Evoca1 is now in Richmond where he just finished this new piece titled ‘Glory” | Civil War Union drummer boy’ for the Richmond Mural project and Art Whino.
The man behind Sketches for Mankind, a project was conceived as a away to raise awareness to important local and world issues through art, while raising funds for those in need in our community explains the piece as follows:
‘Richmond served as the capital of the Confederate States of America during the majority of the Civil War.
The Civil War is sometimes called “The Boys’ War,” because so many soldiers who fought were still in their teens. The rule in the Union Army was that soldiers had to be 18 to join, but many younger boys answered “I’m over 18, sir,” when the recruiter asked.
The youngest boys served as drummers & served very important roles during the Civil War.
In the noise and confusion of battle, it was often impossible to hear the officers’ orders, so each order was given a series of drumbeats to represent it. Both soldiers and drummers had to learn which drumroll meant “meet here” ,“attack now”, “retreat” and all the other commands of battlefield and camp.
When the drummer boys weren’t needed for sounding calls, they walked around the battlefield looking for the wounded and brought them to medical care.
In 1865 the city finally fell to Union forces. Confederate troops were ordered to evacuate, destroying bridges and burning supplies they could not carry, with large portions of the city destroyed by fires set during the evacuation. The retreat of the Confederate soldiers marked the beginning of the end of slavery. Lincoln’s ‘Emancipation Proclamation” became effective in ALL states. The proclamation declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.”’
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
