Daniel Butterfield Daniel Adams Butterfield ( October 31 , 1831 – July 17 , 1901 ) was a New York businessman , a Union General in the American Civil War , and Assistant U . S . Treasurer in New York . He received the Medal of Honor for his service during the Civil War ; during the war he was credited with composing the bugle call " Taps " . In later life , he was involved in the Black Friday gold scandal in the Grant administration . Early life . Butterfield was born in Utica , New York . He graduated in 1849 from Union College in Schenectady , New York , where he became a member of the Sigma Phi Society and was employed in various businesses in New York and the South , including the American Express Company , which had been co - founded by his father , John Warren Butterfield , an owner of the Overland Mail Company , stage - coaches , steamships , and telegraph lines . Civil War . Only days after Fort Sumter , despite having little military background beyond part - time militia activities , he joined the Army as a first sergeant in Washington , D . C . , on April 16 , 1861 . Within two weeks he obtained a commission as a colonel in the 12th New York Militia , which became the 12th New York Infantry . By July he commanded a brigade and by September he was a brigadier general . Butterfield joined Maj . Gen . George B . McClellan ' s Army of the Potomac for the Peninsula Campaign in the V Corps , commanded by Maj . Gen . Fitz John Porter . In the Seven Days Battles , at Gaines ' Mill on June 27 , 1862 , he was wounded , but also demonstrated bravery that eventually was recognized ( in 1892 ) with the Medal of Honor . The medal citation read : " Seized the colors of the 83rd Pennsylvania Volunteers at a critical moment and , under a galling fire of the enemy , encouraged the depleted ranks to renewed exertion . " While the Union Army recuperated at Harrison ' s Landing , Virginia , from its grueling withdrawal during the Seven Days , Butterfield experimented with bugle calls and is credited with the composition of " Taps " , probably the most famous bugle call ever written . He wrote " Taps " to replace the customary firing of three rifle volleys at the end of burials during battle . " Taps " also replaced " Tattoo " , the French bugle call to signal " lights out " . Butterfield ' s bugler , Oliver W . Norton of the 83rd Pennsylvania Volunteers was the first to sound the new call . Within months , " Taps " was sounded by buglers in both the Union and Confederate armies . ( This account has been disputed by some military and musical historians , who maintain that Butterfield merely revised an earlier call known as the " Scott Tattoo " and did not compose an original work . See External links section . ) Butterfield continued in brigade command at the Second Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Antietam , became division commander , and then V Corps commander for the Battle of Fredericksburg . His corps was one of those assaulting through the city and up against murderous fire from Marye ' s Heights . After the debacles of Fredericksburg and the Mud March , Maj . Gen . Joseph Hooker replaced Ambrose Burnside as Army of the Potomac commander and Butterfield became his chief of staff in January 1863 . He was promoted to major general in March 1863 with a date of rank of November 29 , 1862 . Hooker and Butterfield developed a close personal , and political , relationship . To the disgust of many army generals , their headquarters were frequented by women and liquor , being described as a combination of a " bar and brothel " . Political infighting became rampant in the high command and Butterfield was widely disliked by most of his colleagues . However , the two officers managed to turn around the poor morale of the army and greatly improved food , shelter , and medical support in the spring of 1863 . During this period , Butterfield introduced another custom that remains in the Army today : the use of distinctive hat or shoulder patches to denote the unit a soldier belongs to , in this case the corps . He was inspired by the division patches used earlier by Maj . Gen . Philip Kearny , but extended those to the full army and designed most of the patches himself . Hooker was replaced after the Battle of Chancellorsville by Maj . Gen . George G . Meade , just before the Battle of Gettysburg . Meade distrusted Butterfield , but elected to retain him as chief of staff . Butterfield was wounded by a spent artillery shell fragment at Gettysburg on July 3 , 1863 , and left to convalesce . Meade removed him as chief of staff on July 14 , 1863 . After Gettysburg , Butterfield actively undermined Meade , in cooperation with Maj . Gen . Daniel Sickles , another crony of Hooker ' s . Although the battle was a great Union victory , Sickles and Butterfield testified to the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War that Meade vacillated and planned as early as July 1 to retreat from Gettysburg , damaging his reputation . Butterfield ' s chief evidence for this assertion was the Pipe Creek Circular that Meade had his staff prepare before it became apparent that there would be a battle at Gettysburg . Butterfield returned to duty that fall as chief of staff once again for Hooker , now commanding two corps in the Army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga , Tennessee . When these two depleted corps ( the XI and XII Corps ) were combined to form the XX Corps , Butterfield was given the 3rd Division , which he led through the first half of Sherman ' s Atlanta Campaign . Illness prevented his completion of the war in the field , and he assumed quiet duties at Vicksburg , Mississippi , followed by recruiting and the command of harbor forces in New York . Postbellum life . After the war , President Ulysses S . Grant appointed Butterfield Assistant Treasurer of the United States , based on a recommendation by Abel Corbin , Grant ' s brother - in - law . Butterfield agreed to tell Corbin and speculators Jay Gould and James Fisk when the government was planning to sell gold , a market that Fisk and Gould wanted to corner . Butterfield accepted a $ 10 , 000 payment from Gould , which Gould said was " to cover expenses " . Butterfield later testified to Congress that it was an unsecured real estate loan . If Butterfield tipped them off , Fisk and Gould would sell their gold before the price dropped . The scheme was uncovered by Grant , who sold $ 4 , 000 , 000 of government gold without telling Butterfield . This resulted in the panic of collapsing gold prices known as Black Friday , on September 24 , 1869 . Butterfield resigned from the Treasury Department in October , 1869 . He then became active in business and banking , including an executive position with American Express . He was also active in Union College ' s alumni association and several veterans organizations , including the Grand Army of the Republic . On September 21 , 1886 , Butterfield married Mrs . Julia L . Safford James of New York in a ceremony in London . On July 17 , 1901 , Butterfield died in Cold Spring , New York ; he was buried with an ornate monument in West Point Cemetery at the United States Military Academy , although he had not attended that institution . " Taps " was sounded at his funeral . He was the author of the 1862 Army field manual , " Camp and Outpost Duty for Infantry " . Medal of Honor citation . Rank and organization : Brigadier General , U . S . Volunteers . Place and date : At Gaines Mill , Va . , June 27 , 1862 . Entered service at : Washington , D . C . Born : October 31 , 1831 , Utica , N . Y . Date of issue : September 26 , 1892 . Citation : In memoriam . The Butterfield Paramedic Institute in Cold Spring , New York , which was once a hospital , is named for him . He has also been memorialized in the novel " The Killer Angels " by Michael Shaara — a character in the 20th Maine claims that their brigade bugle call was written by Butterfield and is based on his own name , sounding to the rhythm of " Dan , Dan , Dan , Butterfield , Butterfield " . There is a statue of the general by Gutzon Borglum in Sakura Park in Manhattan .