The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1917-07-24
TAPS IN The ARMY
Story Of the BugIe Call, Lights
Out" Now In Use.
WAS FIRST SOUNDED IN 1862

General ButterfieId Composed the MeIo-
dlous Strain, Which Quickly Sup
planted the Old and UnmuslcaI West
Point Signal.
In book Of personal letters and me
MORALS printed for circulation among
his friends Oliver W. Norton, vet
Gran Of the war between the states,
who at the beginning Of his military
career was brigade bugler to General
Daniel Butterfeld's command, includ-
cd q bit Of historical information that
Is Of too wide an interest to be allowed
to remain In such comparative obscure
ty, says the Youths Companion.
General ButterAeld had ability as a
musician in addition to his ability as
an army organizer. He especially de-
lighted In the invention Of bugle calls.
Perhaps the most interesting as well
as the most beautiful Of these calls Is
taps, which, according to the authori-
tative story of the generals bugler
came into existence in the following
manner:
In the month of July, 1862, the Army
Of the Potomac rested In camp at Har-
rison's Landing, point on the James
river in Virginia. It was Immediately
after the seven days Of fighting before
Richmond The losses had been heavy,
and the army was recruiting its
strength after the long struggle.
Day and night the long, winding val
ley and the hills on either side echoed
to the bugle calls that marked the
rhythm of the camp life. The scene
was more Of peace than war In spite
Of military duties and trappings. The
many vacant places In the ranks, to
which the new army had not yet be-
come accustomed, and the SOLDERING
sense OF long impending struggle
that was born Of the early reversss
from which they had just suffered put
the soldiers at the close Of each day
into state Of meditation not untouch-
ed with sadness
The old order of lights out" which
had been inherited from the earliest
West Point memories, sounded dis
cordant and unsuitable note to the sem
sitjve musical ear Of the general.
He Immediately began turning over
In his mind such musical phrases as
seemed to him to convey the sugges.
ton Of the peace and quiet Of the camp
--of rest after labor. Perhaps the spir-
It Of the hour In which that immortal
musical phrase was born might be
more perfectly expressed as sense
Of pause, something related to the
words Of Shelley:
All is deep silence. like the fearful cain
That siumbers In the storms portentcus
pause.
Having settled upon q combination
Of notes that seemed to him to be In
tune with the sentiment Of sleeping
camp Of soldiers, he summoned his bu-
gler, Norton, and began to teach him
the new call, whistling the notes over
many times and correcting their time
and phrastng. At last, satisfied with
the result, he jotted the notes down
with a pencil on the back Of an old
envelope.
That same night Butterfeld's own
brigade was the first to listen to the
lingering refrain of the new call, and
the next morning the buglers Of other
camps near by-for its music had car
rted far among the hills-began to In
quire as to its meaning and to ask per
mission to learn it Wherever 1t was
heard it arrested immediate attention
and fingered In the memory. 1t passed
from army corps to army corps with
great rapidity and was finally substt
tuted by general orders for the old
lights out call and printed in the
army regulations.
Its use in the military burial service
both by veterans Of the war and by
the United States regular army has
added greatly to the tenderness of its
associations. There are few musical
phrases in the world held in deeper
reverence. Its sounding today will
hush the noisiest and most boisterous
throng.