With a storyline set in the 1860s, during the American Civil War, the military drama starred Miriam Cooper in the title role with a supporting cast that included Guy Coombs, Anna Q. Nilsson, and Hal Clements.

No footage of The Drummer Girl of Vicksburg is listed among the holdings of major film repositories, studio archives, or known private collections in North America, Europe, or elsewhere in the world.

During the American Civil War, before leaving home to join his Confederate company as a drummer boy, Alma's young brother Charles gives her a final lesson on his drum.

The commander of the Confederate troops recognizes the deadly tactical advantage of that heavy weapon's location, so he orders the company to which Alma is attached to either capture the cannon during the attack or at least put it out of action.

Later there is an exchange of prisoners, and the story concludes happily with a double wedding, with what university professor and film historian Bruce Chadwick describes in his 2001 work The Reel Civil War as a "perfect reconciliation ending".

[e] All of the previously noted Kalem dramas, including The Drummer Girl of Vicksburg, were filmed in northeastern Florida at the company's "winter studio", which was located next to the St. Johns River "about fifteen minutes by trolley" from downtown Jacksonville.

[6][7] Nearby, at the river, were a "big wharf" and "boats of all kinds", some of which served as props in screenplays and others to transport Director Buel, his camera operators, principal cast members, and any locally hired extras around the "territory rich in locations" for filming.

[6][7] Among other motion picture props assembled and stored on the Roseland properties for staging The Drummer Girl of Vicksburg and other war-related productions were supplies of Confederate and Federal uniforms, assorted military accoutrements, and various weapons, including several 1860s field cannons with their caissons for hauling ammunition.

[10] Although Kalem in 1912 was headquartered in New York City on West 24th Street in Manhattan,[6] the company in its Civil War films routinely presented screenplays of heroic, sympathetic Southern civilians and soldiers fighting against and defeating Northern forces, recurring themes that prompted additional comments by Miriam Cooper in her memoir.

"[11] The Maryland-born actress then goes on to describe how her on-screen identity as a Southern heroine and action performer grew with these Kalem Civil War pictures:In another one-reeler I rowed a boat out to set fire to the bridge and cut off the Yankees.

In its September 1912 issue, The Motion Picture Story Magazine shares with its readers a letter the trade publication received from G. L. Eskew of Charleston, West Virginia:Dear Sir: I am tempted to say a word or two in regard to Civil War Pictures, and especially the Kalem's... Altho [sic] I was not born until nearly thirty years after the close of the war, I have kept myself posted in regard to the uniforms, equipment, etc., used by Southern troops, and it appears rather ridiculous to me to see a Confederate major with United States shoulder straps, denoting captain, shoot his opponent with an up-to-date, six-shot, breech-loading pistol.

[15] Caring for all of the military gear and weapons used to stage The Drummer Girl of Vicksburg and other war films shot in Florida was a costly, time-consuming operation for Kalem.

[19] The company, for 25 cents per order, sent customers sheet music for a piano score "simply arranged and especially prepared for this feature" by composer Walter Cleveland Simon.

[22] In addition to offering theater owners copies of Walter Simon's special musical score for The Drummer Girl of Vicksburg, Kalem informed "exhibitors" that they could obtain from their regional distributors or "exchanges" a supply of four-color lithographed posters for the film, which would be "unfailing business producers" in attracting audiences.

The film received generally positive reviews in contemporary American trade publications and exuberant promotion in newspapers in the North, South, and across the United States.

The Vermont newspaper The Barre Daily Times in its advertising invited local residents to experience "War in all its realism", in a production replete with "heroic deeds” and a "compelling story of self-sacrifice".

[25] In Hattiesburg, Mississippi, a town in the Deep South and located about 130 miles from Vicksburg, the local newspaper announced in early October 1912 a special screening of the film and repeated some of Kalem Company's own self-promotion as a producer of well-staged and "thrilling" Civil War films, as well as comments about "Marion" [sic] Cooper's rising popularity as a screen performer:The patrons of the Lomo [Theatre] know what to expect when one of Kalem's stupendous military productions is announced.

[26]Out in the western part of the United States, in Pendleton, Oregon, the East Oregonian describes the film to its readers in its July 15, 1912 edition, characterizing it as a "romantic Civil War production full of thrilling action".