"Uniforms of British drummers" Topic

As the war progressed and British uniforms generally became more functional did drummers' uniforms follow suit? I'm guessing they may have lost their lace chevrons but did they continue to wear reversed colours?

Opinion only, but I doubt that drummers in 1780 or after would wear reversed colors.
I might make an exception for newly arrived units like the 7th Foot.

Hmmm. I don't know either, but I'd have bet the other way. You need to find drummers in a hurry, and a small number of coats not matching anything else shouldn't be too tricky. Also Washington is still pressing for reversed colors for Continental musicians, and he follows the British very closely most of the time. I expect the bearskins would get less common. They last a long time, but when you lose one in North Carolina, you could wait a long time for a replacement.

Isn't the 7th a Royal regiment? Didn't think they reversed colors normally.

Royal regiments did not wear reverse colors. Many musicians were sent home to recruit. Some shouldered a musket and fell in line. Some still fielded as musicians. Likely they wore reverse colors wherever they were though. Also likely they stored the bearskin cap and simply wore a cocked hat.

Isn't the 7th a Royal regiment?

I guess, at least initially, (all things being equal…) the drummers of the 7th would have worn lace on their sleeves.

The limited number of reverse coats required for drummers is a fair point, but by the same token, given the difficulty with re-supply and the rigours of campaign, would they bother?

You need to find drummers in a hurry

Distinctive hat feathers might have served the purpose of identifying drummers instead of lace, not that I am aware of evidence for that practice, although it was adopted after the war. (Whenever this comes up, I can't help thinking, "Look for the bloke with the drum…")

I suspect the drummers bearskins would have been sent into store round about the same time as the caps of grenadiers.

I meant that the drummers of the 7th would have had all the chevrons and lace etc.
Sorry.
But not having Royal regiments reverse colors kind of goes against the need to find drummers in a hurry.
But my point still stands. If the whole regiment were wearing cut down coats and sleeved waistcoats, the drummers are likely to too.

Drummers and fifers continued to wear reversed coats (or heavily laced coats for Royal regiments) until 1811. Whether or not they did so in the field all the way through the AWI is moot, given that officers often had privates' coats tailored for campaign wear. I would certainly go with 42flanker et al on the bearskin caps.

More importantly, there are – as historygamer says – numerous examples of regiments in North America either drafting their drummers into the ranks (a practice started by Wolfe in the FIW), or else sending them home to join regimental recruiting parties, and only keeping an orderly drummer (usually the drum major) to wait on the CO. The senior unit in a brigade might keep two, one for the brigade commander and the other for the CO.

There is an account of a drummer in a red coat mounting the parapet at Yorktown to beat for a parley and not being noticed, but it is unclear whether this was because of the noise of the bombardment, or his plain red coat. As the Guards were present, it may well have been one of their drummers.

Thanks for the replies everyone. It sounds like one those situations where there are really no wrong answers (so long as the bearskin caps remain in storage).

Mind you, it does sound like I have got far too many drummers in my British units (I've got two in a 24 man battalion) and I really ought to send a few home to do some recruiting.

What about horn players? Reverse or not?
In one of the plastics boxes (Perry or WGF), there is an arm with what looks like a French Horn.
What was that used for?

For what troops? Jaegers or Lights?

@ Historygamer;

You might want to differentiate between musicians and drummers. The former were oboists, etc. Drummers were Field Music and were probably kept on in N. America as they were the means of signalling.

Since we aren't usually talking about displays, I assumed we were talking drummers and fifers.

No, they really weren't used for signalling, that is a common myth, developed in peace time. Good luck using a drum in the middle of a battle to relay what you want done as a commander. Aside from perhaps a duty drummer or two, most were sent home to recruit, or fell into the ranks and shouldered a musket. Wolfe suggested using the musicians to help with the wounded in his Instructions to Young Officers. We do know some fifers and drummers fielded with the convereged greandiers at Brandywine, playing music as the men marched into battle. Washington had the fifers and drummers practice at Valley Forge, but I have yet to read an account where anyone reacted due to a drum call on the battlefield.

@spontoon,

There was a general order issued at Warley Camp in 1778, which officially ended the use of drummers to signal commands on the battlefield. However, transmission of orders by word of mouth had become the norm in the F&IWar* 20 years earlier, and the same thing had happened after Howe took over in late 1775. All the Muster Rolls I've seen of regiments serving in the AWI suggest that spare drummers were either sent home to join the recruiting parties, or absorbed into the ranks – certainly from 1778 onwards.

[*This may also have been by General Order, as Amherst was C-in-C in N America at that time, and was also overall C-in-C of the Army in 1778.]

How was it that, twenty years later, drummers were still being shown on the rolls when battalions were on active service?

Given the higher pay they received, what functions did drummers fulfil? While not communicating orders in action, did they still play calls in camp and bivouac?

They flogged. That kind of refutes the notion that drummers were weedy little boys.
You don't want wimps handing out 39 lashes.

They were also stretcher bearers. However with the numbers being reduced and being given a musket, perhaps they even lost that job.

Presumably the custom of having drummers administer floggings was to so as to avoid soldiers having to stand in the line with men they may have flogged, but I hardly think drummers would have been kept on the roll simply for that purpose. The task coud have been given to pioneers, for example. Didn't farriers administer floggings in the cavalry?

Remember that the bulk of the Regular infantry serving in the AWI were either already in N America at the start of the war, or else arrived between May 1775 and August 1776 – all prior to the order being issued. Also, there was an augmentation in August 1775 that raised the number of drummers to two per company, although how many of the regiments arriving after that date actually had that number is debatable (I believe the regiments sent to Canada did, and the extra sergeant and 18 men, but those serving under Howe mostly still had the peacetime establishment from victualling records and the like).

I've found some information on the subject in Rene Chartrand's Osprey on American Loyalist Troops. He writes that in 1780 5,575 coats (with facings of blue, green, buff, white, orange and black) were shipped to supply Loyalist troops. All the coats were red except for 61 drummers' coats. In 1781 there was another shipment of 6,405 coats, all of which were red (with various facings) except for 105 drummers' coats.

It think it seems reasonable to suppose that if the British authorities were supplying reversed colours to drummers in Loyalist units then they would also be doing the same for line regiments.

Except that there was no "home" to send their musicians home to help recruit. They were already home.