Firing by The Drum

[27thNCdrummer]

Gents,
I'm wondering which way is the most authentic way to fire by the drum. I've heard several versions. Does anybody have any documentation as to which way is most authentic?
Thanks,

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Firing by The Drum

For what it's worth, it's long been my understanding that, in battle, bugles were used for signalling to the men and to subordinate units. Field musicians (fifers and drummers) were typically sent to the rear before the bullets started flying.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Firing by The Drum

Hallo!

I am getting rusty...
I do not recall any Manual reference for firing by the drum or bugle, and the only bugle call that comes to mind, off the top of my head at the moment, is for "'Commemce Firing" and "Cease Firing" instructions to skirmish lines.

Perhaps incorrectly, I had always thought that "Fire by the Drum" was a reenactorism created by taking the principles of the School of teh Soldier's Manual of Arms and later Direct Fire and assigning 1-4 beats of the drum for the "Ready. Aim. Fire. Load." commands.

Where are our buglers? ;)

Curt

[27thNCdrummer]

Re: Firing by The Drum

After some more research this is a reenactorism! There is commence and cease firing on the drum however. In what context would commence fire be used?

[Todd Watts]

Re: Firing by The Drum

I don't know if this is really a "re-enactorism" or not. I have not seen any evidence either way, but the Nation Park Serv does occasionally demonstrate the technique, and their Park historians are pretty detailed about doing what was done. I find it hard to believe that the Parks have just latched onto re-enacting stuff as historical fact so easily if that is the case. It may be that it was indeed a viable technique in manuals before the CW, like in Revy War or 1812 and the technique gets passed around Park ranger trainings that way.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Firing by The Drum

Are you saying, "I saw it at a NPS site so therefore it's probably correct"?

That probably falls into the same category of, "I know it's true 'cause I read it on the Internet."

[DougCooper]

Re: Firing by The Drum

The most famous example of NPS firing by the drum is of course the infantry demo tape at the Gburg NMP. This was my first event (1988), and I was somewhat amazed last year to see it was still being used, but hey, the Shiloh tape dates from around 1960.

Anyway, we fired by the drum and the thing is, it is quite effective at training troops to fire a crisp volley (some locals out here who fall far short on the scale use it for ceremonies) - but I have never, ever seen a ref to it being used in combat, nor even training for that matter. As has been said on here, the drummers were normally toting stretchers, but if they were still in ranks, trying to hear a drum over gunfire is problematic.

[markj]

Re: Firing by The Drum

Nope, I've never encountered any documented reports of "firing by the drum" in an ACW engagement.

However, if it's of any interest, the Prussian Army during the same period did conduct firing by the drum and I can provide details from the Army & Navy Journal. Alas, this really doesn't count, does it?

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[RJSamp]

Re: Firing by The Drum

This may be in the "Firing By File means wait for the file on your right to discharge their weapons on the drill field only" realm. [In actual practice, you simply fired on your own crook as fast as you could (for citations you can start with OTIS and DAWES in their books on the 2nd and 6th WVI respectively).]

We know that JACKSON grabbed a young drummer and excitedly shouted to him to "Beat the Rally, Beat the Rally" (First Kernstown I believe). And we've read of McDowell tying/teathering a drummer to him using his Sash. The drummer then beat out the evolutions for all of his orders. We've got plenty of quotes to the effect "I never once heard a command issued by the drum on the battlefield at any time during the war". (Olsen's "Music and Musket's", 1981 is a good place to start on this). So early on there were a few drummer's on the battlefield trying to communicate.

Recall that McClellan instituted Division drill by the bugle in October 1861 as none of our units recognize the calls. It's not until the 2nd round of battles that they gave up on drummers and started to utilize buglers....and Casey's 1862 Tactics Manual spells this out "The following beats are only to be used in the absence of the bugle". So any use of drummers on the battlefield is most likely 1861....and less as each month goes by. I don't recall any use of the drum at Shiloh for example (other than a long roll).....or just about any battle....doesn't mean it was never used, more likely we've never looked for the evidence of absence.

