Connecticut’s Militia Drum

Drums were essential to the Connecticut militia. Drummers were charged with signaling commands at encampments and broadcasting maneuvers on the battlefield. General George Washington issued several general orders related to drumming, including a 1777 directive that “drum and fife Majors exert themselves to improve” the “music of the army,” which Washington criticized as “very bad.”

This Connecticut militia drum matches the description given in a letter written in Wethersfield, CT, on April 23, 1775, as the Revolutionary War began. “We are called upon to show the world ‘that whom we call fathers did beget us,’ and that we desire to enjoy the blessings they purchased for us with their lives and fortunes,” the author wrote. “We fix on our Standards and Drums, the Colony Arms, with the motto, ‘qui transtulit sustinet,’ round it in letters of gold, which we construe thus: ‘God, who transplanted us hither, will support us.’”

The drum is in the Museum of Connecticut History at the Connecticut Library in Hartford.