This month, King and Country announced a new bunch of 83rd Pennsylvania soldiers. Amongst those men, one stands out by being slightly smaller than all the others. Behold the CW123 - Infantry Drummer Boy.

For a long time, signaling on the battlefield was a big challenge. One of the solutions to communicate vital information to the regiment was the addition of drummers. Those could transmit instructions from the commanding officer by playing specific beats on their instrument. By the mid 18th century drummers were a mandatory asset of every Western army. This trend lasted until the 19th century where those were slowly replaced by buglers.

Through this timelapse, the drummer job was a way for young boys to incorporate armies despite their young age. It was also a way for regiments to help poor kids whose future might have been worse otherwise. It was not uncommon for the drummer boys to be orpheans or to come from extremely poor families.

During the American Civil War, drummer boys were used by both sides. Some of them were very young such as the thirteen years old Charles King who was the youngest soldier killed during the conflict and William Black who was the youngest wounded in battle at twelve years old. Another example of this reality was John Clem who, at 10 years old, already had a rank of lance sergeant. This Union drummer boy was more or less adopted by the 22nd Michigan Infantry after his mother died during a train accident. He soon became the regimental mascot. John Clem was eventually captured by the Confederates and his image was used for propaganda and to show how the Union was using babies to fight.

Lance Sergeant Clem in 1861. He was 10 years old.

When looking at the CW123 figure, we can guess that he probably had a similar backstory as many of the other drummer boys. His shorter stature (about shoulder high to the other figures) and juvenil face suggests that he is probably 14-15 years old. Oddly enough, he has a similar face to Thomas, the owner of this business...

The CW123 with the rest of the figures from the 83rd Pennsylvania.

The main feature on this figure is obviously the decorated drum with the American eagle on the front. The way it is done manages to reproduce the hand painted style that was used on those drums. The uniform is the almost same as the other figures from this regiment, except in smaller size. The only notable difference is the absence of ammunition at the belt. The backpack is marked with the regimental number and will surely bring back the “backpack during battle” debate. Whatever the truth is, this looks good on that figure and this is enough to justify this choice.

A look around the CW123.

To conclude, the CW123 - Infantry Drummer Boy is a good choice of figure to include in this collection. He is probably the youngest soldier produced so far by King and Country for the American Civil War. He represents a harsh reality from the United States of the past. I now leave you with a scene from the 1993 movie Gettysburg where very young drummers can be seen on the Confederate side.