The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1899-10-07
The Drum Major.

The Drum Major.
The infantry regiments of the Unit
ed States are to have drum majors
hereafter, according to the provisions
of the Army bill passed at the last ses-
sion of ongre The fact that while
the gorgeous giant with the big cane is
an important part of the state militia
dress parades, he has had no place in
parades of United States infantry is
not SO strange when one hears the ex-
PLANTATION. THE thing is simple
enough" said a military antiquarian.
You have only to remember that in
the United States regular army there
are no hussars and no Polish lancers.
Just wait a moment and l think l can
show you the connection. 1t is rath-
er a ~paradoxical connection, but it is
there, all the same. The general idea
is that nothing is to be found in the
United States army that was not in
the British regular army in the four
teenth year of the reign of George III.
By that Of course | mean nothing in
the way Of ranks and disciplinary ar
rangements. One or two things may
have dropped out of use-the rank of
cornet for example, which was for
merly the lowest commissioned rank
In the cavalry both in the American
and in the British army. On the other
hand they have several things that we
have not. If you will take the trouble
to look it up you will find that every
one of these things has been introduce
ed into the British army since our wal
Of independence. The Polish lancer
became famous under Napoleon l, and
the British straightway turned half a
dozen or so of their regiments Of light
dragons into ~lancers, not only equip
ping them with lances, but also giving
them the Polish caps with the square,
fiat tops, which they still wear on
full dress parade. 1t was about the
same time that they took up the name
hussar, which is Hungarian anu comes
down all the way from the days of Ma
thias C%orvinus, the Hungarian king,
whose old stirrups were sold the other
day, l see, for s. LOO. With the name
of hussar the British army took the
dress of the Hungarian cavalier-the
uncovered busby, the Turkish dolman
or flying jacket, trimmed with fur and
hanging loose on the left shoulder,
and so on. They have given I'D the
flying Jacket but the rest of the uni
form they still keep. 1t was all imi-
tated from the French, who had had
hussars two generations earlier. Mu-
rat, the spectacular marshal Of the
empire, made it famous and popular.
So far so good. We have most things
that they had in 1776, not what they
took up in Napoleon's time. But one
thing their standing army had which
we have not had heretofore, and that
is the drum major. Naturally enough,
too. There would be no drum majors
in the continental army, because the
continentals were only the old con-
stitutional English militia, represent
ing the shire and borough levies of
the middle ages, transferred to the
American colonies, while the standing
army-with their red coats, the royal
livery-were an extra constitutional
body of troops that began to exist un-
der the Stuarts-mere royal retainers
In fact. Now the drum major was first
heard Of in England in the reign of
Charles /. He was an officer of the roy
al household originally. and his title
was drum major general. The Stuarts
were very fond Of initiating the
French court, and a whole century
earlier than the days of Charles I the
king of France had had his drum gen
eral and drum colonel to teach the
royal drummers. 1t was only after
Charles l had had his head cut off hat
Louis XIV reduced his drum generals
and drum colonies to drum majors.
But the drum major retained the au-
thority to chastise his subordinates,
and the big cane to do it with, which
later all drum majors still WELD for
the edification of admiring crowds.
So you see this Office of drum major
was a thing associated with the court
and the absolute standing army. No
Wonder it did not find a place in the
army that originated in votes of the
continental congress. AS to how our
state militias took up drum majors, l
cannot say exactly, or as to when, but
1t is significant that the name nation
al guard, or rather, national guards,
was taken by the New York militia in
1924, by way of compliment to Lafay-
cite, because he had commanded the
Garde Rationale in France. All
through the revolution the consulate
and first empire the drum major con-
tinued to be a very important person
age in the French infantry. Perhaps
militia in their enthusiasm for La
fayette wished to be as French as they
could In everything. 1t is worth re-
marking that we have taken up drum
majors just about twenty years after
the British have dropped them. Since
1878 they have had sergeant drummers
to discharge the more serious func-
lions which formerly belonged to the
drum major"
Cta~tA. - |