"Taps": a soldier's good night: since its creation during the Civil War, Taps has been used to signal the end of day at military camps and to pay tribute to those brave souls who have gone to their final rest.

America pays tribute to her military personnel with three national holidays. Veterans' Day on November 11 honors living men an women who served in America's armed forces. Armed Forces Day on the third Sunday in May honors men and women presently serving in our armed forces. Memorial Day on the last Monday in May honors deceased men and women who served.

For those who gave their lives to defend our country, the most moving tribute of all is the playing of the bugle call known as "Taps." Although it commonly signals the end of day at military camps, Taps also signals the end of life for American servicemen. No military bugle call is so easily recognized or more apt to bring a lump to your throat and tears to your eyes. Sounded at military funerals, wreath-laying, and memorial services, it is uniquely American and known all over the world. ("Last Post," the British army's counterpart sounded over soldiers' graves, is little known outside the United Kingdom.)

The eloquent, haunting 24-note melody was created during the Civil War by a Union Army officer, Brigadier General Daniel A. Butterfield, while he and his men were encamped at Harrison's Landing on the James River in Virginia. The call's simple purpose was to signal "extinguish lights" (fires and lanterns) at night. Butterfield, a Medal of Honor recipient, actually revised an earlier bugle call, "Tattoo," rather than composing an entirely new one. Nevertheless, his role in producing those 24 notes gave him a place in the history of music as well as the history of war.

In composing the call as a quiet requiem for the day just passed, Butterfield could not have foreseen its popularity and its use for another purpose: a national requiem honoring our military dead. In that regard, Taps has been described by Private Oliver W. Norton, the brigade bugler who helped Butterfield arrange it and first played it, as "something singularly beautiful and appropriate.... Its strains are melancholy, yet full of rest and peace." Likewise, Chaplain Colonel Edward Brogan at the opening of the Taps exhibit at Arlington National Cemetery in 1999 said, "Its plaintive notes are a prayer in music--of hope, of peace, of grief, of rest."

There are only three notes used in Taps: E, C, and G. There are no official words to it. Nevertheless, soldiers quickly fitted "Go to sleep" onto the tune and referred to it as Butterfield's lullaby. Many other verses exist. The most popular is the one sung in summer camp at day's end:

   Day is done, gone the sun,
   From the lake, from the hills,
   From the sky.
   All is well, safely rest,
   God is nigh.

Another verse, more martial in its language, says:

   Go to sleep, peaceful sleep,
   May the soldier or sailor,
   God keep.
   On the land or the deep,
   Safe in sleep.

A number of stories about the origin of Taps are untrue. According to one widely circulated story, one night a Union Army officer heard the moan of a mortally wounded soldier in the field, so he pulled him to the Union lines for medical treatment. There he discovered the soldier was a Confederate, had died during the rescue, and was his own son. The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out. Without telling his father, he enlisted in the Confederate Army. At his funeral the next day, the heartbroken father had the bugler play a series of musical notes he found on a piece of paper in a pocket of his dead son's uniform. The music was Taps.

As moving as this melodramatic story is, it is nonetheless sheer fantasy. There is no evidence to support it. Many of the other false stories are variations of this one. Let's now look at the facts.

The True Story of Taps

In July 1862, after the Seven Days battles near Richmond, the Army of the Potomac was encamped at Harrison's Landing on the north bank of the James River. The landing is part of the Berkeley Plantation, whose nearby mansion, a three-story red brick building of Georgian architecture, was the headquarters of General George McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsular Campaign. McClellan's army had been beaten badly by General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Total casualties between the armies were more than 26,000. Butterfield was a brigade commander. He had lost more than 600 of his men at the Battle of Gaines Mills and had been wounded himself.

One evening, as he heard the final call of the day, he felt it was too formal to signal the day's end. It was, as he later put it, "more like a trumpeting welcome to a foreign potentate than a soldier's good night." The next morning, on the back of a letter from home, Butterfield recorded Taps, adapting the last five measures of a French bugle signal called Tattoo, which was also a signal for the end of day.

Since Butterfield could not read or write music, he must have used some personal system of notation to compose the tune. Despite that lack of formal musical knowledge, he was thoroughly familiar with the army's bugle calls and was actively engaged in revising them. He had discovered in the thick of battle that it was hard to detect bugle calls, so he set out to distinguish them better.

