Campbell County
One of Our Youngest Confederate Soldiers
Published in the Confederate Veteran Magazine Vol. XVI page 563 in 1908.
A report from Louisville, Kentucky states that John H Whallen, of that city is "the youngest Confederate veteran in the United States." His friends make this claim and General Basil Duke vouches for it.
The war ended 43 years ago and Colonel Whallen, now only 57 years old, saw three years service in the great struggle between the States. There may be men younger than he who fought in the Confederate army, as a man who enlisted at the age of 13 in the last year of the war, now only 56 years old; but there is no man of his age who can point to three years service as a real soldier.
Colonel Whallen was 11 years old when his enlisted in the Confederate army. He lived in Alexandria Kentucky, 12 miles south of Cincinnati, and when some youths of the neighborhood formed a party to cast their fortunes with the South, Whallen who was well grown for his age and of most adventurous spirit, persuaded them to accept him. On their first start a band of home guards who had learned what they were about undertook to intercept them. There was a sharp brush, and Whallen shot one man, wounding him seriously. He met this man after he returned from the war, and they became good friends.
Whallen and his comrades joined the 4th Kentucky Cavalry. Whallen was assigned to Captain Bart Jenkins' company and from that time on he was a soldier and knew real war. His company was chiefly on duty in Southwestern Virginia, and although it participated in few big battles, it was in constant fighting and skirmishes and the work was harder and more dangerous than that which fell to armies that enjoyed respites between combats, as each man had to rely on his individual prowess.
Captain Bart Jenkins says that Whallen was one of his best soldiers, and General Duke, who frequently met him during the war, says the same. Captain Jenkins' most thrilling story is of the time he and Whallen were besieged in a house by bushwhackers. Jenkins was ill and Whallen was hardly large enough to handle a gun, but they beat off the band until aid came.
Whallen served until mustered out in 1865 when he was just 14 years old. He lives in Louisville, owns the Buckingham Theatre, is treasurer of the Empire Circuit and has business interests that make him one of Louisville's prominent citizens. His most beloved possession is a cross of honor that was bestowed on him by the Daughters of the Confederacy for his services.
For more information about John Whallen on another site, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Whallen