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ORIGINS OF "TAPS"
THE PROBABLE STORY As the generally accepted explanation goes, General Butterfield, brigade commander of the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac was not pleased with the 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 ROMANTIC STORY In 1862, during the Civil War, a Union Army captain, Robert Ellicombe, was with his men near Harrison's Landing in Virginia. Confederate soldiers were camped on the other side of a narrow strip of land. In the night, the captain heard a moan, looked out onto that no-man's land and saw a wounded soldier laying there. In the interest of humanity, he decided to leave the safety of his perimeter and bring the man back to camp for medical attention. Crawling out on the battlefield he finally reached him. To his surprise he discovered that the soldier was from the Confederate Army and that now, he was dead. The captain lit a small lantern to see better and his breath was taken away. Laying before him was his son. The young man had been studying MUSIC in the south when the war broke out and without telling his father, enlisted in the Confederate Army. The following morning, the captain asked his superiors permission for a full military burial, despite his sons status as the "enemy," his request was partially granted, but was told to make it small and quiet.He asked for a group of the Army's band to play at the service but was denied saying they could not do that for the enemy. In deference to the Captain, he was granted one band member and he chose a bugler. The grieving Captain asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of his dead son's uniform. And the haunting melody, we now know as Taps used at military funerals, was born. Editor's Note: There is no evidence to back up the story or the existence of Captain Ellicombe, but does it really matter? RIGHT CLICK to download a higher fidelity MP3 Version of Taps
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