page_title: Drummer (military)
section_title: Decline
hierarchical_section_title: Drummer (military) / Decline
caption_attribution_description: English: Battle of Isandhlwana (1879) Natal, South Africa
context_page_description: A drummer was responsible for the army drums for use on the battlefield. Drums were part of the field music for hundreds of years, being introduced by the Ottomans to Europe. Chinese armies however had used drums even before that. With the professionalization of armies, military music was developed as well. Drums were not only used for the men to march in step, but were an important part of the battlefield communications system, with various drum rudiments used to signal different commands from officers to troops. By the second half of the 18th century, most Western armies had a standardized set of marches and signals to be played, often accompanied by fifers.
context_section_description: The use of drums beyond the parade ground declined rapidly as the 19th century progressed, being replaced by the bugle in the signalling role, although it was often the drummers who were required to play them. A widely reported incident at the Battle of Isandlwana during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, spelled the end of boys being sent on active service by the British Army. Part of the British force returned to their camp at night to find that it had been overrun by the Zulu army a few hours previously. An eyewitness reported that "Even the little drummer boys that we had in the band, they were hung up on hooks, and opened like sheep. It was a pitiful sight". Doubt has since been cast on this account, since the youngest drummer to be killed was 18, and the youngest boy present was 16. Despite this, Charles Edwin Fripp's famous painting, The Last Stand at Isandlwana, shows a small blond-haired boy amongst the adult soldiers.
  The US Army kept drummers and fifers with the infantry, until they were finally abolished in the field in 1917. Drums, like other instruments, were now only used for parades and ceremonies.
caption: The Last Stand at Isandlwana by Charles Edwin Fripp shows a small drummer boy in the ranks, despite the youngest soldier present being over 16 years old
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