...were lame. They could of at least pretended to beat the heck outta their drums. Instead, they just kinda stumbled along feeling sorry for themselves. I guess it's mostly the director's fault, but those clips were LAME. I hear the drums beating, but I don't see the children beating their dadgum drums. Annoying.
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Give the kids a break; they're far too small to drum properly. No army of the period had drummers that young - drummers needed to be 15 or 16 at least to carry the military drum of the time, which was bloody big and heavy. Most of them weren't boys at all but adults - the infantry drum was the company's communication device and carrying it and beating the appropriate calls on the battlefield was a responsible job. In the British army drummers got the same pay as corporals.
What has always bugged me is the bit where Ney's forces encounter Napoleon's, and they move from column to confront him in line. Every army, in 1970 just as in 1815, has a set drill for moving from column into line; but the extras just break ranks and shamble. Why? I wouldn't expect them to have researched the genuine historic French drill, but they were all Soviet soldiers - why not use the drill move they were used to? Any genuine military movement would have looked better than that.
I know the brits were recruiting drummers in north america in the war of 1812 as young as 12, I've also heard that there were grenadiers at waterloo well under the mandatory 6 feet required for grenadiers. I suppose it's more based on troop availability. I've seen short kids manhandle and play drums, it amounts to the proper training which, just like the horrid infantry column into line, requires alot of work
shareAre still using drummers in iraq as we speak.
shareTwo of Dan O'Herlihys sons played drummer boys.
one deleted scene scene shows Maria, a cantinierre, (excuse spelling) being guided over the battlefield by a young drummer boy to find the body of her lover Guardsman Chactas.
Ghennady Yudin played Chactas, Maria played by Irene Skobseva, Mrs Sergei Bondarchuk.
All armies of that era would have a small proportion of enlisted men and officers who were boys.
George Kepple, 6th Earl of Albemarle (13 June 1799-21 February1891) was an ensign in the British 14th Regiment of Foot at the Battle of Waterloo 18 June 1815 aged 16 years and 5 days. In Fifty Years of My Life, 1876 he wrote about his experiences at Waterloo.
On June 19th the day after the battle:
Some
of my comrades went over the field of battle. I set out
with the same intent, but soon returned to the Chateau
from the deep depression which the scene produced upon
me. One sight especially riveted my attention. It was
the body of a boy, who from his appearance could not
have been more than fourteen years of age. The finely-
chiselled features of the poor lad contrasted strongly with
the coarse lineaments of corpses in his neighbourhood,
which had been rendered still more grim by the agony
of the death-struggle. Like the bodies around him, no
vestige of dress remained to show his rank or nation.
Prom his peculiarly fair hair it may be assumed he was
a German ; from his small white hands, that he was of
gentle race; and from the heaps of dead horses around
CH. VIIL] OUR ENTRY INTO NIVELLES. 157
him, that he had fallen in a charge of cavalry. I have
looked over the lists of the killed and wounded, but can
find no one answering his description. The probability is
that he was a " freiwilliger," or volunteer, some of whom
were attached to most regiments, British or Prussian.
One thing is proved to me, that there was in the field
one younger>than myself.
In the 18th century it became customary in the British army to recruit boys who were trained to become musicians (drummers, fifers, buglers & trumpeters) so they would be ready for the job when they were older.
And so the lists of those killed at Isandlwana on 22 January 1879 includes four or five soldiers of the 24th infantry with the rank of boy.
In another post made today, Mar. 04/05 2024, I quote from a mention of a boy killed at Waterloo.
And I have read a story about a young British drummer boy captured in Spain in 1808. Napoleon teased the boy by threatening to shoot him as a spy unless he could prove he was a soldier. The boy demonstrated he could play the charge on a drum and then was told to play retreat, but said he didn't know retreat because the British never retreated.
And there is a story about a British Infantryman who could couldn't make to his square when French cavalry charged at Waterloo and so hid. When the French cavalry retreated, he jumped up to say he was alright, and then a cannonball knocked off his head.
And there a version where that infantryman was the drummer boy from 1808, probably no longer a boy after 7 years.
I note that the Duchess of Richmond must not have been happy with the famous ending of her Ball in Brussels. One of her sons, Lord Henry Adam Lennox (1797-1812) joined the navy and drowned age 14. Three of her sons were officers in Wellington's army & were at Waterloo. Her 15-year-old son Lord William Lennox lost sight in one eye in a horse riding accident in the battle.