url: http://www.todayifoundout.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/taps-340x492.jpg
Since 1862,
“Taps” has played at military funerals to honor the sacrifice of fallen service
members. Originally, however, it was intended to send soldiers off to a less
permanent sleep.
During the
Civil War, Union buglers signaled “lights out” to their comrades with a tune
called “Extinguish Lights,” which was actually borrowed from an 1809 French
bugle call (which also happened to be Napoleon’s favorite).
Finding the
song too formal, in July 1862 Union Army General Daniel Butterfield (Third
Brigade, First Division, Fifth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac) decided to find
a more appealing tune to end the day. During a respite while his brigade was
camping at Harrison’s Landing after the Seven Days Battles of the Peninsular
Campaign, Butterfield worked on the new tune.
In
collaboration with his bugler, Oliver Wilcox Norton, the two rearranged an
earlier bugle call, “Scott Tattoo,” into the 24 notes of “Taps.” According to
Norton:
General Daniel
Butterfield . . . sent for me, and showing me some notes on a staff written in
pencil on the back of an envelope, asked me to sound them on my bugle. I did
this several times, playing the music as written. He changed it somewhat,
lengthening some notes and shortening others, but retaining the melody as he
first gave it to me. After getting it to his satisfaction, he directed me to
sound that call for Taps thereafter in place of the regulation call.
In keeping
with its initial purpose, the first, and informal, lyrics to the song were
simply: “Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Put out the lights. Put out the
lights. Put out the lights.”
Norton
later recalled the first time he played “Taps” at lights out in July 1862, and
its reception:
The music was
beautiful on that still summer night, and was heard far beyond the limits of
our Brigade. The next day I was visited by several buglers from neighboring
Brigades, asking for copies of the music which I gladly furnished. I think no
general order was issued from army headquarters authorizing the substitution of
this for the regulation call, but as each brigade commander exercised his own
discretion in such minor matters, the call was gradually taken up through the
Army of the Potomac.
As for how
it got extended to funerals, “Taps” was first played at a military funeral
during the Peninsular Campaign in 1862 on the orders of Captain John C. Tidball
of Battery A, 2nd Artillery.
Tidball’s
group was “occupied in an advance position, concealed in the woods,” when a
well-respected soldier was killed. Fearing that firing three volleys would be
unsafe (considering how close they were to the enemy), Tidball ordered “Taps”
be played: “The thought suggested itself to me to sound taps instead, which I
did.”
It quickly
became popular throughout the Army, a fact of which Captain Tidball remained
proud: “Battery A has the honor of having introduced this custom into the
service, and it is worthy of historical note.”
Taps
formally became a mandatory part of Army funeral ceremonies in 1891, perhaps in
part because General Butterfield, now retired, oversaw the funeral of General
William Tecumseh Sherman (also in 1891).
Today Taps
is played every day at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and every night at the
Arlington National Cemetery, both to “call an end to the day [and] as a tribute
to those that gave the ‘last full measure of devotion.'”
As part of
the 2013 Defense Authorization Act, Congress designated “Taps” the National
Song of Remembrance.
However,
qualified buglers are becoming increasingly rare:
At the turn
of the century there were thousands of performance buglers in the military and
even organizations like the American Legion, Boy Scouts and Veterans of Foreign
Wars . . . . But these days, young boy buglers are all but gone, and one of the
first things to go with any cuts in the military are things like bands, where
the buglers come from.
In recent
years, digital bugles, which look authentic but require only the switch of a
button to activate, have been used to fill void: “While a live bugler is always
preferred, in many cases, members of funeral details do not have musical
training . . . . More than 16,000 ceremonial [electronic] bugles are now in use
by military units and veterans service organizations.”
Although
many cannot discern the difference between digital and live “Taps,” buglers
can. Thousands have joined together to form Bugles Across America, an
organization whose volunteers play “Taps” at military funerals where loved ones
desire a live performance. As one veteran bugler noted: “Every person can
recognize the tune within the first three notes . . . . It’s amazing how much
is packed into a piece of music that is 24 notes long and lasts 50 seconds.”
source: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/03/origin-military-song-taps/
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