30th Maine Regt. Drum Corps

[33rdaladrummer]

Found a photo of the 30th Maine's drum corps today. Looks like 8 snares, 1 bass, 8 or 9 fifers, and an officer, probably the drum major.

http://www.vintagemaineimages.com/bin/Detail?ln=1012&supst=enlarge

[Smokey Toes]

Re: 30th Maine Regt. Drum Corps

Cool picture Will.

From the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System:

30th Regiment, Maine Infantry
Organized at Augusta and mustered in January 8, 1864. Left State for New Orleans, La., January 31, 1864, arriving February 16. Attached to 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 19th Army Corps, Dept. of the Gulf, to July, 1864; and Army of the Shenandoah, Middle Military Division, to December, 1864. Garrison of Winchester, Va., Army of the Shenandoah, to April, 1865. Dept. of Washington to June, 1865. District of Savannah, Ga., Dept. of the South, to August, 1865.
SERVICE.-Duty at Algiers, La., February 16-18, 1864. Moved to Franklin February 18, and duty there till March 15. Red River Campaign March 15-May 22. Advance to Alexandria March 15-26, and to Natchitoches March 29-April 2. Battle of Sabine Cross Roads April 8. Pleasant Hill April 9. Cane River Crossing April 23. Construction of dam at Alexandria April 30-May 10. Retreat to Morganza May 13-20. Mansura May 16. At Morganza till July 2. Moved to New Orleans, thence to Fortress Monroe and Bermuda Hundred, Va., July 2-18. Duty at Deep Bottom till July 31. Moved to Washington, D. C., thence to Harper's Ferry, W. Va. Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign August 7-November 28. On detached duty, guarding trains, stores, etc., till October 26. Bunker Hill October 25. Duty near Middletown till November, and at Newtown till January, 1865. At Winchester and Stevenson's Depot till April, 1865. Moved to Washington, D. C., April 20, and duty there till June 30. Provost guard during Grand Review May 23-24. Moved to Savannah, Ga., June 30-July 7, and duty there till August. Mustered out August 20, 1865.
Regiment lost during service 3 Officers and 31 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 2 Officers and 254 Enlisted men by disease. Total 290.

No. Last, First Company Rank_In Rank_Out
284 Clark, George H.
B Musician Musician
285 Clark, Joseph
K Drummer Drummer
320 Conner, Charles L.
B Musician Musician
572 Freeman, Charles H.
H Musician Musician
587 Gammon, Edward F.
C Private Principal Musician
767 Hayes, Charles
K,F Private Musician
780 Herrin, Alonzo R.
H Musician Musician
1020 Libby, Edwin A.
F&S Principal Musician Principal Musician
1105 McAlister, John A.
D Musician Private
1106 McAllister, Alvin
D Musician Private
1284 Palmer, Eugene S.
F Private Musician
1377 Ramsdell, Osgood
K Drummer Drummer

[billyreb61]

Re: 30th Maine Regt. Drum Corps

Awesome pic!!!! It's interesting that the drummers are in the front. I as a fifer have always been in the front at reenactments.

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: 30th Maine Regt. Drum Corps

Several different tactics manuals contain the following:

"The field-music is formed in two ranks, the drummers in the rear, and posted twelve paces in rear of the file-closers, the left opposite to the centre of the left centre company. The senior principal musician is two paces in front of the field-music, the other two paces in the rear.

The band is formed in two ranks, and posted three paces in rear of the field-music."

I've never seen a photo of a field music in marching formation with the drummers in the front, except in the case when there were not many fifers. Still, in these cases the fifer(s) was in the front. By the way, the photo above contains the most fifers I've ever seen in a period photgraph of a single regimental drum corps.

There's a sketch of an 1812-era corps with drummers in the front rank on Carroll's edition of Ashworth. I don't know the date of the sketch, however.

While it's more practical to have the fifers up front, it would be impressive to see a couple ranks of drummers with their sticks up in the air leading the way. I wonder why modern ancient fife and drum corps never tried this. They are more about show than practicality for the most part.

[Dan Munson]

Re: 30th Maine Regt. Drum Corps

Guys, you seem to be assuming this photo represents a typical formation for this regiment. Indeed, it may be nothing more than an optimum pose for the camera. The drums are the most VISIBLE feature of the band - putting them in the rear effectively "hides" them in the photo. The same cannot be said of the (sorry!) less noticeable fifes.

Dan Munson

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: 30th Maine Regt. Drum Corps

I agree that the first photo I posted was posed.

Check out this photo of a guard mount. There is one fifer in the front holding a fife to his lips, a lot of drummers, and a few musicians in the rear rank that appear to be doing nothing. Buglers? Fifers who didn't know how to play? Drummers without drums?

I hope for the fifer's sake that his fife was in the more common key of C rather than Bb.

This is a huge file.

http://memory.loc.gov/master/pnp/cph/3c10000/3c15000/3c15400/3c15498u.tif