For scholars of American fife and drum duty music, a hugely important question is: Where did American duty music come from?
Understanding how the music changed, how to interpret questionable notation, and even how the music was performed requires a certain level of knowledge about each beating’s lineage.
For American music, a significant portion comes from the British, for obvious reasons, but French influence on the 19th century American military altered a surprising amount of music.
In this article, we’ll explore how the British beating for Cease Firing was eventually replaced by the French one.
British Influence in the American Army
The early American army was, naturally, largely influenced by the British military.
In the French & Indian War, American colonists were raised as Provincial Troops and trained by the regular British Army. Once the American Revolution began, most officers were veterans of the French & Indian War and the general structure of military life was based on their British roots.
Cease Firing: The First Part of the General
For the British, the Cease Firing command was signalled by the first part of The General, the beating that signalled for soldiers to pack camp.
This is one of the few field signals that was so absolutely documented by British military manuals. The The Manual Exercise (1764) states:
“The first Part of the General is the signal for all firings to cease.”
(The Manual Exercise, 1764, 20).
And Windham’s manual for his militia describes the command:
“When the commanding officer would have them cease, he causes the orderly drummer to beat the first part of the general, at which all firing ceases, and those platoons that have made ready, half-cock and shoulder”.
(Windham, 1759, 119).
Since the beating of The General is broken into two part, we can assume these manuals are referring to the first part.
Later British and American sources confirm this by more clearly writing out the Cease Firing.
American Use of The General For Cease Firing
The earliest American sources agree with this British beating. Ashworth states:
“The first part of the General is used as a Caution to Cease Firing” (8)
And Rumrille makes a similar note (18).
In both cases, their beating for the General is identical to British sources.
French Influence in the American Army
Despite tracing their roots predominately back to the British, as early as the American Revolution, the Americans were influenced by their new-found allies: the French.
During the War of 1812, field manuals by Smyth and Winfield Scott were essentially translations and adaptations from the French Drill.
In 1835, Winfield Scott’s three volume set of Infantry Tactics, which became the basis of American drill nearly until the American Civil War, was a translation of the new French ordonnance of 1831.
The first volume of Scott’s Infantry Tactics contains music for the fife and drum duty calls. What’s particularly interesting is Scott’s mixed use of traditional British beatings and new French beatings adopted from the French 1831 ordonnance.
American Drummers Adopt French Beatings
Moving forward from Scott, we see that many drum manuals do adopt a large chunk of the new French beatings.
In particular, maneuvering signals like March in Retreat, Halt, Run, and Double Quick March, and a beating for Commence Firing, appear in most manuals: Klinehanse (1853), Nevins (1861), Bruce & Emmet (1862), and Strube (1869).
Drummer’s Call also switches from the old British beating to the French in all the manuals above plus Keach (1861) and Howe (1862).
Despite so many adoptions and some alterations to known British beatings, Scott’s Cease Fire is slow to catch on.
For the French, Cease Firing was simply a long roll and this is clearly depicted in Scott.
And yet, in Klinehanse and Nevins we still see the old British use of the First Part of The General.
Both Keach and Howe include a beating for Cease Firing that is more or less the beginning of The General (p. 31 and p. 15, respectively).
American Drummers Adopt French Cease Fire
It’s not until Bruce & Emmet that we see a new beating.
This is different from Scott, but similar in concept. We see a couple of longer rolls, some hard strokes, followed by another roll. This is repeated.
Overall, the sound of this would convey something similar to a long roll, as shown in Scott, while also creating a lot of heavy accents.
Following the American Civil War, Strube’s manual is recognized as depicting the official military signals, to compliment the new tactical manual by Upton.
Here, Strube also uses the many French tactical signals adopted by earlier manuals – Drummer’s Call, Commence Firing, etc. – but he also includes “The Roll To Cease Firing”.
Strube’s 9-beat roll continued to be used into the 20th Century. In Gardiner’s Military Drummer (1918), a long roll still signals the Cease Firing (p. 47).
Conclusion
Some of the mysteries of “why did this beating suddenly change” or “how do I understand how to perform this beating” become incredibly clear when we expand our knowledge about the field music for other armies and how the American military was influenced by powerful European nations.
Overall, the majority of American field music by the time of the American Civil War was either remnants of our British roots or early-19th century imports from the French army.
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If you’re interested in learning how to play the British Cease Firing, check out my YouTube channel for videos on how to play British duty calls and Snare Drum Rudiments.
Want to improve your Double Stroke Roll so you can play the French Cease Firing? Check out:
If you have thoughts or questions about the influence of French music on American musicians, please contact me and let me know!
