Drum Captured at Waterloo

Long before the Napoleonic period, the drum already controlled the soldier’s life, signalling reveille, assembly and curfew, for example. He marched into battle to the sound of the drum and was familiar with the series of beats that conveyed orders above the noise of battle.

Drummers, men rather than boys, would be trained by a drum major. In British regiments they traditionally wore a reverse of the regiment’s colours, yellow with red facings, for example.

This drum was carried at Waterloo by a drummer of the French Regiment 105ieme de la Ligne, and then became a battle trophy of the British 2/30th. The French battalion had fought in d’Erlon’s I corps, in Bourgeois’s brigade of Quiot’s first infantry division. As such, they had led Quiot’s division during d’Erlon’s initially successful advance against the left of the allied line early in the battle. Their position made them vulnerable to the counter-charge of the Union Brigade, when they lost their eagle standard (see Related Objects, below).

The 2/30th were in the centre of the Allied line, in Halkett’s British brigade of Alten’s 3rd British Infantry Division. They only encountered the French unit late in the battle, when survivors of Drouet d’Erlon’s corps, having advanced in support of the Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard, were exposed to attack after the repulse of the Guard. Presumably, the drum was abandoned in the subsequent rout.