You Are A Drummer Boy In The Civil War Quiz

Answer: Reveille

Communication was a key role for the young men who were drummer boys. They had to know dozens of distinct drum calls that represented specific actions. Reveille is the call that signals the start of the duty day and awakens the personnel in camp. It can be done as a drum solo, bugle solo, or both, using a duo of musicians.

Tattoo was used as a signal for soldiers to extinguish their fires, wind down their activity, and head toward their tents. Taps, often used with the bugler, was the signal for all "lights out". It would later be utilized during funeral ceremonies. Mess call let the personnel know that it was time to grab a meal.

Answer: Minie Balls

Drummer boys were often utilized to run many errands around the camp. These ranged from aiding the officers to cleaning up the area to retrieving ammo. For the latter, the boys would go to the battle site and collect intact minie balls. These were bullets, for muzzle-loading rifles, that were used extensively in the Civil War. They were made of soft lead and were shaped like a cone. When hitting a human target, they would flatten and splinter, causing great damage to bones and organs.

Minie balls were used by the infantry, while larger cannon balls were shot by the artillery. Some of these, like the 13" shells, weighed up to 250 pounds. The minie balls would give way, after the Civil War, to more advanced bullets to feed more advanced weapons.

Answer: He is African-American

A H (short for Alexander Howard) Johnson was one of the very first African-American musicians to join the Union Army. He was 16 when he enlisted as a drummer boy in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, and is depicted on a memorial in Boston as he leads the famous Col. Shaw into battle. He was the adopted son of William Johnson, the second black lawyer in the United States.

AH Johnson survived the war, and was a member of the Republic Post #10 and of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. He was mentioned in several books of the era. He died in 1930; before he died he told an interviewer that he had "beat a drum every day he has been able since childhood."

Answer: "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"

One of the duties of the drummer boy was to work with his fellow musicians to play music for the troops. This included in camp and while marching. It not only helped keep up the pace of the march, but often boosted morale. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" was very popular for both Union and Confederate soldiers. It was written by a bandleader named Patrick Gilmore who published the song under the name Louis Lambert. The melody was similar to many Irish folks songs, and is about the longing of families that their sons, brothers, husbands, etc. would return safely from the war.

The lyrics:
" When Johnny comes marching home again, Hurrah, Hurrah,
We'll give him a hearty welcome then, Hurrah, Hurrah;
The men will cheer, the boys will shout,
The ladies, they will all turn out,
And we'll all feel gay,
When Johnny comes marching home.

Let love and friendship on that day, Hurrah, Hurrah,
Their choicest treasures then display, Hurrah, Hurrah,
And let each one perform some part,
To fill with joy the warrior's heart,
And we'll all feel gay,
When Johnny comes marching home."

Answer: Attack

Civil War drummer boys had to learn different variations of 26 rudiments, which are drumming patterns used for military signals. This was a major way of communicating orders on the battle field.

These rudiments were first introduced to America by Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben as he trained drummers at Valley Forge in 1778. Later, multiple manuals were created and the rudiments were standardized. Drummer boys in the Civil War studied the manuals or learned from peers.

The various orders would be communicated through things like a roll (rapidly played, evenly spaced notes), a flam (two notes in quick cadence) or a paradiddle (a combination of single and double strokes). The long roll was primarily used for calling soldiers to arrange themselves in line in preparation for an attack. Other commands used a mix of rudiments, some so specific they were directed at individual ranks within the division.

Answer: False

Drummer boys were almost always placed in the rear of the fighting since they were unarmed. However, this did not prevent potential injury or death. Wrong aim by artillery could cause cannon balls to lob into the rear. Bullets and shrapnel could also penetrate to the rear of the lines. Often, drummers were placed near flag (or color) bearers who were prime targets during a battle.

An example of one such casualty was 13 year old Charley King. He was an enlisted drummer for the 49th Pennsylvania Infantry and was at Antietam. He was toward the rear, by the infamous cornfield location, when he was shot through the torso and died in a field hospital. He is considered a drummer boy folk hero.

Answer: Amputation

Over the course of the Civil War, over 475,000 soldiers were wounded. The ammunition of the time caused massive bone and muscle damage and resulted in 75% of the operations on the battlefield to be amputations. This was the swift removal of a body part (such as an arm or leg) and was one of the most effective ways to treat severely wounded soldiers in a short amount of time. A tourniquet was applied and a bone saw hacked through the limb. The limb was then tossed aside and the next patient brought forward.

Drummer boys aided the battle field doctors during these surgeries. The boys would often hold down, or restrain, the patient since modern anesthetics were not frequently used. They would also hold instruments or fetch water and materials. A necessary, but horrific task, they also performed was carrying away the piles of discarded limbs and placing them in mass graves.

Answer: Telegraph

Drummer boys were often "assigned" to various officers and would run errands for them. One of the more common errands, especially at the beginning of the Civil War, was to personally deliver messages. The boys would either utilize a horse or run on foot to deliver the written missives to different locales.

However, as the Civil War continued, the use of the telegraph became much more common. This medium had been around since 1844 but it was soon recognized as a powerful form of communication, especially for the Union. During the years of the war, the Union sent around 6.5 million messages across 15,000 miles of line.

Answer: Drummer Boy of Shiloh

John Clem is perhaps one of the best known drummer boys of the Civil War. He had been following the troops since age 9 and at age 11 he officially enlisted in the 22nd Michigan Infantry as a drummer boy. In 1863, at the Battle of Chickamauga, Johnny Clem found himself with a group of surrounded Union soldiers. Rather than surrender, Clem picked up a gun and shot a Confederate colonel and made his way back to his troop. For this, he was promoted to sergeant which made him the youngest soldier to become a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army.

Clem survived the Civil War and went on to make the military his way of life. He served just shy of 45 years in the U.S. Army, and retired as a major general in 1915. He is buried in Arlington Cemetery. Interestingly, he became known through the years as the "Drummer Boy of Shiloh" even though his infantry unit was not even formed by the time of The Battle of Shiloh, which was also known as The Battle of Pittsburgh Landing.

Answer: Three years

The minimum age for enlistement in the U.S. Army for the Civil War was 18 years. However, drummer boys were often "unofficially" recruited at much younger ages, sometimes even 10 or 11 years old. They followed the same length terms as other soldiers. At the start of the war, the time periods were 90 days. But the war lasted much longer than expected and there was a need for more troops.

By July 1861, Lincoln, having been upset at the First Battle of Bull Run results, proclaimed that after the initial entry period, enlistments would be for three years. Later in the war, enlistments were simply for "the duration of the conflict".