Civil War Drum
What are drums used for in the Civil War?
Boys would be excited to have a drum because they thought it would be an adventure. Boys under 18 would be a drummer. Some boys didn’t know much about music. The soldiers were woken by drummers. When drummer boys weren’t in the field they were at camp doing things like carrying water and rubbing horses. They also gathered wood or made the soldiers breakfast, lunch and dinner. One of them was a barber. Some drummers got to fight. Drummers found themselves at camp sounding routine calls to gather for meals and gave the beat for marching drills. Often they were with troops in the field not just marching to the site. Sometimes in the middle of the fighting they would hit the drum to command the soldiers to move or shoot. Sometimes drummer boys would get shot or killed. The beat of the drum was one of the most important means of communicating orders to soldiers in the Civil War.
4th Grade Guest Curator, Gabriel, 2009
Civil War Drums
Who was Jonny Clem?
Jonny Clem was a very famous 11 year old drummer who also fought in the Civil War. Jonny Clem ran away from home at 9 years old in 1861. When he joined the army he got pay of $13.00 a month. He wasn’t allowed to fight until he was 18 but the Union was desperate for troops. Now the reason the also call him Jonny Shiloh is because he fought in the Battle of Shiloh. He also fought in the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. Jonny survived the war and chose to remain a soldier. He pressured President Ulysses S. Grant to appoint him to the regular army. Jonny retired as a major General.
These are snare drums from the Civil War. The one with the flag came from the Godfrey family. The other drum was Frederick J. Low’s. He played the drum and made barrels. He joined in 1861. He was 16. 4th Grade Guest Curator, Noah, 2009
Apothecary Chest, 1861-1865
This apothecary chest holds medicine used by Dr. Augustus Choate Hamlin. Dr. Hamlin used it during the Civil War for sick and wounded soldiers.
What diseases did soldiers get during the Civil War?
The greatest killer was a diarrhea/dysentery combination, the next most common was malaria.Other diseases were typhoid, pneumonia, measles, tuberculosis, smallpox, and bronchitis. Medicine during the Civil War was basic and deadly. No one knew what caused dysentery. They used mixtures of castor oil and opium to treat dysentery. Southern doctors used acetate of lead with opium. No one knew malaria was caused by bites from one particular type of mosquito, but doctors did know about a chemical called quinine could control malaria. Southern doctors gave their malaria patients tincture of dogwood, poplar, willow tree bark mixed with whiskey. Another common disease was typhoid. The medicine used was opium, whiskey, and turpentine. Physicians in both the North and South treat a disease called pneumonia by applying heat to the chest. Civil War disease was mainly caused by dirty hospitals and army camps. One of the reasons so many soldiers died was because the doctors in the 1860s didn’t know much about treating diseases.
4th Grade Guest Curator, Jade, 2009