Drill Call versus Assembly

[33rdaladrummer]

Could some of you buglers on this forum tell me the difference between Drill Call and Assembly? I am wondering why a separate drill call would be used if Assembly is the signal to form for drill. This might help me explain why some of the fife and drum manuals include both Drill Call and Assembly. Perhaps Drill Call is for company drill and Assembly is for batallion drill.

History of the Twelfth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers in the War of the ... By Asa W. Bartlett

"From the reveille in the early morn to the bed-time taps the service of the drum and fife was regularly in demand. After the reveille came the more welcome breakfast call, next the surgeon's call, then the orderly's and DRILL CALL, and the double-drag beat for dinner. In the afternoon came the ASSEMBLY for BATALLION OR BRIGADE DRILL, the recall, the playing of the whole corps at dress parade, the retreat at sundown, next the tattoo, and lastly taps."

[RJSamp]

Re: Drill Call versus Assembly

Well there aren't seperate calls for School of the Solder, Company, Battalion, Brigade, Division, et al......there's only one Drill Call for all of them.

The soldier's know their daily schedule from RETREAT roll call the day before, correct? They know who's on guard duty, who's helping build a bridge, what's happening for the entire day, who's being punished.....(if you aren't holding a Retreat the day prior, it's a good time to start there...or let them know through the 'event' schedule).

Kind of like the call switch in 1867 to one MEAL CALL, instead of Breakfast Call, Dinner Call (and Supper Call is Breakfast Call).....when you sound MEAL CALL at 7AM, you know what meal it is correct?

If you know that Company Drill is at 9AM, Battalion Drill at 10:30, and Brigade Drill is at 2PM.....and you hear Drill Call at 1:45 PM, do you know what it's for?

Similarly, sounding Drummer's Call from the Guard Post and First Call (Assembly of the Buglers) at 8:30 might tip you off that Company Drill is coming up......but careful......it's also the beginning of the Guard Mount sequence.....which would be sounded at say 8:45 to assemble the Guard details on their respective company streets.....which would then march out to the Parade Ground when Adjutant's Call was beaten/fifed (and we truly don't know how the Cavalry sounded Adjutant's Call on a bugle, but guess that it's modern adjutant's call....).

We often have Dress Parade prior to marching off to the Drill field.....where company drill is conducted for awhile.....then Battalion drill conducted. So our sequence is:
First call (assemble field musics)
Assembly (soldiers assemble on company street)
Adjutant's Call (bring the color guard on line)
To the Color (form Battalion).
Martial Airs (give the boys something to dance to).
"Musicians! Beat Off!" troop the Colors

after we march to the drill field....the Colonel will order the Company officer's to take charge of their men....and we sound Drill Call. Drill Call is a March (in Scott's it is the Common Step!).....and we have the companies march off to different parts of the drill field to get some manuevering room. Sound the Recall to bring back the companies.....either Assembly or To the Color to restablish the Color Line.....and then we start Battalion Drill.

Drill Call is most commonly used for School of the Company. We usually use:
First Call (field musics assemble)
Assembly (company streets)
Drill Call (provide a marching tune for the companies to march to out to the drill field). But of course it could be used for a Divisional Skirmish Drill by the Bugle.

To add to the confusion, We have often seen ASSEMBLY to mean reform battalion , and in the field, as well:
Coddington has a quote from a NY Regiment in Humphrey's Division, III Corps: "We were bathing in a nearby stream when we heard the Assembly from our camp. We rushed to dry off, put on our uniforms (skinny dipping no doubt), and run back to camp. When we got back our 'pards' (don't recall the exact term here) had neatly piled our belongings, which we grabbed in a hurry and scampered to catch up with the Regiment"

Major Blackford (in his Diary and requoted in "Shock Troops of the Confederacy" ) crossed a crowded bridge by inserting his men one at a time into another unit's marching column.....on the other side of the bridge he had the ASSEMBLY sounded and the battalion was quickly reformed.

SUMMARY:
We usually use the Drill Call to march companies off to the Drill Field from whereever they have 'formed/assembled'.

The men should know the day before during Retreat which 'drill' they will be attending at which time of the day. Event Schedules should also state this.

We use Assembly for assembling companies, To the Color for assembling Battalions, Guard Mount to Assemble guard details.

something to be said for using the calls on a consistent, repetitive basis.....when you only get the boys together for a few weekends a year you get a lot more music savvy/responsive reenactors. KISS. and repeat.

Does this make sense?

[hendrickms24]

Re: Drill Call versus Assembly

RJ Samp,

Great reply to the question and you laid it out so its easy to understand.
Calls on the Bugle and the drum are hard to understand but if you pay
attention to when they happen you usually can figure them out.

