Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.life From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: 24 notes that tap deep emotions Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 17:35:41 EST Message-ID: \SE B;LIFE;THE CIVIL WAR \HD 24 notes that tap deep emotions \SH Bugler's call leaves mournful echo over time \BY Jari A. Villanueva \CR SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES Of all the military bugle calls, none is so easily recognizable or more apt to evoke emotion than taps. The melody is eloquent and haunting. In the British army, a similar call known as "Last Post" has been sounded over soldiers' graves since 1885, but the use of taps is unique to 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 one set down in Silas Casey's (1801-1882) "Tactics" that had been borrowed from the French. The music for taps was changed by Union Gen. Daniel Butterfield for his brigade (3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 5th Army Corps, Army of the Potomac) in July 1862. Daniel Adams Butterfield (1831-1901) was born in Utica, N.Y., and graduated from Union College at Schenectady. He was the eastern superintendent of the American Express Co. 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, Butterfield was not pleased with the call for "lights out" 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, Va., following the Seven Days battles. The call, sounded that July night, 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 after publication of an article in Century Magazine called "The Trumpet in Camp and Battle," by Gustav Kobbe, a music historian and critic. "In speaking of our trumpet calls, I purposely omitted one with which it seemed most appropriate to close this article," he wrote, "for it is the call which closes the soldier's day . . . 'Light's Out.' I have not been able to trace this call to any other service. If, as seems probable, it was original with Maj. Seymour, he has given our army the most beautiful of all trumpet-calls." Kobbe was using as authority the Army drill manual on infantry tactics prepared by Maj. Gen. Emory Upton in 1867 (revised in 1874). The bugle calls in the manual were compiled by Maj. (later general) Truman Seymour of the 5th U.S. Artillery. Kobbe's inability to find the origin of "Light's Out" (taps) prompted a letter from Oliver W. Norton of 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, Morell'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 Peninsula, 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 time, 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." The editor at Century Magazine then contacted Butterfield, who responded: "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 the 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 . . ." On the surface, 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 wasn't until the Century article that the origin came to light. However, there are significant differences in Butterfield's and Norton's stories. Norton says the music given to him by Butterfield that night was written 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. What could account for the variation in stories? My research shows that Butterfield did not compose taps - he 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." At the end of the day, armies used "Tattoo" to signal troops to prepare for bedtime roll call. The call was used to notify the soldiers to return to their garrisons. It was sounded an hour before the final call to extinguish all fires and lights. It is hard to believe that Butterfield could have composed anything that July in the aftermath of the Seven Days battles, which saw the Union Army of the Potomac mangled by Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. More than 26,000 casualties were suffered on both sides, and Butterfield lost over 600 of his men on June 27 at Gaines Mill and was himself wounded. In the midst of the heat, humidity, mud, mosquitoes, dysentery, typhoid and general wretchedness of camp life in that early July, it is hard to imagine being able to write anything. How did taps 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 Infantry Drill Regulations for 1891, although it doubtless had been used unofficially long before, under its former designation, "Extinguish Lights." The first use of taps at a funeral probably occurred during the 1862 Peninsular Campaign in Virginia. Capt. John C. Tidball of Battery A, 2nd Artillery ordered it played for the burial of a cannoneer killed in action. Since the enemy was nearby, he worried that the traditional three volleys would renew fighting. There is also an indication that taps was sounded at the funeral of Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson in 1863 after Jackson was fatally wounded by his own men. Although Butterfield merely revised an earlier bugle call, his role in producing those 24 notes gives him a place in the history of music as well as the history of war. Jari A. Villanueva is a master sergeant with the U.S. Air Force Band, stationed at Bolling Air Force Base. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, he is working on a history of military bugle calls. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM