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There is a myth about the origin of Taps that is circulating about the Internet. 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."
As soon as Taps was sounded that night in July 1862, words were put with the music. The first were, "Go To Sleep, Go
to Sleep." As the years went on many more versions were created. There are no official words to the music but here are
some of the more popular verses:
Day is done, gone the sun,
From the hills, from the lake,
From the sky.
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. |
Page last updated on 31 May 2007.
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