Child soldiers have been used for thousands of years

Child soldiers were used in the U.S. Civil War. It is estimated that 5% of the soldiers in the Civil War were minors. At age 12, William Black was the youngest soldier that was wounded in the Civil War. In 1861 President Lincoln created a law that required soldiers under 18 to have parent permission to be a soldier. In 1862 he made a new law that outlawed the use of child soldiers.

Children were also recruited during the 1300s in the Ottoman Empire. Originally the Turks kidnapped young Christian boys and made them into an elite military group. This group was called Janissaries. Later the Turks stopped kidnapping young boys, and soldiers volunteered instead. In 1826 the Janissaries stopped being a military group.

Picture from scriptsus.wordpress.com
Facts from digitalhistory.uh.edu and suite101.com