Drumming out

Drumming out is the historical act of being dishonorably dismissed from military service to the sound of a drum. In modern figurative usage, in which the term is sometimes altered to "drub[bing/bed/etc.] out," it may refer to any act of expulsion or dismissal in disgrace.

Origin

One of the earliest recorded references to drumming out occurs in Alexander Pope's Moral Essays, 3rd epistle, 1731–1733: "Chartres was a man infamous for all manner of vices. When he was an ensign in the army, he was drummed out of the regiment for a cheat; he was next banished Brussels, and drummed out of Ghent, on the same account."

It also occurs in a figurative sense in Thomas Amory's 1766 Life of John Buncle: "They ought to be drummed out of society."

American Revolutionary War

The earliest known discharge of an American soldier for sodomy involved the drumming out of Lieutenant Frederick Gotthold Enslin during the Revolutionary War. The diary of Lieutenant James McMichael contains a record of the sentence being carried out: "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."