The Civil War and the Underground Railroad intersect sharply in “Battledrum,” a Metro Theater Company production at the Missouri History Museum in January. Eighth grade students from Team 8B at Hazelwood West Middle School attended one of the shows.
Set in 1863, the middle year of the five-year conflict between the Union and Confederacy, Battledrum tells the story of boys who served as drummers in battle and who became prime targets for enemy snipers and soldiers.
Directed by Carol North and written by Doug Cooney, three boys are the focal point of the story – Jackson, a Union Army drummer; Rufus, a Confederate boy who survived after Union soldiers torched his family’s farm; and George Washington, an African-American headed north and seeking his freedom via the Underground Railroad.
“I happened to be in a fifth grade classroom working with students on songs about Civil War history. One group had chosen the subject of those drummer boys,” said Cooney. “If a Civil War commander wanted to dismantle the enemy, he simply instructed his shooters to take aim at the little boy with the great big drum. As you can imagine, the kids looked at me in horror; they had only signed on as drummer boys because drums were ‘cool.’ I asked these kids, ‘If you knew that you could die in battle, why would you keep playing the drum?’ One boy looked at me and said, quite simply, ‘Because the drum makes the fear disappear.’ That was the spark that ignited ‘Battledrum.’”
Three students described what they enjoyed about the performance.
“I really loved the drums,” said Amber Davis. “Part of that could be because I play drums and at the end of the play, there’s a drumline. The drummer boys were the main source of direction, so if the enemy took out the drummer boys, the force would lose direction and not know what to do. It was surprising that the drummers were navigators but it was better than the generals yelling out orders.”
“I liked the part when they all came together to drum,” said classmate Kayla Gladney. “It was outstanding. The African-American battle drummers earned their freedom from slavery,” she said. They kidnapped little boys to become drummer boys.”
For Rob Mackiewicz, the production shed some light on historical facts.
“I didn’t know the escaping slaves could join the Union Army,” he said. “I always thought slave owners kept them on the farms.”
He said his favorite portion of the show was when a drummer boy died. “After he died, his drum and drumsticks were passed on to the next boy; it was an honor.”