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Drill Call versus Assembly

Thanks, RJ for the bugle call explanations, but I'm still not sure about the drum and fife calls for Drill Call and Assembly. If Drill Call is simply a march, then fifers and drummers could play anything they wanted since the fife is not as limited as the bugle.

There were many fife and drum manuals published during the war. We could include all the different versions of calls included in all of them, but this would make things very, very confusing.

Howe's manuals were probably the most commonly used. Evidence of this can be seen by looking at the American Veteran Fifer, published by CW veteran field musicians. It contains Howe's camp duty.

So if we restrict ourselves to Howe's System, we have the following variations of First Call (Drummer's Call) and Second Call (Assembly).

1. Drummer's Call

2. Drummer's Call (Old Style)

3. Drill Call, drum and fife: Fife and drum parts were originally printed in the Manual of Instruction for Drummers, which was "prepared under the direction of the Adjutant General of the United States Army" and "approved of by the Commander-in-Chief" in 1853.

4. Assembly, drum and fife. Same fife part as Drill Call, but different rhythm (dotted) and drumbeat.

5. First Call for Guard Mounting (similar to Drummer's Call)

6. Second Call for Guard Mounting (similar to Old Style Drummer's Call)

Also included are two different versions of Adjutant's Call, two different versions of To the Color, and even more variations.

All this for calls that simply mean "get ready to fall in", "fall in", or "hurry up and wait"?

[RJSamp]

Re: Drill Call versus Assembly

Thanks, RJ for the bugle call explanations, but I'm still not sure about the drum and fife calls for Drill Call and Assembly. If Drill Call is simply a march, then fifers and drummers could play anything they wanted since the fife is not as limited as the bugle.

The Fife and Drum Calls for Drill Call and Assembly match the Bugle Calls for usage. What aren't you sure about?

Bugle sounds first, then Fife and Drum. Somewhere a Corps, Division, Brigade Bugler sounds the duty call.....and then it's echoed by the Regimental Bugler (if available)....then by the Fife and Drum.

Whoa, no one said that Drill Call was simply a march (it's a camp duty call as well..it means time to DRILL).

There were many fife and drum manuals published during the war. We could include all the different versions of calls included in all of them, but this would make things very, very confusing.

You would be the only one advocating playing every call/beat/tune in every manual. There is no historical precedent for this interpretation. You pick one call, most likely from one manual (the one for your unit impression for that weekend??), and beat it. KISS. It's not confusing at all. Let's do what they did?

Howe's manuals were probably the most commonly used. Evidence of this can be seen by looking at the American Veteran Fifer, published by CW veteran field musicians. It contains Howe's camp duty.

Actually, learning by ROTE was the most commonly used system. And we don't know if the instructor also learned from Rote.....and from which manual this eventually began with. Lot's of Nevins/Vaas manuals used by Western Federal Troops (there is no difference between the Fall 1861 version and the 1864 version other than the publication date)...we need to support our Chicago publishing houses.

So if we restrict ourselves to Howe's System, we have the following variations of First Call (Drummer's Call) and Second Call (Assembly).

1. Drummer's Call

2. Drummer's Call (Old Style)

3. Drill Call, drum and fife: Fife and drum parts were originally printed in the Manual of Instruction for Drummers, which was "prepared under the direction of the Adjutant General of the United States Army" and "approved of by the Commander-in-Chief" in 1853.

4. Assembly, drum and fife. Same fife part as Drill Call, but different rhythm (dotted) and drumbeat.

5. First Call for Guard Mounting (similar to Drummer's Call)

6. Second Call for Guard Mounting (similar to Old Style Drummer's Call)

Also included are two different versions of Adjutant's Call, two different versions of To the Color, and even more variations.

All this for calls that simply mean "get ready to fall in", "fall in", or "hurry up and wait"?

1. You are the only one advocating 6 beats/tunes for any of this stuff. If you can find the quote for usage in this fashion let's bring it out of the closet and then if you are forming that specific unit's impression for that specific time period then have at it. In the meantime let's stick to what they did during the American Civil War.

2. Butterfield's "Outpost" specifies three beats to form battalion. See Dom Dal Bello's PIE for an intense discussion on this. We sound three bugle calls for this, the bugle calls are followed by the Fife Tunes/Drum Beats. Always. See Oliver Norton's "Army Letters: 1861-1865" also Augustus Meyers "Ten Years in the Ranks U.S. Army", Charles Perkins Diary (at Carlisle Barracks) from the 1st Mass Infantry is also a good one for this.

