Recent research has found that historians have underestimated the number of underage soldiers who fought for the Union during the American Civil War, as well as the significance of the legal, political, and administrative battles these youths provoked. While some historians have reinforced the notion that the Confederacy employed young soldiers more willingly and extensively than the United States, a more critical approach to military records reveals a very different picture. Historians have underestimated the sheer number of underage soldiers who fought for the Union, as well as overlooked the significance of the legal, political, and administrative battles these youths provoked.
http://commonplace.online/article/underage-enlistment-in-the-united-states-and-the-confederacy/