|
The Story Of Taps
The true story is that in July 1862,
after the Seven Days battles at
Harrison's Landing (near Richmond), Virginia,
the wounded Commander of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V Army
Corps,
Army of the Potomac, General Daniel Butterfield reworked, with
his bugler
Oliver Wilcox Norton, another bugle call, "Scott
Tattoo," to create Taps.
He thought that the regular call for Lights Out was too formal.
Taps was adopted throughout the Army of the Potomac and finally
confirmed by orders. Soon other Union units began using Taps,
and even a few Confederate units began using it as well.
After
the war, Taps became an official bugle call.
Col. James A. Moss, in his Officer's Manual first published in
1911,
gives an account of the initial use of Taps at a military
funeral:
"During the Peninsular Campaign
in 1862, a soldier of Tidball's Battery A of the 2nd Artillery
was buried at a time when the battery occupied an
advanced position concealed in the woods.
It was unsafe to fire the customary three volleys over the
grave,
on account of the proximity of the enemy,
and it occurred to Capt. Tidball that the sounding of Taps
would be
the most appropriate ceremony that could be substituted."
|
Day
is done,
gone the sun,
From the hills,
from the lake,
From the skies.
All is well,
safely rest,
God is nigh.
Go to
sleep,
peaceful sleep,
May the soldier
or sailor,
God keep.
On the land
or the deep,
Safe in sleep.
Love,
good night,
Must thou go,
When the day,
And the night
Need thee so?
All is well.
Speedeth all
To their rest.
Fades
the light;
And afar
Goeth day,
And the stars
Shineth bright,
Fare thee well;
Day has gone,
Night is on.
Thanks
and praise,
For our days,
'Neath the sun,
Neath the stars,
'Neath the sky,
As we go,
This we know,
God is nigh.
Home
Military Pages
Site Index
|