I was reading J.T. Headley book "Napoleon's Imperial Guard" and at one point he talks about a unit of his regular Guard's children and relatives that comprised a unit for the protection of the King of Rome. I believe the boys had to be between the ages of 10 and 16 to be eligible to join and it was meant to be mostly a ceremonial position. He goes on to describe how many of these boys ended up actually doing front line duty during the invasion of France. He claims that they engaged the Cossacks and mentions one boy in particular who at age 12 lost a limb from an artillery shell. He was subsequently awarded the Legion of Honor.

I do not know much about this particular author, but the book did not have any footnotes for me to refer to. Does anyone know if there were cases of boys 10-16 years of age fighting in Napoleon's ranks? I know conscription got the age of men down to 17 and 18 (Scott Bowden "Napoleon's Grande Armee of 1813" AKA The Marie Louises) so I guess they would have to be volunteers or National Guardsmen. I also assume that they would be relatively isolated (much like in WWII during the defense of Berlin with the Hitler Youth destroying Soviet tanks.) If you do know of any cases do you know the source? Thank you!