3d Georgia Regiment Bass Drum

Blog reader Will Chappell wrote to us drawing our attention to this drum:



The 3rd Regiment was organized in April 1861 with companies from Burke, Clarke, Greene, Houston, Morgan, Newton, Putnam, Richmond, and Wilkinson counties. The 3rd served early in the war at Norfolk, Va., where it assisted in converting the Union ship Merrimac into the Confederate ironclad Virginia. A part of the regiment served in the famous battle against the Union ironclad Monitor on March 9, 1862.
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This drum entered Confederate service with Seaborn Barnwell of the Dawson Grays from Greene County, the unit which became Company C of the 3rd Regiment. The drum beat all the calls from the regiment’s formation at Portsmouth, Va., April 26, 1861 to its surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. When the regiment stacked its guns, the drum was hung on the pile of rifles. Pvt. Minor Hobbs of Company C took the drum and brought it back to Greene County, Georgia. Capt. W. A. Wright, son of Gen. Ambrose Wright, preserved the drum until a survivor’s committee of the 3rd Georgia presented it to the State Capitol. Source: 3rd Regiment Georgia Volunteers.

The drum is now located in the Georgia Capitol Museum, Hall of Valor.