While “The Troop” appears to indicate the Guard Mounting and implies a longer sequence of performance, “The Troop, or Assembly” is often referred to as a means of assembling as a regiment for either Guard Mounting or the March.
The Drummer’s Call – preparing for Guard Mounting
Every morning, the soldiers assembled for inspection and to mount the guards, typically beginning somewhere between 8 and 10am.
This process begins with the Drummer’s Call, performed by the drummers of the Main Guard at the guard house (Bland, 155). This summons two sets of people:
- All musicians slated to mount with the guard.
- The full corps of musicians belonging to the regiment who will supply the main guard.
Go here for more about the Drummer’s Call, including the Fife Music and an interpretation of YDA’s drum beating.
Types of Guards
Bear in mind that several different types of guards mount every day. Additionally, regiments tend to work with other regiments and companies.
The Main Guard: This guard surrounds the encampment, an assignment which changes daily. Only one regiment supplies the entire Main Guard.
Musicians in the Main Guard: The entire corps of musicians from that day’s regiment are “on call” for the day for the major duties (Troop, Retreat, Tattoo, etc.). However, four drummers will be assigned for the day to the Main Guard Tent. [The term “Orderly Drummer” may refer to these “on duty” drummers, but that is unclear.]
The Quarter Guard: This guard is stationed throughout the regimental camp. Each regiment is responsible for supplying guards for their own Quarter Guard. They are the equivalent of the camp police.
Musicians in the Quarter Guard: Two musicians from the regiment are assigned daily for the Quarter Guard. They are stationed at the Quarter Guard tent, which is near the Regiment’s Adjutant.
The Piquet Guard: This guard is more like a “reserve” guard. They are required to be fully dressed all day. They cannot leave camp for any reason and must be ready to respond to a threat immediately. Should the Alarm sound, they will quickly form a company and hold off any attack until the rest of the regiment can respond.
Musicians in the Piquet Guard: There may have been two or four musicians assigned daily to the Piquet Guard, though this is unclear across manuals. Two would make the most sense, as the piquet is effectively about a company.
Musicians on Guard Duty
Let’s assume there are 4 regiments in the brigade:
Regiment A is supplying the Main Corps; their corps (20 drummers) minus the 2 currently acting as Quarter Guards will respond.
- 4 of these drummers will actually mount as part of the Main Guard.
- 2 of these drummers will replace the 2 currently with the Quarter Guard.
Regiments B, C, and D will also send 2 drummers to mount with their Quarter Guard.
Total: 24 musicians, 6 of whom belong to different regiments.
When the 4 musicians at the Main Guard Tent beat the Drummer’s Call, 24 Drummers report to the Main Guard Tent to perform The Troop.
The Troop, or Assembly – assembly and inspection by regiment
The corps of 24 musicians (see above) will form and beat the Singlings of the Troop to assemble the men to form the guard.
The corps forms on the Grand Parade (this is the area at the head of the combined regimental camps) at the Main Guard tent. Bland explains that these musicians:
“are all to parade at the Head of the Main-Guard, half an Hour before the Time of beating; and when the Hour appointed is come, the Drum-Major is to form them into Ranks, and placing himself at the Head of them, orders them to beat the Assembly, which they are to do quite round the Grand-Parade, and back to the Main-Guard; after which the Drummers, who mount, separate, and march to their Regimental Parade, beating the Assembly the whole Way; but the Drum-Major, with the others who don’t mount, beat back to the Grand-Parade, where they are to remain ‘till the Guards are marched off.”
Bland (155)
Marching to The Troop
- The corps (all 24 drummers) begins at the center of the Grand Parade.
- March to the far right of the Grand Parade.
- Turn around and march back to the left, passing the Main Guard, to the far left.
- Turn around and march back to the Main Guard in the center.
- At this point, the drummers who are the mount with the guard break off and return to their Regimental Parade Ground. The drummers continue to beat until they arrive at their regimental parade.
- This refers to the 2 drummers from each regiment who are mounting with the Quarter Guard (8 drummers).
- Presumably, it also refers to the 4 drummers who are mounting with the Main Guard.
- The main corps (12 musicians) remain on the Grand Parade. It seems that they continue to beat, for at least as long as the other drummers beat.
Soldier’s Response
While the Assembly beats, those detailed for the Guard assemble on their company streets before their Captains. The Sergeant and Captain inspect them for duty. Then the orderly Corporal marches them to the Regimental Parade, where the Adjutant inspects them again to ensure that each company furnished the correct number of men (System of Camp Discipline 1; Bland 154).
The drummers return to their regiments and arrive on the Regimental Parade. Most likely, the Adjutant counts them once they’ve arrived.
The Assembly: Beating and Tune
For the Assembly, perform only the Singlings of the Troop.
Note: While written in 3/4, this should be performed as if in 3/8. In other words, each measure is one beat or one step.
While military manuals tend to use the phrase “Troop, or Assembly”, Ashworth is more specific: “Singlings of the Troop, or Assembly” (6).
Mid-19th century American manuals (see Klinehanse, Nevins, Howe, Ditson) contine to use the same beating, the Singlings, for the Assembly.
This drum beating accompanies “The High Troop” (Rutherfoord 8), which is later called “Troop or Assembling” in Thompson, Bennett, Longman & Lukey, and some others.
Download a pdf of the Singlings of the Troop, or Assembly.
To learn how to play this duty call, check out my video Drum Lesson British Assembly.
Historic Drumming Lesson 2 | British Assembly, or The Singlings of the Troop
Do you have questions about the function or performance of The Singlings of the Troop? Contact me and ask.
To find out more, continue to my next section “The Troop – Forming the Guards”.
Or, continue to “Summarizing the Troop” where I finalize my findings and offer thoughts on future research.