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In a 2016 article written by David “Chet” Williamson Sneade titled “The Rhythm of the 54th” recounted the fascinating story and history of Alexander “Alex” Howard Johnson (April 23, 1846 – March 19, 1930) who was a Civil War drummer, became a teacher, started the Worcester, Massachusetts first drum corps, and respected drummer.
He is often called the “original drummer-boy” of the Civil War, who after his military stint, settled in Worcester.
At the impressionable age of 13, Alexander “Alex” Howard Johnson, was so moved by the hanging of the revolutionary abolitionist John Brown, that he took to the streets to play for his memory.
Johnson was a member of the famed 54th infantry, according to regimental history and service records, there were five drummers who enlisted among the ranks of the 54th. They were Johnson (March 2, 1963), Samuel Sufphay (February 18, 1863), John Wright (February 25, 1863), and Henry Monroe (February 26, 1863). In his book, African American Faces of the Civil War: An Album, Ronald S. Coddington noted that a Charles Draper was not listed as a musician, but “worked as a drummer in Philadelphia before he enlisted on February 23.”
Johnson resided in Worcester for more than 60 years and although his life in antebellum is largely forgotten, his contributions to the local music scene should not go unrecognized. At the time of his death in 1930, it was reported that he was among the best drummers in the state.
After the war, Johnson moved to Worcester from his hometown of New Bedford and organized the city’s first drum corps. In a 1923 article in the Worcester Sunday Telegram, Johnson is quoted saying: “It surely was heard from. It had 22 pieces, all snare drums, except one and that was a bass drum.
“We were stopped from practicing on Main Street halls because the noise was something terrific and we used to make things shake so that things were shaken off the shelves in the stores… .”
Johnson’s drumming style was derived from the military marching traditions of the 19th Century. He played loud and proud. “I have beaten a drum in about all the big parades for years,” he said. “I have played for all the Worcester military companies.”
One local writer said that whenever there was a grand parade in Worcester, people turn to listen and before they could see who was playing the rhythmic rolling of a drum, would say, “Here comes Major Johnson.”
He never rose to that rank in the military, but after the war he always wore a military cap around town. People eventually started calling him, “The Major.” It stuck.
In a 1920 article in the Sunday Telegram, Johnson said, “Nowadays, I teach others how to play the drum. One of my pupils is a grandson of mine, James E. Landers, the drummer at the High School of Commerce. And there are many others.”
The writer said, “there is hardly a drummer who marches the streets of Worcester who has not received instruction from him.”
Johnson was an elder statesman at the time of the 1920 interview. “I may be more than 70 years old, but I can drum with the best of ‘em,” he said. The author of the piece added, “This drummer, who despite his years, can drum with such vigor and nerve, is a familiar figure. Everybody knows him.”
Early drum teachers did not teach style. They taught rudiments and technique. When Johnson was coming up, American music reflected the melting pot of its population. And the inertia that wrought jazz was just taking shape.
Warren “Baby” Dodds was one of the first great drummers in jazz and considered by many to be the “Father of Jazz Drumming.” “We played what was later called ragtime,” Dodds said, “but then it was called syncopation.”
For dance parties, Dodds said the band played a popular Creole repertoire. They played low-down blues with a Spanish tinge, Tin Pan Alley tunes, folk songs, as well as cakewalks, mazurkas, polkas, quadrilles, two steps, and light Europe Classical favorites.
Based out of the G.A.R. Hall, which was first located at Brinley Hall at 344 Main Street and later in the Bull Mansion at 55 Pearl Street, Johnson’s Drum Corps played gigs that were typical of marching bands of the day. In addition to all the parades, they played political rallies and reunions, circuses and carnivals, county fairs and holiday parties, and vaudeville. And given the fact from the 1830s to 1900 minstrel shows were the most popular forms of entertainment in the country, Johnson’s drums could also have been heard on such a stage.
By 1920, the hot music of jazz was sweeping across the country and it is only conjectured to think that Johnson may have played the new music. However, it is certainly possible that his students were involved. Worcester bands and their drummers such as Boots Ward and the Nitehawks and Mamie Moffitt and her 5 Jazz Hounds undoubtedly knew of Johnson’s expertise.
Johnson was also there when the first drum kits were taking shape, although it is not known if he ever sat behind a trap set. The evolution of the drum set developed from marching bands.
Baby Dodds talks about first playing the snare drum with sticks. He eventually added a bass drum with rope-tension, a foot pedal, and cymbal. He added color with an array of woodblocks.
Johnson had the good fortune to have two drum shops in his neighborhood. In 1896, George Bemis of Worcester developed and patented a new type of snare drum and manufactured them with some degree of success before losing his shop to a fire.
Established in 1903, Walberg and Auge began “as a musical instrument repair and manufacturing company that made band instruments such as drums, bells, xylophones, and traps.”
The company has recently been resurrected and according to its website, “during the nativity of Jazz, W&A innovated and manufactured many components which consist of the “Modern Drum Set” we know today. Ex: W&A innovated and manufactured the first high hat stand, drum throne, clamping basket snare stand, and much more.”
