Sometime a few weeks ago a message was posted to TNLINCOL with a story about the origin pf TAPS, the bugle call at end of day and often at end of life in the military. It is both sorrowful and beautiful but this persons history of it was not exactly correct. His story has been around for many years but the archives of military history is, I suppose, the official version. I am pasting that version below. This is sort of searching the genealogy of a song, in my opinion and the source is in Washington, D. C. A Brief History of Taps Adapted from the book, ³TAPS, Notes from a Nation¹s Heart² by Richard Schneider, 2002 As Oliver Willcox Norton, the first bugler to play Taps, said: ³There is something singularly beautiful and appropriate in the music of this wonderful call. Its strains are melancholy, yet full of rest and peace. Its echoes linger in the heart long after its tones have ceased to vibrate in the air.² The story begins after the Union Army¹s McClellan had pulled back to Harrison¹s landing after being repulsed by the Confederate Army¹s General Lee at Richmond, Virginia. Brigadier General Daniel Adams Butterfield, commander of the Third Brigade of the Fifth Army Corps, who was a scholarly 31 year old former law student from Utica, New York, camped in a tent close to his men. He decided not to stay in the nearby historic Berkeley Plantation. In June, 1862, General Butler had earned the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Seven Days battle at Gaines Hill, which allowed the Army of the Potomac to retreat to Harrison¹s Landing. Many of his young men had been lost in the recent battles and many were grievously wounded and diseased. The pitiful remnants were forced to endure miserable squalor. It was difficult to imagine that his soldiers would catch the needed sleep in such conditions. The standard call for the end of the day was the bugle call, ³extinguish lights² . General Butler didn¹t like the call. It was meaningless and harsh. He wanted something that was more meaningful. In early July, he summoned his bugler, Private Oliver Willcox Norton, and began working out the notes to a new bugle call. He had sketched out the basic part on an envelope and asked Private Norton to play it. Through several trials, the general modified the notes, but kept the basic melody. When he was satisfied, he asked his bugler to play it at night. The call was heard throughout the surrounding area to neighboring brigades. The next day, several buglers came by and wanted the music to the beautiful piece they had heard the night before. Norton gladly gave out the music. As word of the new ³Taps² spread throughout the Union forces, it also became known as Butterfield¹s Lullaby.² Evidence of the moving effect of the new call is seen in its first recorded use at a military funeral. During the sporadic exchanges of artillery shelling at Harrison¹s Landing between the combatants, a Union cannoneer was killed. When the time came to bury the slain soldier, the battery captain was faced with a dilemma. Traditionally, three rifle volleys were fired over the grave at the funeral. Surveying the nearby enemy lines, the captain worried that hearing rifle fire; the enemy would think they were under attack. He remembered hearing the haunting new call and decided that would follow the rifle volleys. Thus, Taps had been sounded at the first military funeral. Taps could be heard easily over the battlefields and spread to the Confederate Army. One report states it was used at the funeral for Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, ten months later. In fact the Confederate Army¹s ³Mounted Artillery Drill² manual, published in 1863 states: ³Taps will be blown at nine o¹clock at which time all officers and men will be in quarters.² Taps may have been the first unguent in healing the wounds suffered by the bitterly opposing sides. The Army of the Potomac began its withdrawal from Harrison¹s Landing on August 15th, some soldiers by Navy ship, some by wagon trains. All that remained was the heritage of ³Taps², notes that bring comfort to listeners today as they first did for those dispirited and suffering soldiers in the mud at Harrison¹s Landing. Both stories have some simularity and tug at the heart of us old GIs'¹. The Viet Nam vet bugler friend says this is what military history has to say on it. There are lyrics to it also, not included. Regards, Charlie -- Charles & Beverly Schull 1953 Yolanda St. Springfield, OR 97477 Phone: 541-746-4097 E-mail: coschull@comcast.net