deepundergroundpoetry.com
The Story Behind "Taps"
In1862 after a battle in the American Civil War, a Union soldier on the sidelines
heard the moaning of a wounded soldier who was lying on the battle field.
He didn't know if the wounded soldier was Union or Confederate.
He got down on his belly and crawled out to him, to drag him to safety.
(He couldn't stand up to do this, lest the enemy troops shoot at him.)
It turned out the wounded Confederate soldier was his own son.
He had gone to school in the South before the war.
And had enlisted in the Confederate army without telling his dad.
He died before he could be given medical treatment.
The father asked his superior officers to give his son a military burial even though he hadn't been in the Union army.
The army agreed but could spare only one bugler.for the ceremony.
The father gave the bugler the note found in the son's pocket.
The lyrics begin with these words,
"Day is done,
Gone is the sun.."
I heard this story about the origin of "Taps," while listening to "Amazing Facts," with Pastor Doug Batchelor.
On the radio.
He said his source was some military web site.
I will google it to see who wrote the tune for "Taps," the son or the bugler.
But I write about what I heard because of the part about the man discovering
His son dying on the battle field--
It was only because the father went out to try to help him that he discovered it was his own son.
It really is an amazing fact.
heard the moaning of a wounded soldier who was lying on the battle field.
He didn't know if the wounded soldier was Union or Confederate.
He got down on his belly and crawled out to him, to drag him to safety.
(He couldn't stand up to do this, lest the enemy troops shoot at him.)
It turned out the wounded Confederate soldier was his own son.
He had gone to school in the South before the war.
And had enlisted in the Confederate army without telling his dad.
He died before he could be given medical treatment.
The father asked his superior officers to give his son a military burial even though he hadn't been in the Union army.
The army agreed but could spare only one bugler.for the ceremony.
The father gave the bugler the note found in the son's pocket.
The lyrics begin with these words,
"Day is done,
Gone is the sun.."
I heard this story about the origin of "Taps," while listening to "Amazing Facts," with Pastor Doug Batchelor.
On the radio.
He said his source was some military web site.
I will google it to see who wrote the tune for "Taps," the son or the bugler.
But I write about what I heard because of the part about the man discovering
His son dying on the battle field--
It was only because the father went out to try to help him that he discovered it was his own son.
It really is an amazing fact.
Published 14th Dec 2017
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14th Dec 2017 10:47am
14th Feb 2018 5:53pm
The Story of Taps
The 24-note melancholy bugle call known as “taps” is thought to be a revision of a French bugle signal, called “tattoo,” that notified soldiers to cease an evening’s drinking and return to their garrisons. It was sounded an hour before the final bugle call to end the day by extinguishing fires and lights. The last five measures of the tattoo resemble taps.
The word “taps” is an alteration of the obsolete word “taptoo,” derived from the Dutch “taptoe.” Taptoe was the command — “Tap toe!” — to shut (“toe to”) the “tap” of a keg.
The revision that gave us present-day taps was made during America’s Civil War by Union Gen. Daniel Adams Butterfield, heading a brigade camped at Harrison Landing, Va., near Richmond. Up to that time, the U.S. Army’s infantry call to end the day was the French final call, “L’Extinction des feux.” Gen. Butterfield decided the “lights out” music was too formal to signal the day’s end. One day in July 1862 he recalled the tattoo music and hummed a version of it to an aide, who wrote it down in music. Butterfield then asked the brigade bugler, Oliver W. Norton, to play the notes and, after listening, lengthened and shortened them while keeping his original melody.
He ordered Norton to play this new call at the end of each day thereafter, instead of the regulation call. The music was heard and appreciated by other brigades, who asked for copies and adopted this bugle call. It was even adopted by Confederate buglers.
This music was made the official Army bugle call after the war, but not given the name “taps” until 1874.
The first time taps was played at a military funeral may also have been in Virginia soon after Butterfield composed it. Union Capt. John Tidball, head of an artillery battery, ordered it played for the burial of a cannoneer killed in action. Not wanting to reveal the battery’s position in the woods to the enemy nearby, Tidball substituted taps for the traditional three rifle volleys fired over the grave. Taps was played at the funeral of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson 10 months after it was composed. Army infantry regulations by 1891 required taps to be played at military funeral ceremonies.
Taps now is played by the military at burial and memorial services, to accompany the lowering of the flag and to signal the “lights out” command at day’s end.
https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/celebrate/taps.pdf
Just thought the truth should be shared
The 24-note melancholy bugle call known as “taps” is thought to be a revision of a French bugle signal, called “tattoo,” that notified soldiers to cease an evening’s drinking and return to their garrisons. It was sounded an hour before the final bugle call to end the day by extinguishing fires and lights. The last five measures of the tattoo resemble taps.
The word “taps” is an alteration of the obsolete word “taptoo,” derived from the Dutch “taptoe.” Taptoe was the command — “Tap toe!” — to shut (“toe to”) the “tap” of a keg.
The revision that gave us present-day taps was made during America’s Civil War by Union Gen. Daniel Adams Butterfield, heading a brigade camped at Harrison Landing, Va., near Richmond. Up to that time, the U.S. Army’s infantry call to end the day was the French final call, “L’Extinction des feux.” Gen. Butterfield decided the “lights out” music was too formal to signal the day’s end. One day in July 1862 he recalled the tattoo music and hummed a version of it to an aide, who wrote it down in music. Butterfield then asked the brigade bugler, Oliver W. Norton, to play the notes and, after listening, lengthened and shortened them while keeping his original melody.
He ordered Norton to play this new call at the end of each day thereafter, instead of the regulation call. The music was heard and appreciated by other brigades, who asked for copies and adopted this bugle call. It was even adopted by Confederate buglers.
This music was made the official Army bugle call after the war, but not given the name “taps” until 1874.
The first time taps was played at a military funeral may also have been in Virginia soon after Butterfield composed it. Union Capt. John Tidball, head of an artillery battery, ordered it played for the burial of a cannoneer killed in action. Not wanting to reveal the battery’s position in the woods to the enemy nearby, Tidball substituted taps for the traditional three rifle volleys fired over the grave. Taps was played at the funeral of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson 10 months after it was composed. Army infantry regulations by 1891 required taps to be played at military funeral ceremonies.
Taps now is played by the military at burial and memorial services, to accompany the lowering of the flag and to signal the “lights out” command at day’s end.
https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/celebrate/taps.pdf
Just thought the truth should be shared