He summoned the brigade bugler, 23-year-old Private Oliver Willcox Norton, and after whistling the notes, had "O.W.", as he was known, play it back. Butterfield listened, then had Norton change the timing somewhat. He lengthened and shortened some notes while keeping the melody. He then ordered Norton to begin playing this new call, instead of the regulation call, at the end of each day. Years later in a letter published in the August 1898 edition of Century Magazine, Norton recalled the first night he played the tune and how quickly it caught on:

   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. I
   have been told that it was carried to
   the Western Armies by the 11th and
   12th Corps, when they went to Chattanooga
   in the fall of 1863, and rapidly
   made its way through
   those armies.

   In the same letter, Norton had
   also described how Butterfield
   had shown him some notes
   "written in pencil on the back
   of an envelope," had asked him
   to "sound them on my bugle,"
   and then had him make modifications,
   "lengthening some
   notes and shortening others,
   but retaining the melody as he
   first gave it to me." The editor
   of Century Magazine wrote to
   Butterfield to confirm Norton's
   account. Butterfield replied
   with a letter that was also published.
   Saying Norton's story
   was "substantially correct":

   The facts are, that at the
   time I could sound calls on
   the bugle as a necessary part
   of military knowledge and
   instruction for an officer
   commanding a regiment or
   brigade. I had acquired this
   as a regimental commander.
   I had composed a call for
   my brigade, to precede any
   calls, indicating that such
   were calls, or orders, for
   my brigade alone. This was
   of very great use and effect
   on the march and in battle.
   It enabled me to cause my
   whole command, at times,
   in march, covering over a
   mile on the road, all to halt
   instantly, and lie down, and
   all arise and start at the same
   moment; to [go] forward in line of
   battle, simultaneously, in action and
   charge etc. It saves fatigue.

Then he commented specifically about the origin of Taps:

   The call of Taps did not seem to be
   as smooth, melodious and musical as
   it should be, and I called in some one
   who could write music, and practiced
   a change in the call of Taps until I
   had it suit my ear, and then, as Norton
   writes, got it to my taste without
   being able to write music or knowing
   the technical name of any note, but,
   simply by ear, arranged it as Norton
   describes.

The General and the Private

In short, two men birthed Taps--a general who conceived it in his mind and a private who midwifed it with his bugle.

The "mother," Daniel Adams Butterfield, was born in 1831 in Utica, New York. After graduating from Union College at Schenectady, he became a businessman and was the eastern superintendent of the American Express Company in New York when the Civil War began. (American Express had been started by his father, John Butterfield.) He enlisted as a first sergeant in the 12th Regiment of the New York State Militia. Despite his lack of military experience, he quickly rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was then promoted to brigadier general and given command of a brigade of the Fifth Corps of the Army of the Potomac.

The 12th served in the Second Bull Run Campaign. In the Peninsular Campaign, Butterfield was wounded during the Battle of Gaines Mills. Despite his injury, he seized the colors of the 83rd Pennsylvania and, under heavy gunfire, rallied the regiment at a critical time in the battle. Years later, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions.

Following the Peninsular Campaign, Butterfield served at the Second Bull Run, Antietam, and at Marye's Heights in the Battle of Fredericksburg. Through political connections and his administrative ability, he became a major general and served as chief of staff of the Army of the Potomac under Generals Joseph Hooker at Chancellorsville and George Meade at Gettysburg. He was wounded at Gettysburg and, upon returning to duty, was reassigned to the Western Theater. By the end of the war, he was breveted a Brigadier General.

Butterfield stayed in the army after the Civil War, serving as superintendent of the army's recruiting service in New York City and as colonel of the Fifth Infantry. In 1870 he resigned from the military and went back to work with American Express. He was in charge of a number of special public ceremonies, including General William Tecumseh Sherman's funeral in 1891.

Despite all his military exploits--numbering 38 battles and skirmishes--Butterfield is mostly famous for creating bugle calls, especially Taps. He is also responsible for revising or rewriting our military system of bugle calls. He also designed the system of Corps Badges, which were distinctive shapes of colored cloth sewn on to uniforms to distinguish units.

Butterfield and his second wife Julia (his first wife had died) received many notable guests at Cragside, his family's estate in Cold Spring, New York, across the Hudson river from West Point Military Academy. When Butterfield died in 1901 at the age of 69, he was buried with full military honors in the Post Cemetery at West Point, even though he never attended the military academy. A special order from the Secretary of War permitted it in recognition of his service to his country. A lone bugler sounded Taps at his funeral. His tomb is the most ornate there. A monument to Butterfield also stands in New York City near Grant's Tomb. There is nothing on either monument which mentions Taps or Butterfield's association with the call.

