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Show Page HILL TOP TIMES 22 November 15, 1974 The story of ERHAPS the saddest passage of musical notes are the 28 bars of the plaintive bugle call known today as Taps, used in the military to mark "lights out and all to bed" at night and to mark the end of a life at a burial. Many words have been written to the modern Taps, and the most familiar ones readily evoke the notes themselves: J -- Day is done, gone the sun From the hills, from the lake. From the skies. All is w ell, safely rest, God is nigh. The origin of these sweet, sad notes has been preserved through the inquiries and articles of Century Magazine in 1898. Oliver W. Norton of Chicago, the first bugler to sound the "new" Taps, told Century that Taps was composed early in July, 1862, by an it p illustrious Union general in the Civil War, Daniel Adams Butter-fielimmediately after the Seven Days Battle while bivouacked at Harrison?s Berkeley Landing, Plantation, on the banks of the d, James River near Richmond, Vir- ginia. The .magazine contacted GenerButterfield, then living near West Point, New York, who recounted the sad events, 36 years earlier, that had led to his composing Taps. By July 1862, the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia had gone badly, McClellan having failed to take Richmond. Nearly 11,000 troops on both sides were killed during the week of the Seven Days Battle, but Butterfield later received the Medal of Honor for his gallantry in rallying his troops there against overwhelming odds. After repulsing the Confederates, his brigade covered the withdrawal of McClellan's Army of the Potomac to Harrison's Landing where it rested, recovered from its wounds and received replacements. Butterfield's state of mind amid the heat, humidity, intermittent rains, mud, mosquitoes, dysentery, typhoid and general wretch- edness in camp was marked by a sense of sadness for the loss of many old friends, as well as many young men committed to his command. It was under these conditions thai he heard again the then regulation bugle call known as "Extinguish Lights." the old al "Extinguish Lights" did not seem sad enough to Butterfield for the mood of that July, he explained to Century's editors. He decided to compose something less formal and more distinctive. Though he couldn't write a note of music, he formed a brief melody in his head, had an aide write it down, and then sent for Norton, his bugler then a private (who later became a major) in the 83rd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. Norton recalled that, "Showing me some notes on a staff, written in pencil on the back of an envelope, he (Butterfield) asked me to sound them on my bugle. 1 did this several times, playing the music as written. He changed it somewhat . . . but after getting it to his satisfaction, he directed me to sound that call for Taps thereafter, in place of the regulation call." That night. Bugler Norton sounded the plaintive strains of the Taps we now know. "The music was beautiful on that still summer night, and was heard far beyond the limits of our brigade," Norton recalled. Taps. "The next day I was visited by several buglers from neighboring brigades, asking for copies of the music. I think no general order was issued from army headquarters authorizing the substitution of this for the regulation call, but . . . the call was gradually taken up all through the Army of the Potomac, and later carried to the Western Armies." Ten years after the war, in 1874, the new Taps was officially adopted by the United States Army. Its sweet yet melancholy melody has sounded countless times in the 100 year since then. Butterfield never stepped forward to claim any credit for composing Taps until queried by Century Magazine in 1898. Perhaps Taps seemed inconsequential to him, compared to his successful civilian career in railroading, shipping, banking and real estate, and to his over-a- ll military record, including his rise to the rank of major general. Yet Taps outlives the memory of both his civilian leadership and his military valor, and joins a select company of famous melodies to come out of the Civil War, including "The Battle Cry of Freedom," "The Battle Hymn of "The Yellow' Rose of Texas," "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" and "Dixie." Three years after he recounted the history of Taps to Century Magazine. Gen. Butterfield died. On July 17, 1901, members of his old 12th Regiment led his funeral procession. Three rifle volleys were answered by a artilThen salute. the lery bugler sounded Taps. 13-g- condensed from the American Legion Magazine, copyright 1974. Reprinted by permission. General Butterfield END NEEDLESS WINTER EXPENSES WITH . . . Thorobred mA SIM m? 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