Carry Me and I’ll Drum It Through

Media - 2002.15 - SAAM-2002.15_1 - 63747
Copied Truman Howe Bartlett, Carry Me and I'll Drum It Through, 1874, bronze, 47 x 19 x 20 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Peter and Paula Lunder, 2002.15
Free to use

Artwork Details

Title
Carry Me and I’ll Drum It Through
Artist
Date
1874
Location
Dimensions
47 x 19 x 20 in.
Credit Line
Gift of Peter and Paula Lunder
Mediums Description
bronze
Classifications
Keywords
  • Group
  • Figure group — male
  • Occupation — military — drummer
Object Number
2002.15
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2002.15

Artwork Description

The sounds of the Civil War resonate from this sculpture. A tired soldier sloshes through the mud of a debris-strewn battlefield, his coattail flapping in the relentless wind. He pushes onward with the roll of the little boy's drum and the call of his energetic voice. Well into the nineteenth century, armies recruited young boys to perform drum rolls signaling different commands. During the Civil War and in the following decades, the drummer boy was a favorite inspirational subject, appearing often in popular stories and images. By 1874, the story that Bartlett's sculpture illustrates was well known: The drummer boy was found by a passing soldier, who asked him why he had stopped. The boy bravely replied, "I am wounded. But carry me and I'll drum it through."

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006