Diary of a Cofederate Drummer

[27thNCdrummer]

Pards,

I'm looking for the diary of a confederate drummer preferably from the ANV. Any recommendations or ideas?
Thanks,

[Tapsbugler]

Re: Diary of a Cofederate Drummer

Try Gus Rich "The Wizard of the Blue Ridge"
Drummer with the 26th NC Regimental Brass Band

http://www.illusionata.com/mpt/view.php?type=articles&id=168

Jari

[27thNCdrummer]

Re: Diary of a Cofederate Drummer

Wasn't Rich a bass drummer? I have the book "a Johnny Reb Band from Salem" which is an excellent book. It has a good deal about Rich in it.

[Tapsbugler]

Re: Diary of a Cofederate Drummer

Yup

I think he was. I'm sure you are looking for CSA Field Musician diaries.
I'll check around....

The Johnny Reb Band book is wonderful. There was an pdated version published last year

Jari Villanueva

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Diary of a Cofederate Drummer

Although not a complete diary, here is an article about a bandman who served in an Alabama regiment. It is taken from an article that originally appeared in the Mobile Daily Register in the early 1880's.

http://csa38thalabama.home.att.net/reprint.html

My favorite part was this:

"Zou was teaching Frank the tunes of reveille as he was accustomed to in the Virginia bands. As the notes were whistled, Frank would enter them strain by strain just as a reporter might take down a speech."

This relates to the discussion we were having over the past few days about the camp duty. If they were playing "the tunes of reveille" as played by "the Virginia bands", then I wouldn't be surprised if they were the same tunes found in Gilham's tactics.

[27thNCdrummer]

Re: Diary of a Cofederate Drummer

I like the reveille from Gilham's. It is simpler and easy to learn.

I have a question. Since NC troops used Hardee's Revised and there is no music in Hardee's revised, would it be appropriate for me to play out of Gilham's?

[joewhitney]

Re: Diary of a Cofederate Drummer

Yes, because Gilham’s was nothing more than Scott’s Tactics, adopted for use by volunteer militia troops when working with regular army forces.

Hardee’s has no fife and drum music because it was originally a French system for light infantry troops, the two mobile flank companies who traditionally used bugles, and not for the rest of the line. But because Hardee’s did not cover all the bases, it didn’t completely supplant Scott’s (Gilham’s). For example, Scott’s third volume for evolutions of brigades and corps was still used, because Hardee’s had none, there being no need for a whole corps of light infantry. Of course, this was ironically the U.S. military trying to turn their whole army into "light infantry".

Likewise, the plates of fife and drum music from Scott’s were copied when Casey’s combined Hardee’s first two volumes with Scott’s third volume, and also used in succeeding tactics manuals. So this system was basically unchanged from the 1830’s into the 20th century.

When I say copied, I mean except for mistakes. Casey or the publisher often misread the print in Scott’s, so for example Casey’s says troops are played at 30 bars a minute, when it should have said 80. A poorly printed 3 must have looked like an 8. So, did the US Army all of the sudden in 1863 start trooping at less than half the speed they had been? Now you see the limitations of relying on books to learn the music.

Today, most of us learn music from books or recordings, or from teachers who learn from books or recordings. Unfortunately, this invariably allows one source to become “the system”, the end all be all, and dominate while other versions and styles originally more common are forced out and disappear. This is happening in folk music around the world, especially in the British Isles where at one time every little town had its own style or “sound”.

Although there were many regional fife and drum styles in the 19th century, and many privately published manuals during the war as listed by Will and others, over the years one book, one style, has come to dominate the historical interpretation of Civil War field music, Bruce & Emmett, even though it was at best a rarely printed book of a regional style of playing.

This is sad because look at how its duty differs from Strube’s manual, which was officially adopted by the army only a few years later. Look at how its duty differs from that in the American Veteran Fifer, published by the National Association of Civil War Musicians in 1905. Look at how its duty differs from the widely published works of Elias Howe. Then look at how similar the duty in Howe and the AVF are.

Now go to a reenactment and what do you hear? Go to a field music school and what do you hear? Buy most field music CD’s and what do you hear?

Joe Whitney
2nd SC String Band
Md Line Field Music

[27thNCdrummer]

Re: Diary of a Cofederate Drummer

Joe,

How right you are! I think the most authentic way to learn would be to learn by ear from some good authentic drummers, rather than learning out of a manual. Unfortunately for most reenactors this isn't an option.