The militia drum was the town's alarm bell as much as a battlefield instrument. Every Massachusetts and Connecticut town kept a drum and a fife as part of its militia stores, and the men who beat them were often local townsmen who had learned the calls in their fathers' companies — not the young apprentice-musicians attached to a standing army's regimental band. The same calls served peace and war: a drum tap on muster day at the village green, the rapid call to arms when the alarm rider came in, the slow march that brought the company up to its post. On a battlefield where shouted orders carried no further than thirty yards over the noise of musketry, drum signals could be heard at a thousand. The repertoire was small and universal: the long roll for "form for action," "To the Colours" for rallying on the regimental flag, "Retreat" played in the slower march tempo for the day's end as well as for withdrawal.

This W. Britain figure shows a Colonial Militia drummer mid-stroke: left drumstick down on the head, right raised for the next beat, drum slung on a white rope harness at the left hip, the shell painted red wood with the rope-tensioned head white-laced in the standard pattern. He wears the militiaman's plain dress rather than a dedicated musician's regimental coat — a sage-green wool frock cut civilian-style, light waistcoat, off-white breeches, white stockings, black shoes with brass buckles, black tricorne. The contrast with a regular regiment's drummer is the point: this man's coat is whatever the town turned out in, not the "reversed colors" musician's coat issued from a regimental clothier. He sounds the calls for militia ranks like the standing loading musket figure preparing to fire in line, works the same tactical communication system as the regulars in the Continental Line standing firing position, and beats the same calls that brought hunting-shirt Continentals to the charge when their officers signalled the advance.

Model: 16089 / W. Britain 1/30 (60mm) / matte finish / 1 piece set