The "midwife," Oliver Willcox Norton, was born in 1839, the oldest of 13 children. His father, a Presbyterian minister, moved his large family many times over the years.

Norton had become a school teacher in Pennsylvania when news of the attack on Fort Sumter reached him. He raced to the enlistment office and joined the 83rd Pennsylvania Volunteers as a bugler. During the war he regularly wrote long letters to his sister Elizabeth Lane Norton. His 150 letters were later published as a book, Army Letters, and have proven to be a valuable source of information about the day-to-day life of a soldier in the Civil War.

When Butterfield took command of the 83rd Pennsylvania as part of his brigade, Norton quickly grew to respect him. After Butterfield left the brigade, Norton sent his sister an illustration from Harper's magazine showing Butterfield--"our 'Little Dan,'" Norton said. He added, "If I ever get home I'll show you the bugle he took from my hand to 'sound the charge' at Bull Run."

After Butterfield left to become the Army chief of staff, Norton continued with the 83rd Pennsylvania. Colonel Strong Vincent took command. He made Norton his chief bugler and color bearer. They fought together at Gettysburg, and when Vincent died at Little Round Top, Norton lamented to his sister, "There is no one to fill his place.... Oh, how we loved him!" Years later, Norton named his youngest son after Vincent.

Norton was ambitious and took an unusual step to become a commissioned officer. He sought an assignment as regimental quartermaster for the 8th U.S. Colored Regiment and received it. The 8th U.S. Colored fought fiercely in the Battle of Olustee.

After the war, Norton reentered civilian life. He got a job with the Fourth National Bank in New York City, got married, and had five children.

Norton moved his family to Chicago to go into business with his brother Edwin as dealers in canning and sheet metal goods. Over time their business prospered and expanded. In 1901, the Nortons merged their company with several smaller ones to form the American Can Company.

In addition to Army Letters, he wrote two other books. His Attack and Defense of Little Round Top is regarded by many historians as the definitive account of that battle. In 1880 he returned to Little Round Top for the annual reunion of the battle's survivors. There he used his battered wartime bugle to sound Taps. He wrote about the experience:

   When the bugle sounded, a great
   shout came up from the men.... They
   came charging up to the spot where I
   stood, some with tears in their eyes,
   asking to have it repeated.

      That familiar sound echoing among
   the rocks where they had fought
   brought back, perhaps more vividly
   than words could do, the memories
   of the days when they had answered
   so often to its sound.

In 1920, at the age of 81, Norton died at home in Chicago.

The First Funeral to Use Taps

The first use of Taps at a funeral occurred in Virginia soon after Butterfield composed it. Union Captain John Tidball, head of Battery A, Second Artillery, ordered it played for the burial of a cannoneer killed in action. (One source credits Colonel James Moss rather than Tidball as having issued this order; another source credits Battery B of the Third Artillery as the originating unit.)

This sounding was in lieu of the traditional three rifle volleys. The practice of firing three volleys over a grave originated in the old custom of halting combat to remove the dead from the battlefield. When each side had finished retrieving their dead, they would fire three volleys to indicate readiness to resume fighting. Since the enemy was close, Tidball worried that the traditional three volleys would renew fighting. He therefore substituted Taps. The practice quickly spread throughout the Army of the Potomac. It was later confirmed by general orders and became a tradition.

Although the music was made an official Army bugle call after the war, it was not given the name Taps until 1874. The earliest official reference to the mandatory use of Taps at military funeral ceremonies is found in the U.S. Army Infantry Drill Regulations for 1891. Taps is now played by the military at burial and memorial services, to accompany the lowering of the flag, and--retaining its original purpose for extinguishing fires--to signal "lights out" at day's end.

How the Title "Taps" Originated

According to Richard Schneider in Taps: Notes from a Nation's Heart, there are several theories regarding the origin of the title, Taps. The most likely explanation: Tattoo (the bugle call from which Taps was derived) came from the Dutch term "Tap Toe," which was a drumbeat used at military facilities to warn local tavern keepers to close their taps because it was time for soldiers to return to their barracks. This explanation appears in a 1701 British army drill book, and an 1812 U.S. military handbook states that a roll call is to be made "at Taptoe time." The shift from drum signals to bugle calls occurred gradually over time in comprehensive fashion--not just for a single command--because in battle musket fire could sometimes be mistaken for drum beats and also because ever-increasing numbers of combatants on ever-larger battlefields called for a louder signaling instrument.

