Of age: boy soldiers and military power in the Civil War era

Part I: Parental Rights and the Duty to Bear Arms: Congress, Courts, and the Military

Competing Obligations: The Dual Military System, Youth Enlistment, and the War of 1812

A Great Inconvenience: Prewar Legal Disputes over Underage Enlistees

Underdeveloped Bodies: Calculating the Ideal Enlistment Age

Part II: The Social and Cultural Origins of Underage Enlistment

Instructive Violence: Impressionable Minds and the Cultivation of Courage

Pride of the Nation: The Iconography of Child Soldiers and Drummer Boys

Paths to Enlistment: Work, Politics, and School

Part III: Male Youth and Military Service in the Civil War Era

Contrary to All Law: Debating Underage Service in the United States

Preserving the Seed Corn: Youth Enlistment and Demographic Anxiety in the Confederacy

Forced into Service: Enslaved and Unfree Youths in the Confederate and Union Armies

Epilogue: A War Fought by Boys: Reimagining Boyhood and Underage Soldiers after the Civil War.