Robert Henry Hendershot Robert Henry Hendershot , known as the Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock , was an American Civil War drummer boy known for his reputed heroics at the Battle of Fredericksburg , Virginia , in December 1862 . Biography . Hendershot was born somewhere between 1847 and 1851 in either New York or Michigan . In 1861 he was living with his widowed mother in Jackson , Michigan . That fall he began drilling with the Jackson County Rifles , a local volunteer unit . He accompanied them to Fort Wayne , outside Detroit , where the unit became Company C of the Ninth Michigan Infantry . Hendershot did not enlist at this time , but accompanied the regiment to its first encampment at West Point , Kentucky , either as a stowaway or as a servant to Captain Charles V . DeLand , the company commander and erstwhile publisher of the " Jackson American Citizen " . Hendershot remained with Company C until March 1862 , when he enlisted as a musician in Company B . He was with Company B at the Murfreesboro , Tennessee courthouse when it was attacked by a Confederate cavalry brigade under command of Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest on July 13 , 1862 , at the Battle of Stones River . Hendershot was captured with the rest of his regiment and paroled with the enlisted men . Shortly thereafter he was discharged for disability ; he suffered frequent and severe epileptic seizures , an affliction he had endured since early childhood . Although this alone should have precluded any further military service , " an oath of honor " also obliged Hendershot " not to take up arms against the Confederacy until regularly exchanged . " In spite of this , in early September Hendershot appeared at a Detroit recruiting office and enlisted in the Eighth Michigan Infantry . Because of his parole , he signed on with an alias , " Robert Henry Henderson . " His critics later called this despicable , while others said it had been a common practice . Hendershot claimed he had done so at the urging of the recruiter , Lieutenant Michael Hogan , retained him as his personal servant and aide for the next two months . When Chaplain George Taylor arrived from Ann Arbor , he developed a fondness for Hendershot and gained permission to have him placed under his " special care . " The two traveled south to Taylor ' s assigned unit , the Eighth Michigan Infantry . At the Washington depot Taylor rescued Hendershot when he suffered a seizure and fell in front of a locomotive . He suffered another seizure a few days later , while standing at dress parade . Hendershot then confessed to Taylor of his discharge from the Ninth Infantry and his use of an alias . Hendershot began to have such frequent seiures that the acting regimental commander , Major Ralph Ely , ordered him off - duty and applied for his discharge . Hendershot awaited discharge through the closing months of 1862 . Freed of his military duties , he explored the Union encampment that contained the Army of the Potomac . The Army was waiting on the banks of the Rappahannock River , opposite the lightly defended city of Fredericksburg , Virginia , while bridges were built across the river . The delay enabled General Robert E . Lee to move his army into position . When the engineers arrived , they came under attack from rebel sharpshooters , so on 11 December 1862 the Seventh Michigan Infantry volunteered to cross the river under enemy fire and drive the rebel sharpshooters from their nests . Hendershot ' s wanderings had taken him to the riverbank that morning . He later claimed he helped push off the first boat and slipped when he tried to climb aboard , and made the voyage across clinging to the gunwale . A dispatch from the scene describes " a drummer boy , only 13 years old , who volunteered and went over in the first boat , and returned laden with curiosities picked up while there . " A correspondent for the " Detroit Advertiser and Tribune " wrote that the boy belonged to the Eighth Michigan Infantry . Reports of the episode appeared in the press . The young hero remained nameless until late December , when Hendershot visited the offices of the " Detroit Free Press " and " Detroit Advertiser and Tribune " , claiming to be the " Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock . " Hendershot ' s story was repeated in national papers , including the " New - York Tribune " . Its publisher , Horace Greeley , presented Hendershot with a silver drum . For the next eight weeks Hendershot performed at the P . T . Barnum museum , and then spent a few weeks more in Poughkeepsie , New York , at the Eastman Business College , which had rewarded his heroism with a scholarship . Hendershot was discharged from the Eight Michigan Infantry , for epilepsy , on 27 December 1862 . In April 1864 he left Poughkeepsie and enlisted as a first class boy aboard the U . S . S . " Fort Jackson " at Hampton Roads , Virginia . From his naval service arose the story that he was a member of a shore party that destroyed a salt works near Fort Fisher . Only Hendershot ' s biographers offer evidence that Hendershot took part in the raid . He fell overboard while in a seizure and would have drowned had it not been for a watchful shipmate , Seaman Henry Harkins . Hendershot claimed that this incident prompted his discharge upon the ship ' s return to Norfolk on 26 June 1864 . The ship ' s log listed him as a deserter . Hendershot claimed that he spent the next few months on a grand tour of England , in service as a page with the Treasury Department , and on dangerous missions for General Grant as a spy operating behind enemy lines . By the end of the war Hendershot had collected a portfolio of endorsements from Generals Burnside , Meade , Logan , Parkhurst and others , recommending him for an appointment to West Point . The last endorsement came from President Lincoln , who wrote " I know of this boy , and believe he is very brave , manly and worthy . " Hendershot claimed he had been denied admission to the Academy because of his wounds , or because of his inability to pass the entrance exams ; however , no application exists in War Department records . < / ref > Post war . After the war Hendershot returned to Poughkeepsie Business College for a brief time , marrying a fellow student . In 1867 he collaborated with writer William Sumner Dodge , who produced a 200 - page biography , " Robert Henry Hendershot ; or the Brave Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock " . For the next two decades Hendershot worked for the Union Pacific