Depicts a standing drummer boy.

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 (if not all) Western armies had a standardized set of marches and signals to be played, often accompanied by fifers.

The romantic idea about drummers is that they were young boys (for instance the Christmas carol "The Little Drummer Boy", or the painting "Steady the Drums"). The fact, though, is that drummers were more often adult men, recruited like the common soldiers.

Design: Don Troiani and T. James Ferrell

Depicts a cannon against a battlefield landscape.

Design: T. James Ferrell