Fire By The Drum??

[Papa Cracker]

I am a member of an infantry unit with an outstanding musicians corps. We often drill and sometimes utilize a command called “FIRE BY THE DRUM”. This was introduced to this unit by a gentleman who has since passed on. We have always been told that this was used as a means to command the firing line with drums so that it could be heard over the din of battle. Soon I will be teaching it to a different unit, and in preparation I attempted to study up on this command… and I am having difficulty finding anything about it. It was definitely used during the Rev War, 1812 and Mexican War, but I am finding no records of it ever being used or even drilled during the Civil War. It is not in any of the manuals that I have looked at. Some speculate that it was used, but certainly not with any regularity. Does anyone out there know anything about this?

[Silas]

Re: Fire By The Drum??

You're not going to find it. It's a reenactorism. You will find use of the drum to arrest firing, but even that is found in Scott and the militia manuals of the 1850s. Link to an 1857 edition of Scott : https://books.google.com/books?id=x2...age&q&f=falsea

[Papa Cracker]

Re: Fire By The Drum??

Thank you sir for your quick response and the links you provided. I sure appreciate it.

I did dig up something an NPS Ranger at Stones River Battlefield posted about this topic. He pretty much said what you did (altho he did not use the term "reenactorism"). He talked about how by that time the bugle had eclipsed the drum as the instrument of choice on the battlefield due to its directional sound, higher pitch. He talked about how "fire by the drum" was probably used more for the parade field...

Anyone else who has any more insight into this, I welcome your comments.

[Silas]

Re: Fire By The Drum??

Fire by Drum, as I've heard it explained on the interwebs and how I've heard it instructed at mainstream events, has three firing "commands" : ready, aim and fire. A problem is that for sustained firing, there are only two firing commands : aim and fire. There is no ready.

In the hobby, the generally accepted practice is always to go to the shoulder after loading. It's in all the manuals, right? Yes, but only for the first firing. After having been given the command to load again, troops load and prime, but remain at the prime position while waiting for the commands to aim and fire. Prime is the same position as ready. By remaining at prime, time is saved by not having to go to shoulder and to ready.

So, if you don't have to go to the ready from shoulder for the subsequent firings, why does load by the drum have a three part cadence of ready, aim and fire?

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One more thing, please use the search function both here and online. Use of the function here allowed me to find a prior thread which should be consulted. Link : http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/...quot-Reference

[Papa Cracker]

Re: Fire By The Drum??

To answer your question… The way we have done it is we are already loaded and in the “prime” position, with rifles half-cocked. The first drum cadence is for “ready” which would be fully cocking the hammer, second cadence is for “aim”, third and final cadence is for “fire”.

Keep in mind, I am not arguing for or against "Fire By The Drum". I've never been one to just accept something because someone told me. And before I bring this into a different unit I want to be sure of the authenticity of it. This is a perfect example of something I’ve been trained at, and “told” this is legit… but once I began looking into it I discover that maybe it isn’t as authentic as I have been told. When training troops I fully believe in giving them as much information about what we are doing as I can... and so here I am.

[thomas aagaard]

Re: Fire By The Drum??

By remaining at prime, time is saved by not having to go to shoulder and to ready.

Been trying for a few years to get the people doing acw here in Denmark/Sweden to understand this... without much luck.
Why change things that work... just because it is not correct?

[Scott Sheets]

Re: Fire By The Drum??

To echo what others have said musicians don't belong on the battlefield with their instruments.

Stones River posted the following in their Facebook page recently.

The Face of a Landscape

Musician John L. Hebron of the 2nd Ohio Infantry ended up with a special souvenir following the fighting along the Nashville Pike on December 31, 1862.

"Our regiment let them come till they was pretty close then let them have it — and the Battery gave them grape and canister and just mowed them down. They dropped their flag and run like scared sheep. ... Somebody picked the flag of the rebs up and gave it to Gen. Rousseau and Gen. Rousseau gave it to Major McCook for the 2nd. ... Major McCook gave the flag to me and told me to keep it till the fight was over so I took the flag and put it in the ambulance and went to gathering of wounded for that is the musician’s job in battle."

The flag placed in Hebron's care came from the 30th Arkansas Infantry of Gen. Evander McNair's brigade.