"Tell me about Musicians" Topic

The balance, in terms of figure availability, favors drums over bugles by a pretty good margin.

Is that basically representative or historical? Did Confederates favor bugles over drums? Is it roughly equal across both sides?

Now that Blue Moon has a pack of really nice buglers I'll try to put them in for charging units and drums for marching/march attack units. I really don't want both in the same unit.

Are you moving to have more buglers in your units? What's the history?

Nobody makes fifers? Should we be glad?

Thoughts? Citations? Comments?

Every unit used buglers to give commands in the field. One or more was always beside the Colonel (or whomever was commanding the unit) and any time skirmishers were sent out, they were pretty much exclusively commanded by bugle calls.

Using drummers on command stands has become traditional amongst wargamers, but in the ACW it was uncommon to see them in the field using a drum in that manner.

Bands and fife&drum ciros did occasionally appear on the battlefield, but it was much more common to leave those men behind to guard the knapsacks/blanket rolls if dropped, or to be attached to medical units for extra bodies to assist with litters, helping out as needed, etc.

I am using only buglers with my ACW units.

There are, of course, exceptions to every rule, and if folks want to use drummers, then have at it. they are your armies, after all. Historically, though, it was the buglers who went with the unit into combat.

V/R

I never knew that, very interesting and damn the ACW bugler I own. Drummers galore mind.

Someone makes (or made) a full ACW band with about 6 different instruments. I painted one on commission once but I don't know who made it.

Old Glory 15's has a band in one of their command packs and Essex makes band figures also. I use drummers and buglers for unit status on the gameboard along with other various single figures. It shows the morale of the unit without looking on a chart or record.

The band comes in the Old Glory 15mm Eastern Confederate Generals pack

FWIW, both Hardee's and Casey's manuals include the music for bugle commands for both evolution of the line and for skirmishers. The men regularly trained to the bugle when on drill, as it was virtually impossible to hear the human voice in combat, and even from one end of a regiment to another.

Both manuals strongly suggest that every officer learn to not only recognize the individual calls, but to learn how to play them on the bugle in case it was needed.

Maneuvering and fighting by bugle was so ingrained into the troops that, years afterward, men could hear a call and instantly know what it was. The 50th anniversary reunion of Gettysburg, where veterans from both sides gathered also used the old ACW bugle calls to help organize and move the men from one activity to another. A half-century afterward and they still knew what to do.

It must have been a more common skill then than now. I never encountered a foot bugler during my reenacting days. Drums ad fifes galore and mounted buglers but none in foot units that I saw or served in. We learned drum commands however.

Shagnasty,

It's only been in the last 10 years or so that the push for more serious impressions has taken hold. though there are still a lot of farbs around.

There are a couple of very nice bugler packets around that include both the sheet music as well as a recording of how they are to be played/sound, etc. I wouldn't doubt they are available online to listen to as well.

Most of the commands to be played by fifes and drums were for use in camp. In the field, they simply wouldn't be able to be heard once the firing started. The higher, more intense notes of the bugle could be heard above most all firing, however.

here's a nice resource page.

rjsamp.com

And here: Bugle Calls for Dummies.

rjsamp.com/inf/nrbcfd.html

R.J. Samp often bugles for the Mifflin Guard and we also have Doug Grunn who is very good, indeed. We try to run our battalion by the bugle wherever possible.

However, most regiments did have Field Music (fifes and drums) which is a different thing from a regimental band (which became rare as the war went on). The field music could also be used to transmit orders and they provided a marching cadence for the troops. Their position was behind the center of the battalion.

What Scott says.

It takes longer to train a bugler to the same skill level as a drummer.
A bugler requires some level of ability and skill to differentiate precisely between the pitches of the notes on a bugle and a reasonable 'ear' to tell the difference. Rhythmic nuance plays a considerable role as well.
This is not to denigrate the considerable skill of drummers but it would have been progressively harder to replace skilled buglers especially toward the end of the war so a drummer, often available from the Corps musicians, would be called on instead.

What is a farb?

See here:

wesclark.com/jw/forigin.html

Carbine1959:

Wasn't hard to find skilled bugle players at all, especially amongst drafted men. As to Corps musicians, I am unaware of any such critters, each unit having enlisted their own musicians.

V/R

farb?

wears Nikes to a public re enactment
smokes a filter cigarette while in ranks
wears a modern wristwatch openly

these are likely too goofy and extreme, but in general are examples of out of period behavior and appearance by a "farb"!!

Bugles are tactical, drums are cerimonial but wargamers seem to prefer painting drums to bugles, thus the manufacturers give us what we want. Other musicans carried ammo/water forward, wounded rearward.

My inf comd stands use drums, my skirmish comd stands and dismounted cav stands use bugles.

As the Union troops marched past their lines on the way to Pickett's Mill, the buglers of Willich's (Gibson's) brigade continued to use their bugles to give commands. The National Tribune is full of veterans from other brigades in the division, who told their buglers to be quiet, still ed off about how the bugles gave away their position during the whole march. Even the Confederates mentioned the bugles a few times in their memoirs.

The Confederates actually knew where they were without the bugles, but the point is they featured prominently in the memories of the veterans.

Bugler figures are definitely underrepresented in the ACW miniature world. The bugle is referred to frequently in both the drill manuals and in memoirs. I'll have to check out Blue Moon to get a few of their buglers.

I am fortunate to belong to a reenacting unit that has a bugler, but (as pointed out above) drums are more common and easier to march to.