Getting a Drum

We have all heard plenty about drummer boys and their instruments, but have you ever stopped to wonder where their drums came from? How did they get them? Who made them? The answer to these questions and more is quite interesting.

A section of a requisition for "snare strings & drum sticks" entered by Captain Frank Zentmeyer of the 34th Pa. infantry, Co. A

In his book, "Drum Taps in Dixie", Delavan S. Miller explains how he obtained his first drum. "It is with feelings of real tenderness that I write of my first drum. It was none of the common sort such as furnished by Uncle Sam, but was the best that money could buy, and was a gift from the officers at Fort Worth in the spring of 1862. A requisition for instruments was a long time in being filled, owing to the vast amount of red tape in use, so the officers at our fort presented me with a drum." Miller's quote is interesting because, in it, he establishes that there were two basic ways of getting a drum in the Union army. You either bought it or sent a requisition in for it and you were issued one.

Miller later says that he went to a store on Pennsylvania Avenue with one of his officers and picked out a drum. Stores like this were common in larger cities in both the North and the South. According to "A Pictoral History of Civil War Era Musical Instruments and Millitary Bands", by Robert Garofalo and Mark Elrod, there were three major centers of the drum manufacturing industry that were established before the Civil War in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Perhaps the largest concentration of drum-makers was in Philadelphia. One of the most famous of these was Horstmann Brothers, but others include C&F Soistmann and Ernst Vogt.

Most Confederate drummers seem to have obtained their drums in this manner as well. The Confederate army issued very little in the way of musical instruments, so musicians were forced to provide for themselves. Because of this, Confederate drums were greatly varied in pattern, size, and quality.

As for Union issue drums, there was a regulation in place for their painted design, but nothing in place to regulate anything else (such as dimensions), so that was all up to the contractor to figure out. Contractors tended to use the regulation as more of a guideline. Most regulation Federal drums bore an eagle emblazonment (many of which featured a painted banner in the design on which the owner of the drum could inscribe the name of his unit). Many of the same companies who made drums available in their stores were also Federal contractors, so the patterns of privately purchased drums and issued drums were often similar.

There was a horrendous amount of red tape in place before one could get a drum issued to him in the Federal army. First, a requisition had to be filed by an officer in one's company, sent to the quartermaster department (which took quite a while because the message had to be carried either in the army mail or by a courier). There, it had to be approved by the quartermaster department and the drum had to be ordered from a contractor, packaged, and taken to the regimental quartermaster via army supply wagon or train (a process which could be long and full of delays). The quartermaster would finally issue the drum to its recipient months after the requisition was placed. One can easily see how purchasing a drum at a shop would have been a much faster option than having one issued.

If a piece of the drum was broken or became no longer usable, the same process had to be completed, which would often take months.

Comments

[Sandy]

I will have to come back and read this post, but I found this site called Shorpy's and here is a link to a photo I thought you might find interesting:
http://www.shorpy.com/node/454?size=_original

I love old photographs, and this is chock full of them.

[Sandy]

Excellent post! I find it interesting that drums were made only in the cities that are most famous for their music!

[william]

Thanks! That site you linked to is very interesting. I had never seen that particular photo before.

[Sandy]

There are lots of Civil War photos. If you have the time, you can go to his site and click on the Civil War link on the side. I think that will take you to just th Civil War photos. Here is a link to another one that I think you will find interesting:
http://www.shorpy.com/node?page=260

[william]

Cool. If you are interested, there is a large collection of 19th century daguerrotypes at www.daguerre.com, the online home of the Daguerrian Society.