"another look at taps"
by Jari A Villanueva 1
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.
Prior to the Civil War, two
versions of Tattoo were used - the early one which was probably used from
1835-1861 and a second one that was used during the Civil War. Neither of
these two Tattoos is in anyway similar to the present day Tattoo.
The last five measures of
the early Tattoo very closely resembles our present day Taps. As mentioned
above, many calls were adopted from the French and it is possible that it
may have come from Europe. The original "lights out" came from the French
call "Extinction des Feux". This call makes up the first eight measures of
our present day call of Tattoo. The last twenty measures of the present
day Tattoo come from the British call "First Post".
The fact that Norton says
that Butterfield "composed Taps cannot be questioned. He was relaying
the facts as he remembered them." His conclusion that Butterfield
wrote Taps can be explained by the presence of the second Tattoo. It was
most likely that the second Tattoo, followed by "Extinguish Lights" (the
first eight measures of today's Tattoo), was sounded by Norton during the
course of the war. It seems possible that these two calls were sounded to
end the soldier's day on both sides during the war. It must therefore be
evident that Norton did not know the early Tattoo or he would have
immediately recognized it that evening in Butterfield's tent. If you
review the events of that evening, Norton came into Butterfield's tent and
played notes that were already written down on an envelope. Then
Butterfield "changed it somewhat, lengthening some notes and shortening
others, but retaining the melody as he first gave it to me." If you
compare that statement while looking at the present days Taps you will see
that this is exactly what happened to turn the early Tattoo in Taps. If
Norton didn't know the early Tattoo, how would Butterfield have known it?
Butterfield as stated above, was a colonel before the war and in General
Order No.1 issued by him on December 1859 had written:
"The officers and
non-commissioned Officers are expected to he thoroughly familiar with
the first thirty pages, Vol. 1, Scott's Tactics, and ready to answer
any questions in regard to the same previous to the drill above
ordered".
Scott's Tactics has bugle
calls including the early Tattoo that Butterfield must have known and
used. If Butterfield was using Scott's Tactics for drills- then it is
feasible that he would have used the calls as set in that manual.
Lastly, it is hard to
believe that Butterfield could have composed anything given the situation
of that July. It was after the Seven Days battles that saw the Union Army
of the Potomac mangled by Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Over twenty six
thousand casualties were suffered on both sides. Butterfield had lost 600
of his men on June 27th at the battle of Gaines Mill and had himself been
wounded. In the midst of the heat, humidity, mud, mosquitoes, dysentery,
typhoid and general wretchedness of camp life in that early July, it is
certainly hard to imagine being able to write anything. In the interest of
historical accuracy, it should he noted that it is not General Butterfield
who composed Taps, rather that he revised an earlier call into the present
day bugle call we know as Taps. This is not meant to take credit away from
him or deride the man as an officer. It is only to put things in a correct
historic manner.
How did it become associated
with funerals? The earliest official reference to the mandatory use of
Taps at military funeral ceremonies is found in the U.S. Army Drill
Regulations for 1891, although it had doubtless been used unofficially
long before that time, under it's former designation "Extinguish Lights".
The first use of Taps at a
funeral probably occurred during the 1862 peninsular Campaign in Virginia.
Captain John C. Tidball of Battery A, 2nd Artillery, ordered it played for
the burial of a cannoneer killed in action. Since the enemy was close he
worried that the traditional 3 volleys would renew fighting. Colonel James
A. Moss writing in an Officer's Manual in 1913 wrote:
"...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 volley's 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
appropriate ceremony that could he substituted. The custom, thus
originated, was taken up throughout the Army of the Potomac, and
finally confirmed by orders."
Jari A Villanueva
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