Taps (Corrected)

On the 19th of this month I posted an article titled TAPS and it told the origins of the song and the lyrics many don't know exist.

Thanks to Mollbot for this link which corrects the original posting and offers more information on the subject.

Here is the corrected story.

Of all the military bugle calls, none is so easily recognizable or more apt to render emotion than the call Taps. The melody is both eloquent and haunting and the history of it's origin is interesting and somewhat clouded in controversy. In the British Army, a similar call known as "Last Post" has been sounded over soldier's graves after interment since 1885. But the use of Taps is unique with the United States military, since the call is sounded at funerals, wreath layings and memorial services.

Up to the Civil War, the infantry call for "Lights Out" was that set down in Silas Casey's (1801 1882) Tactics, which had been borrowed from the French. The music for Taps was changed by Union General Daniel Butterfield for his Brigade (Third Brigade, First Division, Fifth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac) in July 1862.

Daniel Adams Butterfield (1831-1901), the son of a famous expressman was born in Utica, New York and graduated from Union College at Schenectady. He was the eastern superintendent of the American Express Company in New York when the Civil War broke out. A colonel in the 12th Regiment of the New York State Militia, he was promoted to Brigadier General and given command of a brigade when the militia was mustered into the Army of the Potomac. As the story goes, General Butterfield was not pleased with the call for "Lights Out", feeling that the call was too formal to signal the day's end. With the help of the brigade bugler (Oliver W Norton) Butterfield created the call to honor his men while in camp at Harrison's Landing, Virginia following the Seven Day's battle. The call, sounded that night in July, 1862, soon spread to other units of the Union Army and was even used by the Confederates. It was made an Official bugle call after the war. The highly romantic account of how Butterfield "composed" the call surfaced in 1898 following a magazine article written that summer. The August, 1898 issue of Century Magazine contained an article called "The Trumpet in Camp and Battle" by Gustav Kobbe, a music historian and critic. He was writing about the origin of bugle calls in the Civil War and in reference to Taps, wrote: "In speaking of our trumpet calls I purposely omitted one with which it seemed most appropriate to close this article, for it is the call which closes the soldiers.... "Lights Out".

I have not been able to trace this call to any other service. If it seems probable, it was original with Major Seymour, he has given our army the most beautiful of all trumpet calls".

Kobbe was using as his basis for the calls the army drill manual on infantry tactics prepared by Major General Emory Upton in 1867 (revised in1874) The bugle calls in the manual were compiled by Major (later General) Truman Seymour of the 5th US Artillery.

Kobbe's inability to find the origin of "Light's Out" (Taps) prompted a letter from Oliver W Norton in Chicago who claimed he knew how the call came about and that he was the first to perform it.

Norton wrote:...

"During the early part of the Civil War, I was bugler at the Headquarters of Butterfield's Brigade, Meroll's Division, Fitz-John Porter's Corps, Army of the Potomac. Up to July, 1862, the infantry call for Taps was that set down in Casey's Tactics, which Mr Kobbe says was borrowed from the French. One day, soon after the seven days' battles on the Peninsular, when the Army of the Potomac was lying in camp at Harrison's Landing, General Daniel Butterfield. then commanding our Brigade, sent for me, and showing me some notes on a staff written in pencil on the back of an envelope, asked me to sound them on my bugle. I did this several times, playing the music as written. He changed it somewhat, lengthening some notes and shortening others, but retaining the melody as he first gave it to me. After getting it to his satisfaction, he directed me to sound that call for Taps thereafter in place of the regulation call. ... 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 did not presume to question General Butterfield at the tine, but from the manner in which the call was given to me, I have no doubt he composed it in his tent at Harrison's Landing. I think General Butterfield is living at Cold Spring, New York. If you think the matter of sufficient interest, and care to write him on the subject, I have no doubt he will confirm my statement."

The editor at the Century did contact Butterfield who wrote back;

"I recall, in my dim memory, the substantial truth of the statement made by Norton, of the 83rd Pa., about bugle calls. His letter gives the impression that I personally wrote the notes for the call. The facts are, that at that 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. ... 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. I did not recall him in connection with it, but his story is substantially correct..."

On the surface it was not until the Century article that this seems to be the true history of the origin of Taps. Indeed, the many articles written about Taps cite this story as the beginning of Butterfield's association with the call. Certainly Butterfield never went out of his way to claim credit for its composition and it was not until the Century article that the Origin came to light There are however, significant differences in Butterfield's and Norton's stories. Norton says that the music given to him by Butterfield that night was written down on an envelope while Butterfield wrote that he could not read or write music! Also Butterfield's words seem to suggest that he was not composing a melody in Norton's presence, but actually arranging or revising an existing one. As a commander of a brigade, he knew of the bugle calls needed to relay troop commands. All officers of the time were required to know the calls and were expected to be able to play the bugle. Butterfield was no different - he could play the bugle but could not read music. As a colonel of the 12th N.Y. Regiment, before the war, he had ordered his men to be thoroughly familiar with calls and drills. What could account for the variation in stories? My research shows that Butterfield did not compose Taps but actually revised an earlier bugle call.

This sounds blasphemous to many, but the fact is that Taps existed in an early version of the call Tattoo. As a signal for end of the day, armies have used Tattoo to signal troops to prepare them for bedtime roll call. The call was used to notify the soldiers to cease the evening's drinking and return to their garrisons. It was sounded an hour before the final call of the day to extinguish all fires and lights. This early version is found in three drill and tactical manuals - the Winfield Scott (1786-1866) manual of 1835, the Samuel Cooper (1798-1876) manual of 1836 and the William Gilham (1819-1872) manual of 1861.

Sorry for any confusion, I didn't check the source. Thanks to both Jack and Mollbot for the information!

SlagleRock Out!

Posted by SlagleRock at July 21, 2004 03:04 PM