Was Firing by The Drum ever used? Most Likely. On a battlefield while being fired upon? Doubt it. We've all read about a steady beat of the drum being used During the manual of arms....loading.....marching....evolutions. We know of units that manuevered by the tap of a drum....at a distance from the commander.....in drill..... why not use the drums to indicate the moment for a volley? During drill.

Examining the drum and bugle signals from a number of manuals: Prussian, Hanoverian, Russian, British, Norwegian, Mexican, French, and US Duane's (1812), Cooper's (1826)...... there are a lot of commanality in the beats and calls for Commence Firing that supports the use as a 'volley' signal. Whether it's the Hanoverian calls/drum beats that have an indication of execution (for all manuever calls), to the Mexican, Norwegian, and Russian calls that have a 1 2 3 4 approach....to the US calls with the timing pulses or missing beats.... The Prussian call and usage was to fire by bugle......and we had several regiments in the Federal Army that used the Prussian Calls....

Bottom Line: if we had bugle researchers prior to George Rabbai that had found other bugle sources other than Billings.....we would be in a lot better shape. First Call (of the day) was Reveille.....Taps was not sounded at the end of battles......Bugle call first, drums and fifes second. Reenactor articles in the 80's and 90's weren't looking at the numerous sources available for how bugles were actually used. It's only after we've done mass searches on the OR's for key words (bugle, sounded, charge, Reveille, First Call, call, et al), read Norton's Army Letters, Charles Perkins (1st MASS) diary, William Sargent's diary (Story of a Cavalry Bugler, 1st NE Cavalry), Alonzo Kingsbury's (Chief Bugler, 1st Mass, and Charles Perkins mentions his playing style in his diary!) autobiography (The Hero of Medfield), Charles Reeds (9th Mass Artillery) story, and specifically looked for bugle writings in thousands of sources and reported our finding through the miracle of the Internet that we are coming up with some fairly coherent, consistent, accurate understanding of how bugles were utilized.

Where's this level of intense research for the drummer's? We get into the Bruce & Emmet vs Rote training vs Hart's vs Howe's and how many of which tune was in the Reveille..... and that's it. No group of drummers world wide is rereading the Regimental history's to find out who drilled to the drum at the mustering camp..doing a search on firings/volley/musketry in proximity to the word drum? About all we have is fifers and drummers were stretcher bearers and runners during combat...except in the 4th Corps where every Colonel had a drummer next to him for the purpose of beating a long roll to cease fire and conserve ammunition (By the Order of General Woods) (and it was a reenacting bugler who found this out and published it for all). except when Jackson grabbed a drummer.... except when the Colonel exercised the troops by use of drum taps alone to show off how well trained the boys are...

I had a drummer record every beat in Casey's in 2001.....I've got a CD, Tape, Manual..... Ran off 25 copies.....and sold 10 in 6 years. Nobody knows the beats....not even the drummers. Someone want to put up a cash reward at the next event? Beat Common Step, By the Right Flank, Rally 4's, Fix Bayonets and see who gets them right? Assembly, Adjutant's Call, Three Camps and Yankee Doodle we all can probably recognize......

PEC? no.

Time for some of us to step up to the place and research it......Carlisle Barracks one of the better place's to start....

[Silas]

Re: Firing by The Drum

However, if it's of any interest, the Prussian Army during the same period did conduct firing by the drum and I can provide details from the Army & Navy Journal. Alas, this really doesn't count, does it?

Must be a reason why it's in the Journal. Context of the answer in the Journal may answer the question at issue, but more likely cause more questions. I've not noticed anything in any of the manuals or books about firing by the drum. Distance between the drummers and the end companies plus the usual battlefield noises would make firing by the drum a difficult method of keeping control of the regiment.

