19th Century military/ Card game & musical instruments

Comment by Strumelia on July 27, 2012 at 7:11am

The guy in the middle looks kind of like a boy, or even a woman...?   Just sayin'!  lol!

Comment by Paul Certo on July 27, 2012 at 7:17pm

It's possible he was a drummer boy. They were usually too young to enlist as soldiers, sometimes as young as 7 or 8 years old. I'm not certain if drummers were used with Cavalry units or not, and this does look to be a Cavalry unit. The saber was the official cavalry weapon at least until repeating rifles were common, after the Civil War. Infantry units were issued muskets and bayonets instead of sabers. It could also be a woman, as women dressed as men were sometimes in military units, though probably not allowed to stay once discovered. It was more common for women to follow behind the unit of which their husbands were members. They were known as Camp Followers.

Comment by Paul Certo on July 27, 2012 at 7:19pm

That may be a pair of drum sticks hanging from the front of the boys shirt.

Comment by Paul Certo on July 27, 2012 at 7:24pm

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/Civil_War_Drummer_Boy.htm

Here's pictures of a drummer boy, from a page in Harper's Weekly, Dec.19, 1863. The drummer here looks pretty young.

Comment by Strumelia on July 27, 2012 at 8:06pm

That may be a pair of drum sticks hanging from the front of the boys shirt.

No, it's a shiny bottle, same as the bottle to the right of it.

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