A regimental drummer had two jobs. The first was musical — beating the long roll to call the regiment to arms, the advance to move forward, retreat to fall back, halt to stop, taps at the end of the day. The second was medical. Drummers and musicians were not formally combat troops, and when their regiment was engaged they were detailed as stretcher bearers — helping carry wounded back from the line to the regimental surgeon, holding men while limbs were amputated, fetching water and bandages. The dual role meant a drummer might spend the morning beating calls on the firing line and the afternoon dragging his own friends to the rear. The drummer was the regiment's noise — and its first aid.

This W. Britain figure depicts a Confederate infantry drummer in regulation gray frock coat — the longer-skirted dress coat rather than the short shell jacket — with gray trousers, broad-brimmed slouch hat, and the cartridge box on his belt. The drum at his hip is a plain Confederate-made instrument without the elaborate eagle decoration of the Federal eagle drums; the drumsticks are held in playing position. The mustache suggests a long-service soldier. The figure works as the audible centerpiece of any Confederate marching column or regimental line, or as a stretcher-bearer figure in any after-the-battle scene. Pair this figure with Confederate Infantry Drummer Marching for a matched same-role pair; with Confederate Infantry Company Officer as the officer whose orders the drum translates; or with Confederate Infantry Fifer Marching for the regimental music ensemble (drum + fife).

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31167. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure with drum, supplied painted and ready for display.