William J. Johnston (July 12, 1850 – September 16, 1941) was a drummer boy in Company D of the 3rd Vermont Infantry during the American Civil War. When his division was routed during the Seven Days Battles during the Peninsula Campaign of June to July 1862, he was the only drummer to come away with his instrument. His superiors considered this a meritorious feat, given that the regiment's other soldiers had thrown away their guns and equipment to lighten their loads as they retreated. As a result, he received the Medal of Honor in 1863; at age 13, he remains the youngest recipient of the award.

7th grade me asked teacher "Did they shoot at the drummer boys too?" and without hesitating she says "YES!" I'm sure she's right, but she had a gleeful face which made me think she was happy to answer regardless of its truthfulness.

I mean, in the age of muskets and field cannons they didn't really shoot at anybody in particular since the guns were not very accurate. They probably did try to hit the bagpipe dudes, though.

Fun fact. Rifling wasn't invented until right before the Civil War. That spiraling in a gun barrel helps the bullet keep aim and hit the target. Before that the balls just bounced out of the musket any old way.

That is one of the reasons the Civil War was so bloody. The armies still lined up, but this time the rifles shot straight.

No? Rifling was around muuuch longer than that, but was primarily for specialized divisions (the Kentucky Long Rifle being a notable example). It was becoming more commonly issued at the outset, but at the time, smoothbore muskets were still pretty widely issued due in part to vast stockpiles and sudden need.

I'm not sure what you're No-ing. Rifling was around longer but the Civil War introduced it as a standard.

Smoothbore muskets were issued in the Union and Confederate armies during the beginning of the Civil War, though both armies quickly adopted a rifled musket; this was the first time in military history that most infantry soldiers were equipped with a rifled musket

https://historymaking.org/textbook/items/show/275

Rifling wasn't invented until right before the Civil War.

My bad, I took this bit to be saying that rifling was new to the scene, rather than new to industrial-scale manufacture.

Oh yeah. My bad. I guess I said that wrong. There were more advances in the rounds that made the rifling better, but I was trying to simplify it.

I was interested in the Civil War cause the weapons advanced faster than the way we fight wars. You wouldn't see people lining up and walking toward another army now.

I've been playing "Over the top: WW1" recently on Steam and this reminded me of it. Playing bagpipes while everyone around you is getting shot and blown up. Love the humour in that game lol

This looks fun!

It does, I just looked it up but it looks like active players has tanked from thousands down to a few hundred a day. One of the big selling points is matches with up to 200 players... If the devs want to save their game they need to either do a give away or a massive 90% off sale.

Oh yeah, I feel like I missed the boat then.

Pipers actually did that. Germans shot one. They regretted their actions.

You can play music when driving cars or motorcycles in BF6, its also very fun.

Same with CoD Cold War, highly recommend. Surviving zombies while jamming to Karma Chameleon..

You reckon any savants came up with a legendary melody from all the emotions mid-battle?

This is basically the plot of Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

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