Johnny Shiloh
John
Lincoln Clem (August 13, 1851 – May 13, 1937) was a United States Army general
who served as a drummer boy in the Union Army in the American Civil War. He
gained fame for his bravery on the battlefield, becoming the youngest non-commissioned
officer in Army history. He retired from the Army in 1915, having attained the
rank of Brigadier General in the Quartermaster Corps. When advised he should
retire, he requested to be allowed to remain on active duty until he became the
last veteran of the Civil War still on duty in the Armed Forces. By special act
of Congress on August 29, 1916, he was promoted to Major General upon his
retirement.
Born in
Newark, Ohio, in 1851 as John Joseph Klem, he ran away from home to become a
Union Army drummer boy. He attempted to enlist in May 1861 in the 3rd Ohio
Infantry, but was rejected because of his age and small size. He then tried to
join the 22nd Michigan, which also refused him. He tagged along anyway, and the
22nd eventually adopted him as mascot and drummer boy. Officers chipped in to
pay him the regular soldier’s wage of $13 a month, and finally allowed him to
enlist two years later.
A popular
legend suggests that Clem served as a drummer boy with the Michigan at the
Battle of Shiloh. The legend suggests that he came very near to losing his life
when a fragment from a shrapnel shell crashed through his drum, knocking him
unconscious, and that subsequently his comrades who found and rescued him from
the battlefield nicknamed Clem "Johnny Shiloh."
The
weight of historical evidence however suggests that Clem could not have taken
part in the battle of Shiloh. The 22nd Michigan appears to be the first unit in
which Clem served in any capacity, but this regiment had not yet been
constituted at the time of the battle. The Johnny Shiloh myth appears instead
to stem from a popular Civil War song, "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" by
William S. Hays which was written for Harpers Weekly of New York. The song was
written following the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, and may have
been written with Clem in mind because he had already become a nationally known
figure by that time.
At the
Battle of Chickamauga, he rode an artillery caisson to the front and wielded a
musket trimmed to his size. In the course of a Union retreat, he shot a
Confederate colonel who had demanded his surrender. After the battle, the
"Drummer Boy of Chickamauga" was promoted to sergeant, the youngest
soldier ever to be a non-commissioned officer in the United States Army.
In
October 1863, Clem was captured in Georgia by Confederate cavalry while
detailed as a train guard. The Confederate soldiers confiscated his uniform
which reportedly upset him terribly—including his cap which had three bullet
holes in it. He was exchanged a short time later, but the Confederate
newspapers used his age and celebrity status to show "what sore straits
the Yankees are driven, when they have to send their babes out to fight
us."
After
participating with the Army of the Cumberland in many other battles, serving as
a mounted orderly, he was discharged in 1865. Clem was wounded in combat twice
during the war.
Clem
graduated from high school in 1870. In 1871, he was elected Commander/captain
of the "Washington Rifles" a District of Columbia Army National Guard
Militia unit. After he attempted unsuccessfully to enter the United States
Military Academy, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him second lieutenant in
the Twenty-fourth United States Infantry. Clem graduated from artillery school
at Fort Monroe in 1875, transferred to the quartermaster department in 1882,
and rose to the rank of brigadier general by the time he retired in 1915.
Clem
spent a number of his Army years in Texas. From 1906 to 1911 he was Chief
Quartermaster at Fort Sam Houston; after retirement he lived in Washington,
D.C. for a few years, then returned to San Antonio, Texas. He married Anita
Rosetta French in 1875. She died in 1899, and he married Bessie Sullivan of San
Antonio in 1903. Clem was the father of two children. He died in San Antonio on
May 13, 1937, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.
Kevin
Anthony "Moochie" Corcoran (born June 10, 1949, in Santa Monica,
California) is an American director, producer, and former child actor. He
appeared in numerous Disney projects between 1957 and 1963, frequently as an
irrepressible character with the nickname Moochie. One of eight children, most
of whom did some acting in the late 1950s to early 1960s, Corcoran is the
sibling whose work is best remembered. His father, William "Bill"
Corcoran, Sr. (1905–1958), was a police officer and then director of maintenance
at MGM Studios. Corcoran's mother, the former Kathleen McKenney (1917–1972),
was like her husband a native of Quincy, Massachusetts.
Between
1956 and 1960, Corcoran played several different (but similar) characters, each
bearing the nickname Moochie. Although he was never a Mouseketeer, Corcoran
appeared in three Mickey Mouse Club serials, beginning with Adventure in
Dairyland, where he played Moochie McCandless, a farmer's son. This was the
first of Corcoran's many Disney credits. He soon returned, as Montgomery
(Moochie) O'Hara, in two Spin and Marty serials, The Further Adventures of Spin
and Marty and The New Adventures of Spin and Marty.
Corcoran appeared in a Mouseketeer outfit with
the name Moochie across his chest - once. In Disneyland: The Fourth Anniversary
Show (1957), an episode of the Disney anthology television series,
"Mouseketeer" Moochie repeatedly badgers Walt Disney for information
about Zorro.
