard in Paris, Kentucky. The provost guard was a unit similar to modern military police. Perhaps officials tried to find less dangerous tasks for him than active duty in the field, but, if so, it did not work. Records list him as absent without leave in June of that same year, as he had been captured by Confederate General John H. Morgan’s men in May or June, at either Mt. Sterling or Cynthiana as Morgan’s latest group of rebels invaded Kentucky during his “Last Raid.”

After Morgan paroled his captives, Isaac spent time in a Lexington hospital in July and August.

A few months later, he mustered out of the army on December 30, 1864, in Catlettsburg, Kentucky.

After the war, the 21-year-old Isaac lived in Cold Spring, in 1870, working as a farmer and sharing his home with members of the Gard family., according to the census recorded on August 1. About six weeks later, on September 14, he married one of his housemates, Alice Gard, in Newport. They later had one son, Albia, born in nearby Dayton (KY) in 1881, the same town where Isaac had been working as a carpenter. 

After his time in the Civil War, he still wished to pursue a military career and did so by enlisting in the army three more times.

On June 12, 1866, he enlisted in company H of the 1st Infantry in Cincinnati. At this time, he had grown to 5 feet 7 inches tall, and was a farmer with gray eyes, dark hair, and a ruddy complexion. He was discharged from this service on June 1, 1869, in Michigan, due to the end of his term of service. He was a sergeant at that time.

In 1883, he enlisted in company E of the 10th Infantry.  He joined in Fort Wayne, Michigan, still a farmer with similar physical traits. He was discharged from this service on August 15, 1888, at Fort Lyons, Colorado, due to expiration of his service. He was a Protestant, and his character was “excellent.”

His final enlistment in the regular army occurred at Vancouver Barracks, Washington on April 16, 1889. He joined the 14th Infantry and was discharged on October 21, 1890, by a special order at the same location. Records again showed him with a similar physical description and described him as a Protestant with excellent character.

Isaac Thacker, undated, from ancestry.com.

In 1890, he still called Dayton home, but at some point in the 1880s or 1890s, Isaac and Alice divorced, according to her marital status on the 1900 census.

Isaac married again, this time to Millie Sheffield on July 14, 1893, in West Virginia and in 1900, he was literate and worked as a baker in Franklin County, Ohio. Ten years later he worked as a farmer in Cabel County, West Virginia, where he and Millie remained as the 1920s began.

Former boy  soldier Isaac Thacker died on April 27, 1929, at age 79, in Holmes County, Ohio, and was buried there in Killbuck Cemetery.