The History of "Taps"

During the Civil War, when Union Army Captian Robert Ellicombe was with his men near Harrison's Landing in Virginia, the Confederate Army was on the other side of a narrow strip of land.

During the night, Captain Ellicombe heard the moan of a soldier who lay mortally wounded on the field.  Not knowing whether the man was a Union or Confederate soldier, the Captain decided to risk his life to 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 the Union encampment.  When the Captain finally reached his own lines, he discovered that the wounded soldier was actually a Confederate, but that he was now dead.

The Captain lit a lantern.  Suddenly he caught his breath and went numb with shock.  In the dim light of the lantern, he saw the face of the fallen soldier.  It was the face of his own young son.

The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out.  Without telling his father, he had enlisted in the Confederate Army.

The following morning, heartbroken, the father asked permission of his superiors to give his son a full military burial despite his status as an enemy combatant.  His request was partially granted.

The Captain had asked for a group of Army band members to play a funeral dirge for his son, but since the boy was a Confederate, that request was denied.  However, out of respect for the father, permission was given for a single musician to play at the burial.

The Captain chose a bugler.  He asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found scribbled on a piece of paper in the pocket of his dead son's uniform.

The wish was granted.  The music scrawled upon the scrap of paper in the young boy's uniform was the haunting melody we now know as "Taps" that is used at all military funerals.

The words that accompany the simple, dignified, and timeless tune are these:

Day is done.  Gone the sun, from the lakes, from the hills, from the sky.  All is well.  Safely rest. God is nigh.