The Story of “Drums, Dreams and History”

The drum played by Robert Bain of the Los Angeles Veteran Drum Corps – Anoka County Historical Society, Anoka, Minnesota. “It began when a drum was brought to America, probably around 1776, by Hessian soldiers who had been hired to help the British army quell what was then seen as a colonial uprising.  During the Battle […]

CIVIL WAR VETERAN BURIED

Los Angeles Times, January 8, 1930. Philo L. Case, Drummer Whose Signal Started Battle of Shiloh, Mourned by Comrades Philo L. Case, Civil War drummer, the man who sounded the long roll which started the Battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862, was buried in Los Angeles yesterday. A member of the Second Iowa Infantry on […]

CIVIL WAR DRUMMER DIES HERE

Los Angeles Times, February 27, 1923. Robert Bain, Forty Years in State, Engaged in Construction Business Robert Bain died early yesterday morning at his home at 332 West Sixty-Seventh Street. Mr. Bain, who was 80 years of age, was a Civil War veteran. For many years he had been affiliated with the Stanton Post of […]

LAST CALL FOR AGED COMRADE

Los Angeles Times, October 16, 1916. Drummer Hilliker Sinks into His Final Sleep Just Before Passing He Plans Care of Instrument Was Given Medal of Honor for Bravery in Action Facing death with the same courage that had won him a special medal of honor from Congress and carried him through many battles of the […]

Drums and Fifes That Led Brave Men in Many Wars Today Are Played in Reno

Reno Evening Gazette, June 10, 1913, page 23. Drums and Fifes That Led Brave Men in Many Wars Today Are Played in Reno. When the familiar strains of ‘Marching Through Georgia’ or some other patriotic air is heard from fifes and drums on the streets these days, Renoites feel an almost irresistible desire to march. […]

WAR MUSIC TO BE HEARD

Los Angeles Times, July 27, 1911. Veteran Fife and Drum Corps Will Raise Funds to Help Land Big Encampment Next Year. For the purpose of increasing their campaign fund to bring the annual encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic to this city next year, the Veteran Fife and Drum Corps will hold forth […]

FIFE THAT HAS A HISTORY

Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1911. Instrument Manufactured in Sixteenth Century Has been Owned by Generations of Same Family. SANTA MONICA, May 7 — Hugging an ancient fife to his breast with an affection apparently as deep and sincere as that which a mother showers upon her first-born, William H McDaniel, a Civil War veteran, […]

Attending the Fresno Encampment

Members of the original Los Angeles Fifes and Drums attending the forty-fourth annual encampment of California and Nevada, Grand Army of the Republic, in Fresno, April 11-14, 1911. Included in this photo is the Civil War veteran B.F. Hilliker, the drummer on the right side, who received the Medal of Honor for his bravery at […]