Federal Musician, 1861

Initially, all infantry and artillery regiments were allowed to have musicians, organised in a band consisting in twenty four men and a Drum Major. Cavalry only had sixteen men per regiment. With time, it was considered that there were too many musicians and that incorporating them into the ranks would help the active war effort and the number of members in the bands was limited. The rest normally kept their duties as musician but also took the arms.

On 1862, these musician bands encouraged many to enlist, used as effective propaganda tools. Even after the big defeats of the Union, many young men still enlisted in mass. Was not uncommon to allow the enlisting of kids and teenagers from 10 years old as musicians. Same as the rest of the soldiers they were equally exposed to death and injuries.

Our subject belongs to an artillery regiment (although he can be easily converted to infantry or cavalry). He wears a short model 1854 jacket, the most common on artillery regiments, with twelve brass buttons on the front, two more on each side of the collar and two more in each handcuff. The cloth is dark blue with red lacing to indicate an artillery regiment. The hat is the usual Hardee Hat with an artillery emblem and the company designation letter.