Figure 1.--This colorized Civil War photograph shows the drummers and ome fife player in an unidentified Civil war unit. Notice the drum major and that not all were boys. They are assembled here foir daily camp practice. We have not doijnd much infoirmtion on musician training, but all sources agree that the training was rigotrou. Drumming was not just ceremonial, it was a critically important part of bttlefoeld communication.

One matter is certain, there was far more of a need for drummers than could be satisfied by those who were competrent drummers bedore the War, so many boys and youths needed to be trained. And there was quite a lot to learn besides just mastering the instrument andkeeping cadence. Drums and buggles were instrument of camp and battlefield communication. In the era before electroinic communication, the various rolls and calls is how the officers communicated with the men both in camp, but most importantly on the battlefield. Once the boys arrived in camp there would be intensive drilling and practice.Voice communication was impossible above the chaos and cacophany of battle. The myriad of different calls and keeping them straight was no simple task. It took considerable effort master all the different drum rolls and buggle calls. This was especially the case of the younger boys. There were training books. The most importnt was the Bruce and Emmettt book. We are not sure just to what extent the boys used them. The drummers of a unit would assemble in camp and go over and over the various rolls and cadence. We assume that this took place daily, if not twice a day while the unit was in camp. It is only through repetitive drill that the drummers could be depended on to perform during the heat of battle. While we have not found a lot of information about the traiming in camp, the one aspect that many sources mention was that the training was tigorous. And as the armies until Grant took command spent a great deal of time in camp, there was plenty of time to train the boys.

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Created: 3:41 AM 9/2/2005
Last updated: 7:33 AM 11/12/2015