......It began in 1862, during the Civil War, when a Union Army Captain, Robert Ellicombe, was with his men near Harrison's Landing, in 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 mortally wounded on the field. Not knowing if it was a Union or Confederate soldier, the captain decided to risk his life and bring the stricken man back for medical attention.

Crawling on his stomach through the gunfire, the captain reached the stricken soldier and began pulling him toward his encampment. When he finally reached his own lines, he discovered it was actually a Confederate soldier--but the soldier was dead.

The captain finally caught his breath and lit a lantern. Suddenly, he went numb with shock. In the dim light he saw the face of the soldier--it was 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 following morning the heartbroken father asked permission of superiors to give his son a full military burial, despite his enemy status. His request was partially granted.

The captain had asked if he could have a group of soldiers in the Army band play a funeral dirge for the son at the funeral. That request was turned down since the soldier was a Confederate. Out of respect for the father they said they could give him one musician. He chose a bugler. He asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of the dead youth's uniform. This was done. That music was the haunting bugle melody we know as "Taps".

Up to the Civil War, the traditional call at day's end was a tune, borrowed from the French, called Lights Out. In July of 1862, in the aftermath of the bloody Seven Days battles, hard on the loss of 600 men and wounded himself, Union General Daniel Adams Butterfield called the brigade bugler to his tent. He thought "Lights Out" was too formal and he wished to honor his men. Oliver Wilcox Norton, the bugler, tells the story, "...showing me some notes on a staff written in pencil on the back of an envelope, (he) 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 music was beautiful on that still summer night and was heard far beyond the limits of our Brigade. The next day I was visited by several buglers from neighboring Brigades, asking for copies of the music which I gladly furnished. The call was gradually taken up through the Army of the Potomac."

This more emotive and powerful Taps was soon adopted throughout the military. In 1874 it was officially recognized by the U.S. Army. It became standard at military funeral ceremonies in 1891. There is something singularly beautiful and appropriate in the music of this wonderful call. Its strains are melancholy, yet full of rest and peace. Its echoes linger in the heart long after its tones have ceased to vibrate in the air.

While there are no official words to the bugle call itself, the commonly used lyrics are derived from the following verses: