LEFT: Death of British General Braddock, Battle of Monongahela River, 1755"The French Canadians and Indians advanced close.
Noting that the British ranks reloaded to ordered drumbeats, they picked off the officers and the drummers.
Confusion, then panic, spread through the British ranks. The battle became a slaughter."
--W. J. Eccles, The French in North America, 1500–1783
In the 1700s, drummers were usually 10- to 18-year-old boys.
