Copshoppe > Military > General John Clem
Civil War Figure, United States Army General. On May 24, 1861, at just 9-years of age, he left his home in Newark, Ohio, to join the fighting that had recently erupted in what would become the Civil War. His mother had been killed in a train accident, and he was now free to do his part to protect the Union. The first thing he did was to change his name. He was born John Joseph Klem, but changed his middle name to Lincoln because of his admiration for President Abraham Lincoln. He then changed the spelling of his last name, spelling his name with a C instead of a K which was used by his German immigrant family.