Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: On the night of September tenth of two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: a man lounged on a couch in a New York
Speaker 1: City hotel suite. Outside his window, the bright lights of
Speaker 1: Manhattan cut through the darkness. He could see the twin
Speaker 1: towers jutting upwards, taller than any other buildings in the city.
Speaker 1: The man hadn't felt this good in a long time.
Speaker 1: His whole body was exhausted from the show he'd put
Speaker 1: on a few hours before. But it was okay because
Speaker 1: his tour was finally over, and for once he wasn't
Speaker 1: alone in his hotel room. His relatives were there with him.
Speaker 1: You see, this man was always traveling, always away from home,
Speaker 1: always missing his family. But that night, his mom and
Speaker 1: his sister sat across from him, smiling and laughing. I
Speaker 1: don't know what they talked about. Maybe they told stories
Speaker 1: about when the man was just a kid, even back
Speaker 1: then he'd been a star. Maybe they told him how
Speaker 1: great that evening show had been, how excited the fans
Speaker 1: at Madison Square Garden had been. Or maybe they asked
Speaker 1: him what he had going on the next day. If
Speaker 1: they did, he would have told them this. The very
Speaker 1: next morning, September eleventh of two thousand and one, he
Speaker 1: had a meeting on the top floor of the World
Speaker 1: Trade Center. Whatever they talked about, it must have been
Speaker 1: a great conversation, because the man's mom and sister didn't
Speaker 1: leave his hotel room until four o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1: By the time they were gone, he was totally drained.
Speaker 1: He barely remembered to set his alarm before he crawled
Speaker 1: into bed and fell asleep. Next morning, at eight forty
Speaker 1: six am, American Airlines Flight eleven crashed into the North
Speaker 1: Tower of the World Trade Center. Seventeen minutes later, Flight
Speaker 1: one P seventy five struck the South tower. In the process,
Speaker 1: Manhattan became the setting of the deadliest terrorist attack in
Speaker 1: US history, with over three thousand people killed. Rubble littered
Speaker 1: the ground, smoke rose high into the air, and first
Speaker 1: responders risked their lives to save others. Across the country,
Speaker 1: new stations played footage of the horrifying tragedy. Even today,
Speaker 1: it would be difficult to find a single person over
Speaker 1: the age of thirty that doesn't remember exactly where they
Speaker 1: were the moment they heard the news. Back then, though,
Speaker 1: word was still spreading, and in that New York City
Speaker 1: hotel room, the man's alarm beaped and beaped and beaped.
Speaker 1: He should have been inside the World Trade Center at
Speaker 1: the very moment the plane struck, but he was so
Speaker 1: tired that he had slept through his alarm. It wasn't
Speaker 1: until the sounds of explosions and sirens broke out that
Speaker 1: he woke up, got out of bed, and ran to
Speaker 1: his window. A peaceful scene from the night before was gone.
Speaker 1: The twin towers were in shambles. Just as he began
Speaker 1: to understand what happened, the man's hotel phone rang. He
Speaker 1: picked it up and heard his mom's frantic voice on
Speaker 1: the other end. She wanted to make sure that her
Speaker 1: son was alive, he told her, and I quote mother,
Speaker 1: I'm okay. Thanks to you. You kept me up talking
Speaker 1: so late that I overslept and missed my appointment and
Speaker 1: listen the last I slept through my alarm. It pretty
Speaker 1: much ruined my whole day. But I can't even begin
Speaker 1: to imagine how grateful this man must have been. He
Speaker 1: went on to live for another eight years, but those
Speaker 1: were trying times for him. The man who had once
Speaker 1: sold out shows at Madison Square Garden became the subject
Speaker 1: of widespread controversy. Fame, something that he had had since
Speaker 1: he was eleven years old, took its toll. His legacy
Speaker 1: had been damaged time and time again, and this might
Speaker 1: be what inspired his brother to write a memoir. The
Speaker 1: story about this man narrowly escaping nine to eleven was
Speaker 1: revealed in his brother's book, which was published in twenty eleven.
Speaker 1: It also gives more intimate details of the man's life
Speaker 1: and reminds readers that while he was a complicated and
Speaker 1: often troubled figure, the impact he made on music and
Speaker 1: pop culture is undeniable. Without him, there would be no Moonwalk,
Speaker 1: no glittery White Glove, no thriller Knights. After all, he
Speaker 1: was Michael Jackson, the King of pop. In September of
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three, the Civil War was at its height.
Speaker 1: The Union and Confederate armies faced off in northwestern Georgia
Speaker 1: in a conflict now known as the Battle of Chickamauga.