Railroad in Omaha , Nebraska , and then as a federal mail clerk for the Michigan Lake Shore Railroad in Chicago , Illinois . After his retirement as mail clerk in 1885 , Hendershot took out his drum and began touring the country with his son , Cleveland , who played the fife . Although they principally performed at Grand Army of the Republic ( GAR ) functions and other patriotic gatherings , their tour also took them to Canada and the Kingdom of Hawaii , where they entertained Queen Lill ' uokalani . In July 1891 Hendershot posted a letter to the GAR newspaper , the " National Tribune " , restating his claim to the title " Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock , " as well as that of " youngest soldier " . He was by then one of the best known veteran drummer boys in the country . As such , he was invited to lead the Michigan Department during the GAR parade at the organization ' s annual national encampment , held in Detroit the first week of August . There were old soldiers who were not pleased by the fame and honors Hendershot enjoyed . One of them was the Seventh Michigan ' s former drum major , Wilbur F . Dickerson of Grand Rapids , Michigan . In a letter to the encampment ' s organizers , Dickerson pronounced Hendershot a fake , and asked them to remove him from his place of honor . In other letters Dickerson asked members of the Seventh Michigan to help him spearhead an attack to discredit Hendershot . Hendershot kept his place of honor in the parade , but during the next few days the GAR hierarchy , following the lead of veterans of the Seventh and Eighth Michigan Infantries , pronounced Hendershot a fraud and stripped him of his title , which was then awarded to John T . Spillaine , a Detroit policeman and former Seventh Michigan drummer boy . Several months later a number of Detroit citizens awarded Spillaine a gold medal , two inches in diameter , upon which was a raised figure of a drummer boy and the inscription " Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock . " Spillaine readily accepted the title and proudly wore the medal for the rest of his life . Spillaine used the title as a springboard to commandership of the Michigan Department of the GAR in 1912 . He appears with the medal in his official GAR portrait , and maintained a scrapbook of newspaper articles related to the Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock until his death . Hendershot immediately mounted an appeal in the local press ; however , the newspapers responded with rebuttals from Drum Major Dickerson and others . By the end of the conference Hendershot had been thoroughly discredited . Throughout the encampment , the Reverend George Taylor had resisted those who wanted him to make a statement , lest it " disturb the harmony of the occasion , the success of which we were so anxious to promote . " In a letter published in the " Detroit Tribune " on 13 August 1891 , Taylor recounted the events of that day , and stated his " firm conviction " that Hendershot was " the individual who was known from the first as the ' Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock . ' " . The controversy continued in the Detroit newspapers and in the " National Tribune " . A year later , at GAR ' s annual encampment at Washington , D . C . , the membership reaffirmed Spillaine ' s right to the title of Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock . Spillaine , flanked by a guard of honor composed of members of the Seventh Michigan Infantry , tapped the cadence for the Michigan Department as it marched up Pennsylvania Avenue . Hendershot did not attend the encampment , the " National Tribune " stated , " as it was clearly shown at the Detroit encampment that he was not entitled to this honor . " During 1892 Hendershot traveled from coast to coast , visiting GAR posts and regimental reunions , winning back support of other old veterans . By the time of the national encampment of 1893 , in Indianapolis , he had won his fight : the GAR reinstated his title and presented him with a diamond - studded solid gold medal inscribed " Robert H . Hendershot , Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock , from G . A . R . and W . R . C . comrades , Indianapolis , 1893 . " Soon after Hendershot strengthened his claim with another biography , " Camp Fire Entertainment : The True Story of R . H . Hendershot , Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock " . Although Spillaine also continued to claim the title and used it to gain commandership of the Michigan Department of the GAR in 1912 , Hendershot apparently felt no further need to defend his title . He continued his career as a professional veteran drummer boy until at least 1914 , when he performed during a reunion of the Iron Brigade , in Detroit , Michigan . Hendershot had one fight left , however . Pension claims and death . Hendershot had first filed for an invalid veteran ' s pension in 1890 . The claim was based only on his service in the Ninth Michigan Infantry . The Pension Bureau scheduled a medical examination for Hendershot , and three times he failed to appear . After that the Bureau moved his application to the inactive file . Hendershot let the matter rest for two more decades , while he and his son toured the country , entertaining at GAR gatherings and other patriotic functions . Then , in 1912 , he applied for a veteran ' s old age pension , based on his service in both the Eighth and Ninth Michigan Infantries . The Bureau could find no record of his service with the Eighth ( probably due to his use of an alias ) , and requested additional information . Hendershot responded with an account of his naval service aboard the U . S . S . " Fort Jackson " . After checking with the Navy Department , which still listed Hendershot as a deserter - at - large , the Bureau summarily rejected his application . For the next ten years Hendershot gathered affidavits , hired lawyers , and exchanged letters with the Bureau , but failed to get the pension . In 1921 he modified his application , stating that he was an invalid , bedridden , suffering from Parkinson ' s disease , and in need of constant attention . Again , his naval service stood in the way . Finally , Hendershot appealed to Congress , which by a special act on 23 December 1924 granted him an old age pension of $ 50 per month . But Hendershot felt he was entitled to an invalid ' s pension of $ 72 per month . Another fight with the Pension Bureau ensued , but Hendershot died of pneumonia on 26 December 1925 , without ever winning the pension .