"Drums in the front line" Topic

Hi, I am just finishing a unit of Perry Zouaves, some details on the drum to go.

But I have a question. Was it normal for a Union regiment to take their drums into battle? Would the drums be used for giving orders outside of camp and the parade ground?

And, if they did take drums into battle, would they take the fancy dress drums, or would they have a more plain version, to take any hits?

TIA

Phil

Here is one view

As noted the field musicians formed up behind the front line, in a group

That being said I pretty much always put a drummer on my command stand

I think that they used the same drums on or off the battlefield but I am no expert on ACW instruments

An officer was more likely to have a bugler by his side to pass commands than a drummer. Drummers were non-combatants and were often sent off to be stretcher bearers, and to render what assistance they could at field hospitals. A musician in the field would wear a field uniform and they would carry a painted drum. Here are some images:

Drummers typically end up on command stands because that is the only musician that a lot of manufacturers make.

link

Excellent thanks.

i stopped putting drummers on my command stands about 20 years ago. i feel i can paint 2 line soldiers(15mm acw) in the time it takes me to do a nice job on the drummer, with the fancy braid and whatnot.
just not worth it to include drummers when irl, they were helping the wounded.

Same situation with Napoleonics--they're always on command stands, but…

Hang on a minute. I don't have a drummer in my unit of Perry Zouaves!

Isn't there something different about the sprues in that box? I seem to recall I had to get an extra sprue to make two flag bearers and my command stand has two flags and two officers. It's the only unit I have with no drummer at all.

I have also stopped putting drummers. Wishing for more buglers.

When I put drummers in the command stand (sometimes I do, sometimes I don't) I always put them in the second rank. I have lots of extra drummers lying around – I plan one day to do a battalion of nothing but drummers just to off some of the more tightly wound people I know.

I don't put drummers in my units, but I have painted them up as markers. For instance, when playing V&B I place a drummer behind the unit to mark it as stationary – looks great!

Nice idea, CAT

Trajanus, I bought my zouaves second hand already assembled. I just assumed the drummer came in the box.

Hang on a minute. I don't have a drummer in my unit of Perry Zouaves!

Then you might want to take a look at your bitx box. Every Perry Zoauve box should include the following command sprue, which contains parts to make a drummer (plus an officer and arms for two flag bearers):

We use drummers and dismounted officers as '+1' markers for our DBA-style big battle rules to denote higher-quality units.

Griefbringer,

Yeah, just checked the Website myself before I saw your post and its there all right, as your picture shows!

I must have been having a fit of realism at the time and didn't make one up!

All my other units have a drummer, primarily because they come with each metal command set and buying in sets of six figures the units would be a 'man' light without them !

Didn't have that problem with the plastic Zouaves as there were more figures in the box than in my standard regiments anyway.

As noted, drummers were usually massed with the Field Music behind the line. But the Field Musicians were not usually sent off as stretcher bearers. That was often done with the regimental band (which was an entirely different thing from the Field Music). The Field Music had an important role to play passing along orders and they would stay near the center of the battalion where the colonel could find them.