Confederate drums were hard to come by. The Federal Army drew its drums from large Northern manufacturers — most notably Stratton in Cincinnati and Tower in Boston — that the South had no equivalent of. Confederate regiments equipped their drummers with whatever they could find: privately donated drums brought from home in 1861, drums captured from Federal regiments in early battles, and drums made by individual Southern craftsmen working in small shops in Richmond, Charleston, and Augusta. Confederate-made drums were often visibly different from Federal ones — heavier shells, different rope-tensioning patterns, plain painted designs rather than the Federal "eagle drum" — but they served the same tactical function. The drummer in this figure carries what is likely a Confederate-made instrument.

This W. Britain figure depicts a Confederate infantry drummer on the march — gray sack coat in domestic Confederate cloth, light blue trousers, the broad-brimmed slouch hat preferred by Confederate soldiers over the kepi. The drum is slung at his right hip on the regulation drum sling, and he carries his drumsticks balanced across his shoulders behind his neck — a common informal march position that gave the drummer's hands a rest between calls. The figure works as the audible centerpiece of any Confederate marching column or regimental-music vignette. Pair this figure with Confederate Infantry Company Officer as the officer whose orders the drum would translate; with Confederate Infantry at Rest for a regiment paused on the march; or with 1st Texas Flagbearer for a Confederate regimental color guard.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31498. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure with drum, supplied painted and ready for display.