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 notifi ed 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 Jacks on 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.

Click here to downlad a copy of the above!

24 Notes That Tap Deep Emotions, By: Jari A. Villanueva

The words are:
Day is done ... Gone the sun ... From the lakes ... From the hills
From the sky ... All is well Safely rest ... God is nigh ..
Fading light ... Dims the sight . And a star .. Gems the sky ...
Gleaming bright ... From afar ... Drawing nigh .. Falls the night .
Thanks and praise ... For our days ... Neath the sun ...
Neath the stars... Neath the sky ... As we go .. This we know ... God is nigh
I, too, have felt the chills while listening to "Taps" but I have never
seen all the words to the song until now. I didn't even know there was more than one verse. I also never knew the story behind the song so we thought we'd pass it along.
I now have an even deeper respect for the song than I did before. REMEMBER THOSE LOST AND HARMED WHILE SERVING THEIR COUNTRY. And also those presently serving in the Armed Forces.