I've always wondered this. The little drummer boy Tom that Billy finds and ends up being with Billy alot throughtout gets hurt in that one battle and the last time they show him is when Billy is visting him in the field hospital. Does Tom survive? They never answer that question in the mini-series. Do they in the book? Is he even in the book?
Thanks in advance.
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It's been so long since I read the books that I don't remember. I'm almost sure I remember this scene from the movie when it originally aired (which must have been deleted since it wasn't on the DVD). Billy returns to the hospital to get Tom, only to find his bed empty. The doctor tells him Tom took a turn for the worse and died. Billy finds his grave and places the damaged drum on it.
shareThat is so sad :{. I've never read the books, but I plan on doing so sometime. Thanks for your help!
shareTom the drummer boy was a great charcter in the mini-series. He was NOT in the book, though. Actually, in the book, Billy was a member of the Federal Army Corps of Engineers rather than the crack US Sharpshooters. I like his screen adaption much better for the TV movie. He was much more of an exciting charcter on the screen than in the pages.
Regarding Tom's fate--- I watched the original back in '86, and IIRC Tom lived and Billy made reference to plans to bring him down to South Carolina to live with he and Brett. I'm not sure if the poster who made mention to Tom dying saw footage that I never saw or perhaps is confusing this movie with another. I'm not sure on that, but I know that Tom survived in the original airing and was going to be likely adopted by Billy and Brett.
Thanks rehii76. The last time I remember them showing Tom in the series {I'm going by the DVDs, I'm only 18 so I didn't see the original airing} is when Tom was laying in the hospital bed with the badage around his eyes and not moving, and Billy was telling him he was going to be okay and everything.
Next thing you know Billy is back in South Carolina with Brett and they never really said anything more about Tom. So I was always curious if he was in the books and if he was, did he survive and what happened.
But that's interesting about Billy in the books. I haven't read the books, my Mom has them and if I ever get the chance I plan on reading them.
Thanks again :}.
Kittylove-- no problem. I was just watching North and South Book II again recently and thought I would check out the board on it. I spent the last couple of days just doing some spot reading on the Love and War book (Book II). Certainly I don't want to give anything away if you decide to read it. But I must say that I like the screen adaption for Book II MUCH better than the book itself. I found it kind of lackluster to be perfectly honest after a stellar first effort from Jakes. His historical research is superb as always and his writing of Charles is terrific for the most part, but it's too much the soap opera with too many mundane characters. No wonder they decided to change it for the screen. Wise choice IMHO.
Yeah, regarding Tom. We last see him in the Union field hospital after Petersburg. My guess is that he got hit by reb cannister as he was nearing the breastworks. I guess it was sort of left up in the air if he survived. But I think we were led to believe that he would and then that he would join Billy and Brett.
Back in the 1970s and 80s I read all of The Kent Family. Chronicles. Then when these bks came out I read all three. Jakes always starts out strong in the first book (KFCs the first 3 books were okay, but 3rd book was already sinking).
His books aren’t great literature and are extremely formulaic and repetitive: murder; rape; men wetting themselves as they’re dying; cardboard cutout, mustache-twirling villains; etc.
I’ve never read Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels, but judging from the series on Starz, she uses the same formula. And to some extent, Winston Graham’s Poldark novels fall into the same category.
Billy returns to the hospital to get Tom, only to find his bed empty. The doctor tells him Tom took a turn for the worse and died. Billy finds his grave and places the damaged drum on it.
Obviously I'm thinking of another movie. Thanks!
shareGettysburg, perhaps?
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I always thought that the scene was very inconclusive about Tom's prognosis and eventual fate.
And here is a quote from James J. Mark's The Peninsular Campaign in Virgina 1864, page 196, about a scene in a field Hospital at the White House (not to be confused with the one in Washington DC) in late May 1862:
In another group of sufferers I found a little boy apparently not more than twelve years of age; the long hair thrown back from a beautiful forehead, enabled me to see by the lantern light a very childlike face. His right leg had been amputated above his knee and he was lying motionless, and apparently breathless, and as white as snow. I bent over him, and put my fingers on his wrist, and discovered to my surprise the faint trembling of a pulse. I immediately said to my attendant: "Why, the child is alive!"
"Yes, sir" said he, opening his eyes. "I am alive; will you not send me to my mother?"
"And where is your mother," said I "my child?"
"In Sumterville, South Carolina." he replied.
"Oh! yes, my son, we will certainly send you to your mother."
"Well, well," said he. "That is kind. I will go to sleep now."