Drumming out is the historical act of being dishonorably dismissed from military service to the sound of a drum. In modern figurative use it refers to any act of expulsion or dismissal in disgrace.

Origin

The earliest recorded reference to drumming out comes in a figurative use of the phrase, in Thomas Amory

Thomas Amory

Thomas Amory was a writer of Irish descent.In 1755 he published Memoirs containing the lives of several ladies of Great Britain, a History of Antiquities and Observations on the Christian Religion, which was followed by the Life of John Buncle, Esq. , practically a continuation...

's The life of John Buncle, in 1766: "They ought to be drummed out of society."

American Revolutionary War

The earliest known discharge of a United States soldier for sodomy

Sodomy

Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...

 involved the drumming out of Lieutenant

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 Frederick Gotthold Enslin

Frederick Gotthold Enslin

Frederick Gotthold Enslin was the focus of one of three possible cases of sodomy documented in the Continental Army under General George Washington. The case began with a charge against an ensign for slander against another soldier...

 during the Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

. The diary of Lieut. James McMichael records the sentence being carried out on 15 Mar 1778: "March 15. — I this morning proceeded to the grand parade, where I was a spectator to the drumming out of Lieut. Enslin of Col. Malcom's regiment. He was first drum'd from right to left of the parade, thence to the left wing of the army; from that to the centre, and lastly transported over the Schuylkill with orders never to be seen in Camp in the future. This shocking scene was performed by all the drums and fifes in the army—the coat of the delinquent was turned wrong side out."

U.S. Civil War

U.S. Civil War officers drummed out of service might have their heads shaved and their uniforms stripped of insignia and be paraded in front of their comrades. Fellow officers were forbidden to touch the person being dishonorably discharged, but in more than one case after the war had ended, a drummed-out man was found dead after receiving a beating from his former comrades. When someone was being drummed out, the tune "Rogue's March" would be played.

Modern uses

At the Virginia Military Institute

Virginia Military Institute

The Virginia Military Institute , located in Lexington, Virginia, is the oldest state-supported military college and one of six senior military colleges in the United States. Unlike any other military college in the United States—and in keeping with its founding principles—all VMI students are...

, cadets that are convicted of Honor Code violations are removed from the school and a formal announcement of the former cadet's offense is given in the morning after the corps is woken by drums.

Fiction

The opening to the 1965 NBC series Branded used the ceremony as the plot to series.