'The' Long Roll

[RJSamp]

The manuals say that the Long Roll is used for an Emergency Assembly....drop everything, fall in, get ready to repel the foe.....

We have a lot of drum quotes about hearing the Long Roll for Cease Fire (a Federal IV Corps standing order), get up, fall in on company street, fall in on the road ready to march, The General (break camp), etc.

So what do you think.....were the men (the diarists) beat deaf? Couldn't tell the difference between Three Camps, a Long Roll, and the Assembly? Or is that what the drummers did.....beat a long roll which meant hop to....the men scrambled to fall in while the Adjutant, First Sergeants, et al gave the specific orders to the men from up on high.

In a drum happy (no bugles) unit like the Iron Brigade...you search for a quote about drum beat signalling and all you find is "we heard the drums beating and rapidly fell in on the road". Has anyone ever read "we heard the distinct tapping of By the Right Flank and off we marched"?

Given the quality of the drummers, did they simply batter away?

What's up?

[paulcalloway]

Re: 'The' Long Roll

RJ -
I'm trying to recall where I've seen drum calls mentioned specifically by name in diaries, letters, post war accounts. Usually I see something of the nature of "we heard the drums beat for Divine Service" or "we were woken by drums..." such as in the James B. Lockney journal.

The occassion is mentioned and the drums are mentioned in a general nature, but not specifically the calls associated with same. I've wondered if these men knew the sounds associated with particular actions but not necessarily the name of the call itself.

[markj]

Re: 'The' Long Roll

The manuals say that the Long Roll is used for an Emergency Assembly....drop everything, fall in, get ready to repel the foe.....

We have a lot of drum quotes about hearing the Long Roll for Cease Fire (a Federal IV Corps standing order), get up, fall in on company street, fall in on the road ready to march, The General (break camp), etc.

So what do you think.....were the men (the diarists) beat deaf? Couldn't tell the difference between Three Camps, a Long Roll, and the Assembly? Or is that what the drummers did.....beat a long roll which meant hop to....the men scrambled to fall in while the Adjutant, First Sergeants, et al gave the specific orders to the men from up on high.

In a drum happy (no bugles) unit like the Iron Brigade...you search for a quote about drum beat signalling and all you find is "we heard the drums beating and rapidly fell in on the road". Has anyone ever read "we heard the distinct tapping of By the Right Flank and off we marched"?

Given the quality of the drummers, did they simply batter away?

What's up?

Beats the heck out of me: all the people who could truly answer your questions are dead. We can only interpret the written record, so one guess is as good as another.

The good news is that all of your questions will undoubtedly be answered once you pass through the Pearly Gates. :tounge_sm

Faithfully yours, &c.,

Mark Jaeger

[GrumpyDave]

Re: 'The' Long Roll

I wonder if the drum calls were just such a common every day occurrence that the boys just refer to them in the no big deal, no attention to detail, manner they do? For us, learning drum and bugle calls takes effort as we only hear them once and a while. Were those same calls so common the boys don’t bother to mention them, just like a lot of their day to day mundane activities?

[RJSamp]

Re: 'The' Long Roll

I wonder if the drum calls were just such a common every day occurrence that the boys just refer to them in the no big deal, no attention to detail, manner they do? For us, learning drum and bugle calls takes effort as we only hear them once and a while. Were those same calls so common the boys don’t bother to mention them, just like a lot of their day to day mundane activities?

Well there is no drum beat to fall in on the road we're going to march...... and the quotes I've read simply say we heard the long roll and we fell in. They made up words to Bugle Sick Call and sang out loud.....no Tum Tum de Dum for the drummer crowd.... They sang the bugle call Attention, but no rat a tat tat drag tap drag tap skat singing for the drum beat..... and soon after the regiment's were mustered in they started abandoning drums as signalling devices and focused on bugles......

I've got this sneaky feeling that the Long Roll was used as an attention getter, like ringing cow bells to call the kids in for Supper in Wisconsin.....or blowing a whistle, or yelling out loud. You simply had the duty drummer beat the long roll, answered by the drummers with their companies and the word eventually rolled down from Col to Adjutant to Duty Drummer and First Sergeants/Captains and then on to the men.....

I don't see anything from the readings that they knew the specific drum beat for the General, versus Adjutant's Call, versus Assembly, versus you name it.....

Throw in the Fife tunes and I'm pretty sure the boys picked up on them quite readily.....and the first screeching and banging tune in the morning was Reveille...... the warbly sounding fife tune is three cheers..... Drill Call is a dandy tune...

anyway, the drummers have their work cut out for them.....their research project has been assigned. Turn in your papers for grading by the end of the Semester....
This is definitely one of those beyond the gear areas where we could improve our impressions.

Does anyone know what the Rally sounds like on the Drum?

