Drummer Boy Willie McGee, Civil War Hero and Fraud

On December 7, 1864, just one week after the bloody battle of Franklin, Tennessee, a drummer boy from Newark, New Jersey, William McGee, was credited with leading a Federal force to a sharp and decisive victory over the Confederates in a clash just thirty miles from the carnage at Franklin. For his actions, young McGee would soon be awarded a Medal of Honor, written up in both newspapers and books as a glorious New Jersey legend, be commissioned as a lieutenant in the United States Army at age 18, and then, inexplicably at the height of his notoriety, virtually disappear from history for more than 100 years. This is the story of a lost war hero, a man-child with the world at his feet, whose fall from grace is accelerated by fame, lies, alcohol, bigamy, and murder.