Civil War Drumming
Tom Law, 3rd Alabama Volunteer Infantry The following is from the Winter issue Skirmish line of 1999 time, and dynamics. Many contemporary drummers like to trace their teacher-like linage back in time to lend a reverence to the “Ancient” Historical Background style. The fife and drum music you may hear at a Civil War Skirmishes may well be the same music heard by the Union and Confederate soldiers during the war itself. The origin of this peculiar kind of music has been Field Music lost in time, but it’s hundreds of years old, and may go all the way back When companies formed into regiments, the fifers and drummers to the 1200’s and the Crusades. The Swiss like to lay claim that they were massed together into a Regimental Band. This was “field music” started it since they can document that they played it in the 1500s, and is not the same as that of a brass band. There were many brass but it is the Turks who were first to mass their colors and play martial bands at the time, but they were mostly ceremonial, and they did music on the battlefield as they fought the invading Christians. not accompany the troops in movement as the field music did. The The Swiss very likely spread fife and drum music throughout Europe inclusion of big brass drums in field music as we see it today, for with their mercenary armies. Later, in the Colonial, period, the English, example, is a mistake in interpretation. Bass drums were rare in field and the French brought it to this continent. Fife and drum were a music if no other reason than mobility. standard during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. It was used Fifers and drummers were required to play continuously during a not only by the military, but also for dancing and even church music. march, so they devised many ways to keep from being repetitious. After the Civil War, it went into decline as brass horns replaced the fife, There is nothing more boring than a constant rat-a-tat-tat, for the and the marching tempo increased. By World War 1, the fife and drum drummers as well as the troops. Lot of different of difficulty were music were rarely heard in the military. But it was being preserved played. Sergeants would lead by playing a part solo, then the others in near obscurity by a group of die-hards who called themselves would play the repeats while he rested. Fancy stick beats could break the “National Association of Rudimental Drummers.” In the 1950s it the monotony. A good drummer can spin and throw his sticks and experienced a vigorous revitalization, and today it is very popular in strike the drumhead right on the beat. the New England and Mid-Atlantic states with some interest in the Drum Construction and Tempo Midwest and California. It is referred to as “the music of the ancients.” Civil War drums were typically 16 or 17 inches in diameter and 12 inches deep. They were worn slung around the neck, the body, or shell. Were made either of a single piece of wood or of laminations, bent Civil War Drumming round and overlapped, held together with tacks. The better grades of In addition to the officers and men who comprised and Infantry drums had large tacks made into fancy design in addition to those company during the Civil War, there were also support personnel, teamsters, cooks, and one fifer and one drummer. It was the musician’s that held them together. The shells were also frequently painted with job to call the routines of everyday camp life, to keep the tempo on the regimental names and emblems. The eagle was a popular design in march, to signal over the din of battle, and to perform for the inevitable the North. Some original imported drum shells, which were all metal, still survive today. funeral duty. It is the very high frequency (pitch) of the fife, and the Civil war type drums are referred to as rope drums, snare drums and low range of the drum that makes it possible for these instruments field drums. Their heads are tensioned with ropes rather than the to be heard on the battlefield when voice commands are lost in the modern-day threaded metal rods. The heads were made of animal confusion. hides, any type available, but calf and sheep skin were preferred, the “Music Boys” of 12 to 16 years of age were recruited and taught to play thinner the better. The head that’s played on is the “batter” head. It is both instruments. The routine was called the “Camp Duty”, and had a sometimes cushioned on the underside with a cloth strip to take out special call for practically everything, from the time to get up in the the resonance called a “ring.” The bottom head is the “snare” head. morning, when to eat, call for the NCOs, announcing of the General to when to go to bed at night. Incidental playing was not allowed since it It gets the name from the rawhide or gut snares that are stretched across it to produce a distinctive sound. could be mistaken for a signal. Fifers and drummers, therefore, had to practice out of earshot, and silently for the fife and on the knee for the Wide rope-tensioned skin heads are hard to play on since they are slow to respond, and when the weather is damp, they get loose – drummers. An accomplished music boy could play a hundred or more making them even more difficult to play on. The slow response of pieces by memory- quite a feat by any standard. The youngest known drumheads may be one reason for the slow march tempo of the 18th music boy was nine years old, and the oldest was 72! and 19th centuries. During the Revolutionary War the march tempo Learning the Rudiments was 80 to 90 beats per minute. In the Civil War it had increased to 90 Learning the drum was handed down from teacher to student by to 110, and a modern-day drum and bugle corps play at 120 beats per rote for centuries because there was no formal way of writing it until about 1812. Even today it Is better to be taught than to learn by reading, minute. In a departure from strict authenticity, today we use drums that are because the written note may be interpreted differently. “Note” is the 16 or so inches deep, slung around the shoulder rather than the neck, wrong word since there is no scale. The “note” symbol is used, but and have heads made of a plastic that resembles real skin. All of this always on the same line, no ups and downs. You read the rudiments, 64 Skirmish Line Winter 2022