Assembly of Buglers at 5:00 A.M. This was the notice for the men to start
getting up.
Assembly : 5:15 A.M.
Men would turn out and fall in for roll call. Uniform not
required.
Revielle : blown
after the men were in line.(Note: this was different in the
infantry.)
Stable Call :Drivers
assemble and feed horses.
Breakfast Call: Men
prepared breakfast and may receive coffee from company
cook-house.
Sick Call at which
shirkers tried to get out of work.
Water Call: horses
were taken to water.
Fatigue Call:
fatigue duty might consist of policing the camp, getting wood, etc.
It was also very common for the men to build shelters for the horses
and spend time working on them.
Drill Call: yes,
they had drill then too!
Dinner Call: sounded
at 12:00
The afternoon was often not scheduled, but might
be battalion drill.
Water Call at 4:00
and Stable Callafterwards.
Attention at 5:45
and then Assembly at which time the men fell in for another roll call - this
time in uniform. Retreat was blown while in this formation. This is when general
orders were read and officers might lecture the men.
Next the guards were mounted and at 8:00 PM
Assembly of Guardswas blown.
Attention was blown
at 8:30 for a final roll call.
Tattoo was sounded
at this formation. Finally
Taps was sounded and
at the end came a few, isolated taps on the drum. This was the signal
for lights out and quiet in the ranks. Officers, however, were
notorious for staying up late.
Have you ever wondered, while
sitting around the campfire or jogging off to the sutlers, just what
the typical artilleryman did during a day in camp? John D. Billings
was an artilleryman from Massachusetts who served in the Federal Army
of the Potomac. In his book Hardtack and
Coffee he gives lots of information about
daily life in the Artillery. Obviously some things he mentions are
unique to his unit, but much of it was true for other units and other
armies. Here is what he gives as a typical day in (Light Artillery)
camp: (Bold are
bugle calls).