Drummer (military)
A drummer was responsible for the
The idea of the "Drummer Boy"
The romantic idea about drummers is that they were young boys (for instance the Christmas carol "The Little Drummer Boy", or the painting "Steady the Drums and Fifes"). The fact, though, is that drummers were more often adult men, recruited like the common soldiers. Fifers, on the other hand, being not an official part of the regiments early on, were usually recruited from young boys. During the second half of the 19th century, it was accepted in many western armies that under aged boys served as drummers.
Although there were usually official age limits, these were often ignored; the youngest boys were sometimes treated as mascots by the adult soldiers. The life of a drummer boy appeared rather glamorous and as a result, boys would sometimes run away from home to enlist.[2] Other boys may have been the sons or orphans of soldiers serving in the same unit.[3] The image of a small child in the midst of battle was seen as deeply poignant by 19th-century artists, and idealized boy drummers were frequently depicted in paintings, sculpture and poetry.[4]
Notable drummer boys
In 1793, Joseph Bara, a 14-year-old French Republican drummer at the time of the War in the Vendée, was killed by royalist counter-revolutionaries, supposedly while he was shouting "Long live the Republic!". His body was interred at the Panthéon along with other national heroes.[5]
On 19 April 1855, at the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War, there was a bayonet attack by the British 77th Regiment of Foot on some rifle pits which the Russians were using to snipe at British positions. Accompanying the attack was an unnamed drummer boy of the 77th, who seeing a Russian boy trumpeter trying to escape, caught hold of him and beat him with his fists "in truly British fashion" until he surrendered. The boy presented the Russian trumpet to Sir George Brown and he was later rewarded by General Lord Raglan, the British commander.[7]
At the
On 28 November 1857 at the
Thirteen-year-old
Twelve-year-old drummer boy William Black was the youngest recorded person wounded in battle during the American Civil War.
An 11-year-old drummer in the Confederate
Decline
The use of drums beyond the parade ground declined rapidly as the 19th century progressed, being replaced by the bugle in the signalling role, although it was often the drummers who were required to play them. A widely reported incident at the Battle of Isandlwana during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, spelled the end of boys being sent on active service by the British Army. Part of the British force returned to their camp at night to find that it had been overrun by the Zulu army a few hours previously. An eyewitness reported that "Even the little drummer boys that we had in the band, they were hung up on hooks, and opened like sheep. It was a pitiful sight". Doubt has since been cast on this account, since the youngest drummer to be killed was 18, and the youngest boy present was 16.[11] Despite this, Charles Edwin Fripp's famous painting, The Last Stand at Isandlwana, shows a small blond-haired boy amongst the adult soldiers.[12] The US Army kept drummers and fifers with the infantry, until they were finally abolished in the field in 1917. Drums, like other instruments, were now only used for parades and ceremonies.
See also
- Musician (rank)
- Corps of Drums
- Military use of children
- Military drums
References
- ^ U.S. Civil War History & Genealogy – The Drummer Boys Archived 2021-05-14 at the Wayback Machine, genealogyforum.com
- ^ Albert A. Nofi, A Civil War Treasury: Being a Miscellany of Arms and Artillery, Facts and Figures, Legends and Lore Da Capo Press 1992 (p.107)
- ^ Richard Holmes, Soldiers: Army Lives and Loyalties from Redcoats to Dusty Warriors, Harper Press 2011 (p.275)
- ISBN 0-7190-2575-3(p.101)
- ^ Dupuy, Pascal, La Mort de Bara http://www.histoire-image.org L’Histoire par l’image (in French). Retrieved: 19 January 2015
- ^ Fondation Napoléon – Honorary drumsticks presented to the drummer of Arcole Archived May 28, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Thomas Carter, Medals of the British Army: and How They Were Won: Volume 1, Groombridge and Son, London 1861 (p.77)
- ^ Holmes, (p.275)
- ^ "Athlone Heritage – Drummer Thomas Flynn VC". Archived from the original on 2011-10-08. Retrieved 2013-02-06.
- ^ Nofi, (p.108)
- ISBN 978-0330445931
- ISBN 1-84176-511-2(p.64)