Written by Jenifer Chrisman on May 5, 2015.
Day is done, gone the sun,
From the hills, from the lake,
From the sky.
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.
Go to sleep, peaceful sleep,
May the soldier or sailor,
God keep.
On the land or the deep,
Safe in sleep.
Love, good night, Must thou go,
When the day, And the night
Need thee so?
All is well. Speedeth all
To their rest.
Fades the light; And afar
Goeth day, And the stars
Shineth bright,
Fare thee well; Day has gone,
Night is on.
Thanks and praise, For our days,
‘Neath the sun, Neath the stars,
‘Neath the sky,
As we go, This we know,
God is nigh.
Haunting and emotionally charged, the melody of Taps is easily the most memorable and recognizable of all the bugle calls of the U.S. Army. Although there are no official words corresponding to this call, there are many lyrical verses associated with it. These include “Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Put out the lights. Put out the lights. Put out the lights.” written shortly after Taps was first played in July of 1862 (five years before the bugle call set was unified), as wells as some of its more popular verses as seen above.
There has long been a story where a Union Captain heard the moaning of a wounded soldier. Deciding to see if he could assist the soldier he crawled through the bushes in the midst of ongoing gunfire and found a dead Confederate. After lighting a lantern he was shocked and heartbroken to realize it was his own son. The captain dragged his son back to camp and requested he be given a full military burial despite his being enlisted in the Confederate Army. Given partial agreement, he was allowed to choose one member of the Army band to play his son’s dirge. He chose a bugler and asked him to play a musical score he had found in his son’s pocket.
While this story adds a mournful touch to the call of Taps, history tells a different, if somewhat confusing and controversial, story. Taps was created to replace the current Extinguish Lights. As the story goes, Union General Daniel Butterfield felt Extinguish Lights was too formal to end the day. Butterfield enlisted brigade bugler, Oliver Willcox Norton, to help him rewrite Extinguish Lights and in July of 1862 Taps was played for the first time. The call was so powerful it quickly spread to other units.
There was some later confusion when Gustav Kobbe wrote an article, The Trumpet in Camp and Battle, in Century Magazine in 1898 detailing the origins of the varying bugle calls. Kobbe thought Major Seymour Truman, who had standardized the calls, wrote Taps, but admitted he couldn’t find a definitive origin. Bugler Oliver Norton later wrote in explaining he was the first to play the call at the request of General Butterfield, based on some notes on a staff written on the back of an envelope. He sounded the notes several times, with Butterfield lengthening some notes and shortening others until he was satisfied. Using Norton’s information, the magazine editor contacted Butterfield who also wrote in. He detailed more about how Taps came to be and his part in finalizing the score but declined having written it as he couldn’t read or write music, although he could play the bugle as was required by the Army.
Butterfield revised an earlier call, known as the Scott Tattoo (1835-1860), which can be found in military manuals from as early as 1835. Norton, obviously never having heard Tattoo, assumed Butterfield had written the score he was asked to play. While some of the notes were lengthened or shortened until Butterfield was satisfied, no notes were changed from the original score Butterfield handed to Norton.
Taps history may still be shrouded in some confusion as to exactly how Butterfield came to revise the Scott Tattoo, but there is no denying its place in Army history is powerful and evocative.
Sources: west-point.org/taps/Taps.html
Notes: My Story: Struggling, bullying, suicide and self-harm was matched as closely as possible to the flash cards, following grammar, spelling, capitalization and punctuation, so as to keep the integrity of Amanda’s story. Each row of words is an individual card. The ** replace verbiage unable to be transcribed.
