Orion Howe served as a drummer boy in the 55th Illinois Infantry, Company C, enlisting at the age of 14. Orion was severely wounded in the 1863 Battle of Vicksburg. He is one of the youngest American soldiers to receive the Medal of Honor, and the poem, “Before Vicksburg” by George H. Boker appeared in the September 1864 issue of The Atlantic Monthly and tells the story of Orion’s bravery at Vicksburg.

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