Post by sfscriv on Apr 3, 2013 8:25:19 GMT 1
"Taps" is a musical piece sounded at dusk, and at funerals by the U.S. military. The tune is also sometimes known as "Butterfield's Lullaby", or by the first line of the lyric, "Day is Done". The tune is actually a variation of an earlier bugle call known as the Scott Tattoo which was used in the U.S. from 1835 until 1860.
"Taps" was arranged in its present form by the Union Army Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield, an American Civil War general and Medal of Honor recipient who commanded the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division in the V Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac while at Harrison's Landing, Virginia, in July 1862 to replace a previous French bugle call used to signal "lights out". Butterfield's bugler, Oliver Wilcox Norton, of Angelica, New York, was the first to sound the new call. Within months, "Taps" was used by both Union and Confederate forces. It was officially recognized by the United States Army in 1874.
