The American army of the revolution based its ranks very closely on those of the British army of the period; a drum major is not a rank, but an appointment, meaning that soldiers of different ranks can hold that title. Normally a senior sergeant or a sergeant-major (a warrant officer) would be appointed drum major - so it would be below the rank of a commissioned officer.
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Fife and Drum was the basic means of communication between the troops and their commanders. Different drum beats would signal when to wake up, load your guns, go get fire wood or water. A fifer and a drummer were assigned to each regiment, and they would be in charge of letting the troops in that regiment know what to do. The tunes would also be played for moral or death marches.
No, drummer boys of the civil war did not carry weapons. All they did is drum.
A wankara is a large, double headed drum. It has a gat skin stretched across both ends. It has a deep bass sound.
African Americans in New England rallied to the patriot cause and were part of the militia forces that were organized into the new Continental Army. Approximately 5 percent of the American soldiers at the Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775) were black. New England blacks mostly served in integrated units and received the same pay as whites, although no African American is known to have held a rank higher than corporal. It has been estimated that at least 5,000 black soldiers fought on the patriot side during the Revolutionary War. The exact number will never be known because eighteenth century muster rolls usually did not indicate race. Careful comparisons between muster rolls and church, census, and other records have recently helped identify many black soldiers. Additionally, various eyewitness accounts provide some indication of the level of African Americans' participation during the war. Baron von Closen, a member of Rochambeau's French army at Yorktown, wrote in July 1781, "A quarter of them [the American army] are Negroes, merry, confident and sturdy." The use of African Americans as soldiers, whether freemen or slaves, was avoided by Congress and General Washington early in the war. The prospect of armed slave revolts proved more threatening to white society than British redcoats. General Washington allowed the enlistment of free blacks with "prior military experience" in January 1776, and extended the enlistment terms to all free blacks in January 1777 in order to help fill the depleted ranks of the Continental Army. Because the states constantly failed to meet their quotas of manpower for the army, Congress authorized the enlistment of all blacks, free and slave, in 1777. Of the southern states, only Maryland permitted African Americans to enlist. In 1779, Congress offered slave masters in South Carolina and Georgia $1,000 for each slave they provided to the army, but the legislatures of both states refused the offer. Thus, the greatest number of African American soldiers in the American army came from the North.