This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

This is our American stories, and we love to tell stories about American history,

sometimes about people you know, events you know, and we love to tell stories about American history, sometimes about people you know, events you know,

and we try to fill in the rest of the story of those stories.

Or sometimes there are stories you've never heard of,

and they're some of our favorites.

Up next is the story of the youngest non-commissioned officer in Army history

and told by Kristen O'Donnell Tubb.

And by the way, she writes under the pseudonym E.F. Abbott. She's the author of John Lincoln Clem, Civil War drummer boy.

I first learned about the amazing John Clem when my publisher, Macmillan Children's Books, approached me to write

a story for a new historical fiction series they were developing. The series was called

Based on a True Story, and they'd compiled a list of a few of the true American heroes that they

wanted to highlight. John Clem was on that list.

When I did a quick Google search for him, I knew his story was the one I wanted to write.

John Lincoln Clem was born John Joseph Clem in Newark, Ohio on August 13, 1851.

When he was nine years old, his mother was killed by a train.

Later that same year, John became so enamored with the idea of restoring the divided union.

He volunteered his services to Captain Leonidas McDougall

of the Third Ohio Union Regiment. Years later, he said laughingly,

My help was obviously needed. Captain McDougal laughed at this offer from a nine-year-old

boy saying, I'm not enlisting infants, son.

...