Continuing his fictional Moochie roles,
Corcoran played Montgomery "Moochie" Daniels in the 1959 Disney film
The Shaggy Dog. He also starred as Moochie Morgan in Moochie of the Little
League (1959) and Moochie of Pop Warner Football (1960), both for the Disney
anthology series. Character actor Russ Conway played his father.
In each iteration, Moochie likes to hang out
with the older "guys" (big brother Wilby in The Shaggy Dog, the title
characters in Spin and Marty), and hates being treated like the little kid he
is. His determination to emulate elder peers despite adult warnings (swimming,
helping Wilby, even switch-hitting) frequently gets him in trouble, but
Moochie's bravado always returns soon afterward. Film writer Donald Liebenson
has called Corcoran's character "part All-American boy and part
hellion."
Corcoran
appeared in numerous Disney projects (and a handful of non-Disney ones) without
the Moochie name. He starred as Toby, an orphan who runs off to join the
circus, in Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus (1960). This was the only
theatrical film in which Corcoran had the lead role. Important co-starring
roles include the following:
Old Yeller (1957) - younger son Arliss Coates
Goliath II (1960) - Goliath II
Pollyanna (1960) - Pollyanna's friend, orphan
Jimmy Bean
Swiss Family Robinson (1960) - youngest son
Francis Robinson
Daniel Boone (1960 Disney miniseries) - son
James Boone
Babes in Toyland (1961) - nursery rhyme character
Boy Blue
Bon Voyage! (1962) - younger son Skipper
Willard
The Mooncussers (1962 Disney TV) - Jonathan
Feather
Johnny Shiloh (1963 Disney TV) - Union Army
drummer Johnny Lincoln Clem
Savage Sam (1963) - Arliss Coates again
A Tiger Walks (1964) - Tom Hadley
Kevin Corcoran and Tommy Kirk played brothers
in five films, beginning with 1957's Old Yeller. The other films in this
category were The Shaggy Dog (1959), Swiss Family Robinson (1960), Bon Voyage!
(1962) and Savage Sam (sequel to Old Yeller, 1963). Fred MacMurray played their
father in The Shaggy Dog and Bon Voyage! Dorothy McGuire played their mother in
Old Yeller and Swiss Family Robinson.
Corcoran largely retired from acting after A
Tiger Walks, although he also appeared in the 1968 film Blue in a minor role.
It was probably around the time of the latter film that he attended college. In
an interview for the DVD release of The Shaggy Dog, he credits his studio
teachers with having prepared him well for his college studies.
Corcoran graduated from California State
University, Northridge with a degree in theatre arts. After this he returned to
Disney, this time working behind the camera as an assistant director and
producer. His credits from this era include Superdad (1973), The Island at the Top
of the World (1974) and Pete's Dragon (1977). Appropriately, he also worked on
The New Mickey Mouse Club (1977). He was an associate producer on The Treasure
of Matecumbe (1976), on the sequel Return from Witch Mountain (1978) and on The
North Avenue Irregulars (1979). He co-produced Herbie Goes Bananas (1980), and
was the producer of the comedy television series Zorro and Son (1983).
Corcoran's more recent contributions to Disney include commentaries and
interviews on such Disney DVD releases as The Shaggy Dog and Pollyanna.
He has also served as first assistant director
on several non-Disney television series, including Scarecrow and Mrs. King,
Quantum Leap, Profiler and Karen Sisco; and produced a number of projects. Over
the course of his tenure on the Angela Lansbury series Murder She Wrote, he was
credited as first assistant director, assistant producer, and director.
Kevin Corcoran is the brother of Donna
Corcoran, Noreen Corcoran, Hugh Corcoran, Brian Corcoran, Kerry Corcoran, and
Kelly Corcoran (1958–2002). Elder siblings Donna, Noreen, and Hugh Corcoran
have extensive film and television credits as child actors during the 1950s.
Donna, Noreen, and Kevin all appeared in the 1955 film Violent Saturday.
Noreen Corcoran starred as Kelly Gregg on the
television series Bachelor Father from 1957-1962. During its five-year run,
Bachelor Father was seen on all three national networks. Brian Corcoran played
Kevin's brother, and Kerry, his sister, in the 1960 Daniel Boone miniseries on Walt
Disney Presents, then on ABC. Brian also was Willie Winkie to Kevin Corcoran's
Boy Blue in the 1961 film Babes in Toyland.
Donna Corcoran played Moochie's sister Marian
in Moochie of the Little League (1960). She also played Bridget White,
("...eight years old") as the little orphan who saw the "Angels
in the Outfield" in the original 1951 version with Paul Douglas and Janet
Leigh. Younger brother Kelly Corcoran (1958–2002) portrayed 8-year-old Kip
Pride in the NBC western series The Road West (1966–1967), starring Barry
Sullivan.
Kevin Corcoran and his wife have been married
since 1972.
Kevin Corcoran was honoured as a Disney Legend
on October 9, 2006. Among the other recipients at the 2006 ceremony were the
two lead actors in Corcoran's Spin and Marty serials, Tim Considine and David
Stollery, and Corcoran's frequent co-star, Tommy Kirk, himself a veteran of
Mickey Mouse Club serials about the Hardy Boys.