[27thNCdrummer]

Re: 'The' Long Roll

Most drummers (at least in the confederate army) were taught to play by some senior drummer. Whatever they knew, the recruit learned.
In the diary of Drummer Delvan S. Miller of the 2nd New Hampshire Heavy Artillery he states that some musicians played Oh Susannah or the Girl I Left Behind Me or there favorite tunes for reveille. It's tune substitution. The same concept applies with Meal Calls, Sick Call, etc. So if a drummer didn't know the Rally or Officer's Call he may very well have used the Long Roll.
This is probably the most authentic way to do things at events because even if musicians didn't know the "official" Reveille they probably got very good at what they did play.

[markj]

Re: 'The' Long Roll

This Confederate was pretty certain about what a "Long Roll" sounded like, and what it signified:

New York Times, 26 August 1861, p. 8:

FROM PENSACOLA.

Correspondence of the Atlanta (Ga.) Intelligencer.

CAMP WALKER, near Pensacola, Aug. 4, 1861.

Last night, at 12 o’clock, while our troops were all in the sweet embrace of Morpheus, save the sentinels, we were aroused by the long roll—which is a call for every one to rise from his plank, blanket, or perhaps out of the sand. “The blind, lame and hail (sp?),” all soon, with their ready guns and accoutrements, were in lines, and from what i can learn, all were ready and willing, only fearing that it would terminate as it did—“a flash in the pan.”*****

(no unit ID is stated in this letter, but “Gen. W. WALKER,” “Col. WOOD, of Alabama,” and “Col. CLAYTON, of the same State” are mentioned, as is the writer’s initials “W. J. P.” A quick Web search should nail down the identities of most, if not all, of the above men).

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[27thNCdrummer]

Re: 'The' Long Roll

I'm not doubting that they knew the long roll was for emergency purposes. This is probably the first rudiment they would have been taught.

[markj]

Re: 'The' Long Roll

I'm not doubting that they knew the long roll was for emergency purposes. This is probably the first rudiment they would have been taught.

Nobody says you are. ;)

I'm merely throwing out stuff as I find it in the New York Times. I plugged "long roll" into the search engine and got no less than 216 hits. Some writers refer to the "assembly-roll" and such both in the field and at reviews. More undoubtedly awaits discovery.

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[civilwarbuglertn]

Re: 'The' Long Roll

If you want a good book about a Drummer look up Augustus Meyers. He war regular army before the war, and during the war recieved promotions to the Quartermaster Corps.

Jason Simmons
Civilwarbuglertn

[Rob Weaver]

Re: 'The' Long Roll

As a matter of fact, the Long Roll, called just that, is the first item in Button & Emmet, and the first call a drummer learns. When you think about it, it's the most important one to know. Knowing it instantly makes a drummer functional. When you order it played, it will bring organized bodies of men together, under arms, and in earshot of a vocal command if necessary. Personally, I know a lot of reenactors who can't tell one call from another. Fife calls are the most obscure, because they're on the whole long and not as memorable. Almost everyone can recognize "Reveille" "Taps" "Dinner Call" and maybe "Assembly." Officer's, First Sergeant's Calls, Fix Bayonets, etc, well, now you're stretching it. Drum calls, by themselves, I've know experienced men to stand around and ask "What 's that?"

[Jim Moffet]

Re: 'The' Long Roll

Drum calls, by themselves, I've know experienced men to stand around and ask "What 's that?"

That's because we only do this now and again, and then for at most a long weekend. In the 'real world,' where the regiment was in the field continually for 90 days to 3+ years, all those calls would become as common as putting your leathers on before your haversack and canteen. Many of my pards have purchased one of the bugle tapes and listen to the blasted thing :wink_smil all the way to an event, so they will be able to respond correctly when 'called.'

Jim Moffet

[Johan Steele]

Re: 'The' Long Roll

The men lived by the drum, far more so than by the pocket watch. Over the years I've read enough letters to understand that when the men heard the Long Roll they knew something was up and that something wasn't likely to be pretty.

I'm largley tone deaf so drum rolls are quite difficult for me to differentiate between... but the Long Roll is distinctive, a sense of urgency that even I can note.

As Mr Moffet put forward there is a lot of difference between what we do over a 2-4 day weekend and what those men lived. The powder we burn isn't pushing lead and thankfully we don't need to worry about the reality of lead inbound at unhealthy velocities. Thank God there is no dysentery ravaging our bodies... we as living historians garner a degree of understanding of what the men of 61-65 lived through but it is only a small degree; even for the most diehard Living Historian.

[DonH]

Re: 'The' Long Roll

Do you know if anyone has ever reprinted that book? It's so hard to find! I'd love to get a hold of it, especially for his accounts of Governor's Island

[DonH]

Re: 'The' Long Roll

If you want a good book about a Drummer look up Augustus Meyers. He war regular army before the war, and during the war recieved promotions to the Quartermaster Corps.

Jason Simmons
Civilwarbuglertn

Oops, I meant to quote when I typed my last response. Does anyone know where to find Augustus Meyers' "Ten Years in the Ranks"?