Of course, I've seen conflicting text which says that firing by file is the method which is most used by soldiers as well as the method which should not be used. Firing by companies in the pattern of 1-3-5-7-2-4-6-8 then with the divisions working on their own : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 ; has much merit. Not sure how firing by the drum would work in the situations most likely seen by combat troops.

[john duffer]

Re: Firing by The Drum

Of course, I've seen conflicting text which says that firing by file is the method which is most used by soldiers as well as the method which should not be used.


Silas, I've seen the same thing. L'ORDONNANCE 1831 has that same 'most often used in war' statement and admonishes the instructor to work on that the most. This other is from memory and I'll have to dig it out, but I believe I've also seen the "most often ..." used as a critisism of troops drilling in square at repelling cavalry, something to the effect of the constant smoke and loss of the shock effect.

[Todd Watts]

Re: Firing by The Drum

I am not saying that "because it is demonstrated at the NPS it must be correct" but the fact is they have paid armies of historians daily researching such topics utilizing stuff the rest of us can only pray to glance at once in a lifetime. I think in order for it to be passed around the various Parks/Battlefields, there must have been at some point an historical reference to the practice. I was at a Canadian fort/castle many years ago and watched the Redcoats do firing by the drums in block formations. The drummers were in the center of the blocks with officers. These formations were from the older flintlock days, but the "fire by drum" tactics were probably still being taught at military schools even in the US by 1860. That might be why it is seen,whether or not it actually was used in CW battles or not.

I know at Franklin, Stones River and Chickamauga, buglers and drummers were on the fields using their calls to control troops on both sides. On these 3 battlefields, there are indeed some references to them. A US bugler actually won the CMofH at Chickamauga for using bugle calls on his own hook to rally a broken Union line and get it back into the fight. Civilians inside Franklin remembered in memoirs that the drums, bugles and shrill fifes could be heard as Hood's army charged. It may not have been a routine tactic, but was at least used on some occasions.

[27thNCdrummer]

Re: Firing by The Drum

I think we need to remember that musicians of the day did not have access to Prussian, Hanovarian, French, etc. manuals. Most confederate musicians could not even read music and were taught to play by some senior musician.
Also, only the officers would have access to such tactical manuals as Hardee's, Casey's, Gilham's, etc. and musicians would not have seen these technicalities.
I think it is more authentic to not have a fire by the drum if we can only find it in 18th and early 19th Century European manuals and not in a manual of our era.

[RJSamp]

Re: Firing by The Drum

I think we need to remember that musicians of the day did not have access to Prussian, Hanovarian, French, etc. manuals. Most confederate musicians could not even read music and were taught to play by some senior musician.
Also, only the officers would have access to such tactical manuals as Hardee's, Casey's, Gilham's, etc. and musicians would not have seen these technicalities.
I think it is more authentic to not have a fire by the drum if we can only find it in 18th and early 19th Century European manuals and not in a manual of our era.

Good points Andrew, remember that our beats and calls were largely derived from Their manuals. For example, Our Infantry Bugle calls are almost note for note with the French Calls from their 1832 manual. A post ACW call, Charge, the one you hear in the Western Movies, is from the cavalry trumpet call "Pas de Charge" French Cavallerie manual. And many of our 'senior' musicians had drilled under another manual. Prussian and Hanoverian bugle signals were used on American Civil War battlefields.

We're going to have to find an actual quote on this I'm afraid......I've got one that has an infantry regiment manuevering by drum beats alone aways from the Colonel and drummer. It doesn't say that they volley fired On the missing beat of Commence Fire on the drum.

see my thread on The Long Roll as well.....did the boys actually know the different beats? Produce the citation.

[27thNCdrummer]

Re: Firing by The Drum

I think you're right. The only way we're going to find out whether or not they actually used fire by the drum is if we find an actual quotation saying that they used fire by the drum.
In regards to musicians being litter bearers that is correct but the Principal Musician should have been on the field with the Colonel.