Isaac G. Thacker, 40th Ky Infantry: The Life of a Boy Soldier

It has been a while since I last posted, so here finally is another story, this time about a very young man who served his country more than once.

Boys fighting in the Civil War is just one of the thousands of topics covering the Civil War, and it was, of course, also an issue in Campbell County, Kentucky. One 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 40^th Kentucky Infantry, though he was soon listed as a musician.

The 40^th 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. These contests included fights at both Mount Sterling and the Second Battle of Cynthiana.

These men then spent the rest of their time in the service in eastern Kentucky and near Saltville, Virginia the regiment mustered out in December of 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, including Campbell County residents Perry Wright and Adam Freppon, ran into trouble when their families found out what their sons were doing. Both of those boys managed to overcome their parents’ disapproval and joined the military, but Isaac did not have that problem, as his mother (under the name America McClannahan from a new marriage) permitted his enlistment by signing (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 including years 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 farmer, no doubt from his work on the family land.

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, and Isaac may have helped guard prisoners. Perhaps officials tried to find him tasks less dangerous tasks than active field duty, but, if so, it did not work. Records list him as absent without leave in June of that same year, but other paperwork clarifies that 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.

After Morgan paroled his captives (instead of trying to guard and feed them during his raid), Isaac spent time in a hospital in Lexington in July and August.

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, per the census recorded on August 1. A few 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. 

He moved around often in the post-war years, but in 1890 was still in Dayton.

At some point in the 1880s or 1890s, Isaac and Alice divorced, as that was her marital status in the 1900 census, though specific information on when or why they separated has not revealed itself.

Isaac married again, this time to Millie Sheffield on July 14, 1893, in West Virginia and in 1900, he could read and write 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.

The Civil War apparently had not quenched his thirst for military experiences, so in the years after that conflict,  enlisted in the army three more times.

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

In 1883, he enlisted in company E of the 10^th 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, again as his term had expired. He was a Protestant, and his character was “excellent.”

Undated photo from a family tree on ancestry.com

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

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

  From findagrave memorial id 16147070