In 1862 during the Civil War, union Army Captain Robert Ellicombe was with his men near Harrison's Landing, Virginia. The Confederate Army was on the other side of this narrow strip of land. During the night, Captain Ellicombe heard the moan of a soldier who lay wounded on the field.
Crawling on his stomach through the gun fire, the captain reached the stricken soldier and pulled him toward his encampment. When he finally reached his own lines he discovered it was actually a Confederate soldier he tried to rescue, but the soldier had died.
The captain went numb with shock. In the dim light, he saw the dirty face of the soldier--his own son. The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out, and without telling his father, enlisted in the Confederate Army.
The heartbroken father asked if he could have a group of Army band members play a dirge for his son at the funeral. That request was turned down because the soldier was a Confederate. However, out of respect for the father, they said that they would allow for one musician to play at the funeral. Captain Ellicombe chose a bugler.
He asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes that he found on a piece of paper in the pocket of his dead son's uniform. That music is the haunting melody we now know as "Taps".
Day is done
Gone the sun
From the lake
From the hill
From the sky
All is well
Safely rest
God is nigh
Thanks and praise
For our days
'Neath the sun
'Neath the stars
'Neath the sky
Rest in peace
Soldier brave
God is nigh
I received this and thought I'd add it to the story.
Sorry to tell you this, but this story about taps is a fabrication.
In 1862, Major General Daniel Butterfield suggested that he was not pleased with the current bugle call for Lights Out, feeling that the call was too formal to signal the days end. With the help of the brigade bugler, Oliver Wilcox Norton, Butterfield wrote Taps to honor his men while in camp at Harrison's Landing, Virginia, following the Seven Day's battle. These battles took place during the Peninsular Campaign of 1862. The call sounded that night in July, 1862, soon spread to other units of the Union Army and was even used by the Confederates. Taps was made an official bugle call after the war.
The first use of Taps at a funeral was during the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia. During the 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 Captain Tidball that the sounding of Taps would be the most solemn ceremony that could be substituted. The custom was taken up throughout the Army of the Potomac, and finally confirmed by orders.
Perhaps not as heroic, but factual.
Patrick Richey