3. Thus:
Guard Mount:
Drummer's Call (Assemble field Music's (and BAND))
Guard Mount (Assemble Guard Details on Company Streets (with their company musicians!, inspect for ammo and rations)
Adjutant's Call (march the guard details to the parade ground)
Martial Airs to be played while they march to the parade ground
Troop the Line (common step tune down, quickstep back)

Drill:
Drummer's Call (Assemble Field Musics) (Why??? Because you need to get the company musician's to form up with the Principal Musician so they can go and Practice (FAR FAR AWAY))
Assembly (Assemble by Company on Company streets, form two ranks)
If you want to skip this call and your boys know what Drill Call is, then simply sound Drill Call. Since the Company Commander's are in charge of their men, they can leave for the Drill field when they want to. Maybe he want's to practice stacking arms for awhile, and explain what will be worked on during drill?
Drill Call (march the boys out to the drill field)

NOTE: most manuals state NO MUSIC during drill itself. Skirmish Drill by the Bugle would be an exception to this, and so too drilling the battalion in line by the bugle.

Form Battalion (Dress Parade) [can be done in 3 calls, we use 4]:
Drummer's Call
Assembly (assemble companies on company street)
Adjutant's Call (if you'd like to not play this it's OK to have the color guard with Colors come on line at the Assembly)....[this is one of only 5 drum beats that our boys can recognize!]
To the Colors ("To the Color" on the bugle) form battalion by successive companies from the center outwards to the flank).
Martial Airs to be played while the companies march to the Color Line.
Troop the Line

Break Camp (Start on Campaign)
-- most often the quotes are this was only done at the start of the campaign!
Blow the General (1 hour before leaving camp, strike tents)
Drummer's call (form Field Music's, Band, "Fifers and Drummers to the Front" of the column)
Assembly (15 minutes before leaving camp)
To the Color (form Battalion on the road).
By the Right Flank (Battalion Right Face, Forward March).

Break Camp (On Campaign)
Beat the Long roll on the road
Everyone falls in
Forward (and away we go).

Bugle call first
Corresponding Drum Beat or Fife and Drum Tune second.

By the way...the Fife and Drum manuals specify forming for Reveille "at the signal". Although this certainly could have been a lone drummer sounding drummer's call from the guard shack......most of the quotes, especially during the war whilst on campaign, have this as a Bugler sounding Reveille. So the PEC signal for the Field Music's to form up for their 9min. 30 seconds of Reveille is the Bugle Call itself. Most of the Diary's speak of hearing the Bugle call Reveille first thing in the morning.... not some drummer beating drummer's call nor a bugler sounding Assembly of the Bugler. (besides the above mentioned sources, "The Hero of Medfield" a Biography of Alonzo Kingsbury (Chief Bugler, 1st Mass Infantry) at Carlisle Barracks has a nice quote about what bugle call or drum beat was sounded First in the morning). Oliver Norton has a quote on oversleeping one morning (he was fighting a cold): I heard the Bugles sounding Reveille, jumped out of the straw and hurriedly brought the cold metal too my lips.

KISS.

RJ Samp

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Drill Call versus Assembly

"The Fife and Drum Calls for Drill Call and Assembly match the Bugle Calls for usage."

I have to respectfully disagree. I refer you back to the original quote I posted. Also the fife and drum manuals don't really match up either.

From the reveille in the early morn to the bed-time taps the service of the drum and fife was regularly in demand. After the reveille came the more welcome breakfast call, next the surgeon's call, then the orderly's and DRILL CALL, and the double-drag beat for dinner. In the afternoon came the ASSEMBLY for BATALLION OR BRIGADE DRILL, the recall, the playing of the whole corps at dress parade, the retreat at sundown, next the tattoo, and lastly taps.

"1. You are the only one advocating 6 beats/tunes for any of this stuff."

I'm not advocating, just trying to understand. If we can compare the different versions included in the manuals, then we can determine what was most commonly used. If you want to see why this can be confusing, check out Hart's manual and you will see that some musicians played some calls completely differently.

"3. Troop the Line (common step tune down, quickstep back)"

Most sources call for a piece in 3/4 time rather than a common time.

I agree with your comment on the rote method. But the people who wrote the manuals learned by rote or from earlier manuals. Nevins completely ripped off Klinehanse's 1853 manual, by the way.

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Drill Call versus Assembly

"Adjutant's Call (if you'd like to not play this it's OK to have the color guard with Colors come on line at the Assembly)....[this is one of only 5 drum beats that our boys can recognize!]"

Which Adjutant's Call do your drummers use? B&E? The one in B&E is completely different from all the other manuals (probably another one of Bruce and Emmett's modifications used perhaps by a tiny fraction of the army).The other manuals have a different beat plus a corresponding fife tune.

"(and we truly don't know how the Cavalry sounded Adjutant's Call on a bugle, but guess that it's modern adjutant's call....)"

The modern version?