In moving to Worcester, Johnson also found family and community. In 1869, the same year of his arrival, he married a city girl, Miss Mary A. Johnson (no relation). The couple had 17 children. Unfortunately, many died in childbirth. Alex came to town with a boyhood friend and fellow conscript of the 54th, Emery Phelps.
According to New Bedford writer, Earl F. Mulderink, Phelps reported that he saw Johnson two or three times a week at their Grand Army of the Republic, Post 10, at 55 Pearl Street. He and Johnson remained steadfast friends throughout their lives. “They maintained active memberships in their local GAR post,” Mulderink said. “[They] worked together for twenty years, and knew intimate details of Johnson’s medical complaints.
Note: There were also at least a dozen men of color who enlisted into the 54th from Worcester. Before the war, this city was a town of abolitionists. Abby Kelley Foster is probably best known for her part in the underground railroad, aiding runaway slaves. Cambridge-born author and Unitarian Minister Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who led this city’s Free Church, was a member of the Secret Six that financed John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry. Frederick Douglass, the great black orator of his generation, addressed crowds at City Hall on the evils of slavery. He was joined by John Brown. Johnson talked about Brown’s impact on his life. (By the way, two of Douglass’ sons were members of the 54th.)
“I was only a little fellow then, and I had a little drum,” Johnson said. “I recall what a stir there was when John Brown was hanged. People said he died a martyr to the cause of abolition. There was a crowd that turned out in New Bedford, and I remember a big colored man in a red shirt stood out on the balcony and rolled his drum. And I stood down in the street and rolled my little drum too.”
Johnson was born in New Bedford on April 23, 1846. He lived there until the war when he enlisted in the 54th at the age of 17. According to a 1907 Sunday Telegram feature on the drummer, Johnson’s “parents were of the Narragansett Indian tribe, but the major was adopted by a colored man, according to his family.”
Johnson’s father by adoption was William Henry Johnson who lived to be 98 years of age.” Note: W.H. Johnson was the second black lawyer from Massachusetts to join the bar.
According to author Thomas Doughton, much is known about Johnson especially through his marriage to Mary Ann Johnson, who was of Nipmuc Indian heritage. “Hepsibeth Hemenway, whose portrait is at the Worcester Historical Museum, was her grandmother and hundreds of folks in Worcester are descended from this family.”
Young Alexander learned to play the drum at the age of 6 years and “his ability made his enlistment an easy matter. He was regarded as one of the best drummers in the army,” noted the Telegram.
It is somewhat ironic that an African-American drummer whose ancestors were not allowed to play drums for fear of insurrection is now asked to direct traffic on the battlefield in the war against slavery.
He carried his drum throughout his military career. It was hit six times and Johnson himself was once shot in the leg.
The battle of Fort Wagner helped turn the tide towards victory for the Union Army. Johnson recalled the siege to a Telegram reporter. It was the 54th first engagement.
“We fought from 7 in the morning to 4:30 in the afternoon, and we succeeded in driving the enemy back, he said. “After the battle we got a paper saying that if Fort Wagner was charged within a week it would be taken.
“We marched all night and reached Folly Island the next afternoon at about 4 o’clock. Most of the way we were singing, Col. Shaw and I marching at the head of the regiment. It was getting dark as we crossed the bridge to Morris Island. It was about 6:30 o’clock when we got there.
“Col. Shaw ordered me to take a message back to the quartermaster at the wharf, who had charge of the commissary. I took the letter by the first beat as ordered, and when I returned I found the regiment lying down, waiting for order to charge. The orders to charge was given at 7:30 o’clock.
“Before he gave that order, Col. Shaw asked the boys if they would stand by him. “We will, father,” they yelled. They always called him father.” He then gave the order to rise and charge bayonets at a double-quick.
“It was a hard fight, lasting until 5 o’clock in the morning. We lost our good colonel. We went into the battle with 1200 men and came out with less than 300. Sargent William H. Carney, the hero of the regiment is now a messenger at the statehouse in Boston. [Carney was awarded the Medal of Honor. It is reported for “grabbing the U.S. flag as the flag bearer fell, carrying the flag to the enemy ramparts and back, and singing, ‘Boys, the old flag never touched the ground.’]
“We were told that there was a price on the head of every colored man before we fought the battle of Honey Hill. The Union men were forced to retreat and our regiment was left to hold back the enemy, while others were retreating. We went through a dress parade and after the others had got enough away we retreated in the woods.
“We then went to Jacksonville, Florida and a little while later to Charleston, doing guard duty. Finally, we went to Mt. Pleasant, where we remain until we were discharged.”
Johnson lived at two known addresses in Worcester. “For 32 years in the house at 69 Central Street during which time we had 18 landlords,” he said. Johnson died in his other home at 21 Orchard Street, March 19, 1930. “The drum carried by Johnson at Wagner remained in his possession as late as 1907,” wrote Coddington, adding, that there is no reason to doubt he still owned it upon his death at 83.
The Telegram reported that at the funeral “Edward James Foster, National Commander-in-chief of the GAR was present. The Captain Thornton Parker Fife, Drum and Bugle Corps, headed by Bartlett E. Towne, and an escort of police, marched with the body to the grave. Burial was in the family lot in Hope Cemetery.”
You can read the full article: HERE
