Becoming A Revolutionary War Drummer Boy

By Dottie Evans

Most days, Laurie Jakes is a cheerful, mild-mannered substitute teacher at Newtown High School. She is simply looking to pay her bills while working toward a teaching certificate in mathematics. Nothing too unusual about that.

But on certain weekends, this slim, 33-year-old Sandy Hook woman takes on a whole new identity. She ties her hair back in a ribbon, dons a Revolutionary War costume, and becomes a 15-year-old drummer boy in the Continental Army that was formed in 1777.

Suddenly, she is Miles Cook from Durham, Conn., the fourth child (of eight) and oldest son of a farming family.

Young Miles enlisted with General George Washington’s army in 1780 as a drummer boy, and when Laurie Jakes marches onto the “field of battle” at Fairfield Hills this Saturday alongside 25 other men and women portraying Revolutionary War soldiers, she will be her character, right from the tip of her tricorn to the bottom of her spatterdash-topped shoes.

The battle reenactment will take place at 2 pm on Saturday on the campus off Mile Hill Road, but the Revolutionary War soldiers will be encamped in Newtown throughout the weekend as part of the culminating activities surrounding the Newtown Reads book April Morning by Howard Fast.

“We are all pretty typical of the sorts of townspeople who showed up in April Morning to defend their homes from the British,” Ms Jakes said.

“At first, not everyone was on board. Remember, there were a lot of loyalists around who didn’t want to oppose the British. And a lot of just plain folks who did not want to be bothered by a war.”

But by the time drummer boy Miles Cook enlisted, the sutlers (merchants who sold clothes and provisions to the army) were providing custom-made uniforms for the revolutionaries. They were navy blue coats with white trim, and the musicians who played fife and drum wore reverse colors, white with navy trim.

“They did that so the musicians would stand out and not get shot at since they didn’t bear arms. But in reality, people shot anyone and the musicians often got it,” Ms Jakes said.

Soldiers from the southern states wore red uniforms with blue trim, “so you can see that those drummer boys were real targets,” she added.

 

On Being Miles Cook

Nevertheless, Ms Jakes’ research into the life of Miles Cook reveals that he served throughout the war and lived to be 81. He married in 1790, fathered eight children and later, alongside his father Thomas Cook, founded a new town in western New York called Freehold, later known as Durham.

“That was the frontier in those days because Ohio and western New York were considered the wilderness,” Ms Jakes explained.

She has not seen any pictures of Miles Cook because photography was not invented. Nor has she seen any other likeness such as a painting or miniature. But she has a copy of his will and from that she has gained a sense that he was “well-respected, a quiet farmer who also traveled around a lot.”

“His great grandfather was an early settler in Plymouth, Mass., and probably came over soon after the Mayflower landed,” she said, in the next wave of colonists.

Though Laurie Jakes’ stature is slight, her status on the battlefield is mighty.

This is because without the drum rolls to sound out commands in the midst of crashing conflict, the cries of the wounded, the booms of muskets firing and the shouting of officers, none of the foot soldiers would know what they were supposed to do next.

Ms Jakes described the critical role of drummer boy.

“He had a higher rank than the regular men because he was the captain’s voice. You drummed out the signals so all the way down the line the men knew what to do,” she said.

“Every call has its own particular combination. There was a drum roll for when you ate, a drum roll for when you marched, when you fired, or even when you turned around. There was a drum roll for when you got paid.

“I love being on the field and doing the calls,” Ms Jakes said, adding that although she has not taken formal drum lessons, she has played an instrument since she was 7 and “can carry a beat.”

“My rolls still need more work,” she commented.

Ms Jakes lives with her parents Ernest and Margaret Jakes, who are members of the Newtown Friends of Music. The family moved into their Lakeview Terrace home in Sandy Hook nearly a year ago after moving to Newtown from Wallingford.

 

Bitten By The Reenacting Bug

Ms Jakes joined the 6th Connecticut Regiment three years ago on the Fourth of July, 2000, during a Living History Weekend at Fort Nathan Hale in New Hampshire.

She had just left her reenacting role as a Civil War soldier and was looking for a new position, she said, when she discovered that the 6th Connecticut in General Washington’s army “had a drum but no drummer. So I signed up right then.”

The 6th Connecticut was incorporated into the 4th Connecticut in 1782, she said.

Asked how it felt to portray Miles Cook on the battlefield during reenactments, Ms Jakes said, “It’s incredible. A haunting experience.

“You are out there with a bunch of people that you know personally, and all of a sudden there is all this noise and smoke. You’re straining to hear the commands. Sometimes there are unscripted events so you don’t always know what’s going to happen.

“You get so focused you don’t notice anything else. When it’s over, you look around and there is smoke lingering in the air and the field is littered with people lying down –– bodies, you would say.”

Furthermore, being inside the mind and body of Miles Cook is not an experience limited to a battlefield reenactment. She has found it carries over into an entire encampment weekend, as well.

“We sit around camp playing cribbage, talking and joking. It is very easy to be Miles Cook. The reenactors are mostly men, but there are women, too. For example, Rose is a First Sergeant and there are a couple of women camp followers.”

“We have about 25 in the regiment and a website [www.6thconnecticut.org],” Ms Jakes said.

“It’s a heavy commitment, we meet at least once a month. In January, there was a regimental meeting and in February we marched at the State House in Hartford. In April, we could be out every weekend. August is slow because the uniforms get too hot.”

About the heavy clothing, Ms Jakes said, “In hot weather some people find it hard, but it doesn’t bother me.”

Indeed, her drummer boy’s uniform seems to fit perfectly. One feels Laurie Jakes as Miles Cook could have stepped right out of a high school American History textbook or off the jacket illustration for a novel such as April Morning.

As Ms Jakes noted, the transformation of a very real character across a period of 225 years seems almost mystical, and many have joined the ranks.

“Reenacting is a hobby that appeals to all ages. Our captain is older than my parents. Anyone who likes history and acting, as well as camping out, will find it a lot of fun,” she said.

Ms Jakes is looking forward to the 225th Anniversary Reenactment at Redding’s Putnam Park scheduled this fall, though she has been there before and “it rains every time.”