The Site of Taps' Origin

Harrison's Landing is part of Berkeley Plantation in Charles City, Virginia, on the James River between Williamsburg and Richmond. It is Virginia's most historic plantation--a site rich in history.

In 1619 the second English colony in America was established there. (Nearby Jamestown was the first in 1607.) When the colonists stepped ashore, they offered thanks to God for safe passage and thereafter observed the day annually as "a holy date of thanksgiving to Almighty God." Their record of that event establishes it as the first English-language official Thanksgiving in America.

A century later, in 1726, the original Berkeley Plantation mansion was built by Benjamin Harrison IV. It became the ancestral home of generations of Harrisons. Benjamin Harrison, son of the builder, was a governor of Virginia and a signer of the Declaration of Independence; he was also father of William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States. Both were born in the mansion. Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of William Henry, spent his childhood at the mansion and later became the 23rd president. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the rest of the first ten presidents visited Berkeley.

In 1862, during the Peninsular Campaign, Abraham Lincoln twice sailed down from Washington, D.C., to review the 140,000 Union troops encamped there.

The site where Taps was born is commemorated by a monument located where Butterfield's tent was set up on the grounds of Berkeley Plantation. The monument was erected by the Virginia American Legion and dedicated on July 4, 1969.

The Echo

Often when Taps is played, one bugler sounds Taps and a second bugler plays it in the distance when the first has finished. This is called an echo. It is not an official part of military protocol, but is widely used in civilian events and has been for a long time. The apparent echoing of the music as it fades into the distance is a moving touch for audiences. I had never thought about the derivation of the echo effect until I stood at the very spot where Taps was first played on the north bank of the James River. Then it struck me forcefully. The melancholy music had been heard and appreciated not only by Union soldiers, but also by the nearby Confederate troops on the south bank of the James River, which is quite broad at that point. When Taps was played, it drifted across the water to the Confederates, who began to play it back. Thus the "echo" of Taps was born. (As I researched this article, I was pleased to note that Jari Villanueva, a bugle historian and an authority on Taps, concluded the same thing.)

Taps was played at the funeral of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson in 1863. Although split by differences of opinion, the North and South shared a number of common bonds, including a love for this musical prayer.

Protocol

When you hear Taps played on occasions memorializing those who lost their lives in the service or are simply deceased veterans, stand at attention, become silent, and face the U.S. flag. If you are in civilian clothes, remove your hat if you are male, cover your heart with your right hand, and remain in that position until the music has ended. If you are in uniform, salute the flag in the manner prescribed by your organization. (Soldiers render the military salute, Scouts render the Scout salute, etc.) Then let that martial music fill your consciousness so that the "song of truce to pain"--the pain of those who died and those who lost loved ones--echoes in your heart long after it ceases to linger in the air because, as President Ronald Reagan said:

   [Most] of those who died in defense
   of our country ... were boys when
   they died, and they gave up two lives
   --the one they were living, and the
   one they would have lived. They gave
   up their chance to be husbands and
   fathers and grandfathers.... They gave
   up everything for their country, for
   us. All we can do is remember.

RELATED ARTICLE: Military funeral honors.

Congress has long directed that upon request of the next of kin, all eligible veterans must receive military honors when they pass on. It is considered a sacred duty on behalf of a grateful nation.

Due to the increasing call for military funeral honors as the World War II and Korean War generations leave us, Congress authorized veterans organizations, ROTC units, and other appropriate organizations to provide such services if active military members are not available. (At present, America is losing about 1,800 veterans per day. The rate of loss is expected to peak at about 2,000 per day in 2008.)

The ceremonial paying of respect and gratitude to those who have faithfully served and defended our nation must include the sounding of Taps, the ceremonial folding of the American flag that covers the casket or urn, and presentation of the flag to the next of kin by the leader of the honors detail at the military funeral. A firing party, which would fire three volleys over the grave of the deceased, is optional, depending upon availability. Military pallbearers are likewise optional.

The order of events in the military funeral honors portion of the funeral ceremony begins with the sounding of Taps, followed by the folding of the flag and the presentation of the flag. If a firing party is present, the volleys are fired before the sounding of Taps. The sounding itself may be done by a bugler (military or civilian) or, if no bugler is available, by playing a recording of Taps. Mourners are asked by the funeral director to stand for the rendering of honors. Upon completion of Taps, the funeral director will request that the mourners be seated. Then the flag is folded and presented by the leader of the military funeral honors detail, who speaks to the next of kin with words of gratitude on behalf of the president and the nation. The detail leader also offers condolences.

--JOHN WHITE