GUEST
My great-great-grandfather was a drummer boy in the Battle of Shiloh. And it's been passed down through the family, and at this point, I've ended up with it.
APPRAISER
And that's one of the things that is documented in the photographs that we see over there. Tell me about your-- the people who appear in that photo.
GUEST
Well, the first photo here, it would be Philoh Case, my great-great-grandfather. And then his son Sherman Case, my granddad, my dad, and myself. I've got a son and a grandson that will receive this, as well.
APPRAISER
What do you know about his role in, was it the Second Iowa?
GUEST
Yes-- he enrolled before the Civil War and became a drummer boy, and then was at the Shiloh location, the Shiloh church, when this incident happened. The South snuck up on the Union Army there one morning, and he was given the order to drum the long roll to start the battle.
APPRAISER
And that's one of the things that separates the modern military from the Napoleonic-era military-- field music still has a role.
GUEST
Yeah.
APPRAISER
Your relative there would have been engaged on a daily basis drumming the various calls that signal the tasks that the troops are to do during the day.
GUEST
Yes.
APPRAISER
He would have had a significant role on the march. Morale, it can flag when you've been asked to walk 15 or 20 miles in a day with a pack on your back and a musket on your shoulder, and it is amazing what the picking-up of that beat, what field music will do. Brings everybody back into shape. And then in battle, depending on the situation, they might be in a place where you really can't hear voice commands. And so there were a number of commands that were given by the drum.
GUEST
Yes.
APPRAISER
Firing by the drum, there were calls to retreat, calls to advance, and so he would have been involved in all of that. From the documentation that you have there, it looks like he was a pretty young fellow when the Civil War started.
GUEST
He was, I think, about 22 years old when he was a drummer boy there.
APPRAISER
What he brought home is a standard-issue regulation Union Army drum. What we see here on the front is that it is marked to the second regiment of infantry. And that's really what makes these. Not everybody painted their drums. But the ones that are painted are certainly better than the ones that are not. What we see on the back... This tack pattern is sometimes the only embellishment that you see on a drum. But in this case, it's a beautiful painted drum. It has had a little work done to it. Philoh has added this, which takes the drumstick holder from the baldric and moves it to the drum, which is very convenient. But down here... You see, this is pretty new. And this tape would indicate that at some point, it might have been restrung. One of the things that we look for in a drum is the maker, and in this case, we cannot see the maker because that little hole that you look through is obscured on the inside. There are some photographs that have been glued in there, which make it interesting. It has value just simply as a Civil War drum. Now, was this the drum that he carried at the Battle of Shiloh?
GUEST
Yes.
APPRAISER
Obviously, we believe that. And you have a tremendous amount of documentation that supports that. You have newspaper articles, you've got photographs of him as a J.A.R. member. We have his own written testimony to this fact. Can't really prove it in a court of law, but you're talking about that difference between 100% sure and 99.9% sure.
GUEST
Yeah.
APPRAISER
We believe, as appraisers here-- and I believe, more importantly, the market would believe-- this is the drum that he carried at those engagements. A solid retail price for this would be $15,000.
GUEST
Okay. That's... that's good-- that's a good amount. (laughs) I think Philoh would be greatly surprised if it ever-- if he ever found out that it was of that value.
APPRAISER
If we did not believe that it was carried by an individual in an important regiment, the drum itself would be a $5,000 drum.
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