Taps is the most beautiful bugle call. Played slowly and softly, it has a smooth, tender, and touching character. The bugle call was written during the Peninsula Campaign of the Civil War by General Daniel Butterfield, with an assist from his bugler, Oliver W. Norton, in 1862.

       "Fading light dims the sight,
        And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.
        From afar drawing nigh -- Falls the night.

       "Day is done, gone the sun,
        From the lake, from the hills, from the sky.
        All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.

        "Then good night, peaceful night,
        Till the light of the dawn shineth bright,
        God is near, do not fear -- Friend, good night."




The Old Guard Escorts A Soldier To His
Final Resting Place, Arlington National Cemetery

"They say, we leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning... We were young, they say. We have died. Remember us."

—Archibald MacLeish

Of all the military bugle calls, none is so easily recognized or more apt to render emotion than 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."

More emotive and powerful, Taps was soon adopted throughout the military. In 1874, it was officially recognized by the U.S. Army. It became mandatory 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.

—from an article by MSG Jari A. Villanueva, USAF