Speaker 1: It was a horrible, brutal fight, becoming the second deadliest
Speaker 1: battle of the Civil War, only behind Gettysburg. But in
Speaker 1: the midst of this fighting stood a very curious soldier.
Speaker 1: His name was John Clem. He was from Ohio, and
Speaker 1: he left to join the Union Army a little over
Speaker 1: two years prior. At first, he served as a drummer
Speaker 1: for Michigan's twenty second Regiment, but anxious to do more,
Speaker 1: he quickly traded his drumsticks for a musket. When the
Speaker 1: twenty second Regiment entered the Battle of Chickamauga on September
Speaker 1: eighteenth of eighteen sixty three, John Clem marched alongside them
Speaker 1: for two days. They fought for two days. They stuck together,
Speaker 1: Then disaster struck. A group of Confederate soldiers surrounded them.
Speaker 1: John became separated from the rest of his regiment. When
Speaker 1: he looked up, he found himself staring straight into the
Speaker 1: eyes of a Confederate colonel. The colonel sized John Clem
Speaker 1: up and said, and I quote, I think the best
Speaker 1: thing a mite of a chap like you can do
Speaker 1: is drop that gun. But John Clem did not drop
Speaker 1: his gun, quite the opposite. He lifted the musket, aimed
Speaker 1: it right at the colonel and shot. Then he turned
Speaker 1: around and sprinted away as fast as he possibly could
Speaker 1: and behind him. The colonel yelled out some choice words,
Speaker 1: calling John a damned little Yankee devil. But John probably
Speaker 1: did hear that bit. He'd managed to make it back
Speaker 1: across the Union lines and was safely with his fellow fighters.
Speaker 1: Although the Confederate Army won the battle that day, John
Speaker 1: Clem survived, and he would soon be honored for his
Speaker 1: bravery against the colonel. He was promoted from soldier to sergeant,
Speaker 1: which meant that he was now officially an officer in
Speaker 1: the US Army. The only catch was John Clem was
Speaker 1: twelve years old. It's crazy, I know. It was a
Speaker 1: journey that started just a few years earlier too. John's
Speaker 1: mother had died when he was nine years old, and
Speaker 1: after she was gone, he ran away from home in
Speaker 1: the hope of joining the army. He'd actually been turned
Speaker 1: away from at least one other regiment on account of
Speaker 1: the whole thing of being a child. Before the twenty
Speaker 1: second Michigan regiment accepted him. When they did finally let
Speaker 1: him in, it was only so that he could be
Speaker 1: a sort of unofficial mascot slash drummer boy. He was
Speaker 1: more like an adopted child who the other soldiers took
Speaker 1: care of than an actual member of the US military.
Speaker 1: But John kept insisting that he wasn't there to drum,
Speaker 1: he was there to fight. Eventually, his commander agreed that
Speaker 1: he could have a musket, although they had to saw
Speaker 1: part of the end off to make it light enough
Speaker 1: for the child to carry. Regardless, at the Battle of Chickamauga,
Speaker 1: John clem clearly proved that he met business. Still, for
Speaker 1: all his bravery, there was the pesky problem of being
Speaker 1: a minor. About a year later, in July of eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty four, the US War Department announced that it would
Speaker 1: be instituting strict penalties for anyone who allowed boys under
Speaker 1: the age of sixteen to enlist, So John's commanding officer
Speaker 1: was forced to let him go. He told the boy,
Speaker 1: in so many words, that he ought to trade the
Speaker 1: musket for a pencil and go to school. John followed
Speaker 1: his commander's orders. From his new place in a high
Speaker 1: school classroom. He kept in touch with his friends from
Speaker 1: Michigan's twenty second Regiment, and when he graduated in eighteen seventy,
Speaker 1: he received nomination to West Point from none other than
Speaker 1: President Ulysses S. Grant, But that didn't go quite as
Speaker 1: planned either. John failed the West Point entrance exam. However,
Speaker 1: due to his highly unique experience, President Grant appointed John
Speaker 1: as an army lieutenant. Anyway, John Clem spent the next
Speaker 1: forty four years in the military, eventually rising to the
Speaker 1: rank of major general. When he retired in nineteen fifteen,
Speaker 1: he was the last active duty member who had served
Speaker 1: in the Civil War. He died in nineteen thirty seven
Speaker 1: and is now buried at Arlington National Cemetery with a
Speaker 1: headstone that says John Lincoln Clem, the Drummer Boy of Chickamauga,
Speaker 1: a fitting nickname for such a strange soldier. I hope
Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with hou
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show and
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at Theworldoflore dot com.
Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.