Elaine,
Wonderful story. There is another version at:
http://www.va.gov/pubaff/celebAm/taps.htm
I'm not sure which version is correct, but at least you've got us thinking
about what Veteran's Day is all about.
Thank you.
BTY, the origin of Veteran's Day is presented at:
http://www.va.gov/pubaff/celebAm/vetday.htm
take care,
Bob Badgett
*****************
The Story of Taps
The 24-note melancholy bugle call known as "taps" is thought to be a
revision of a French bugle signal, called "tattoo," that notified soldiers
to cease an evening's drinking and return to their garrisons. It was sounded
an hour before the final bugle call to end the day by extinguishing fires
and lights. The last five measures of the tattoo resemble taps.
The word "taps" is an alteration of the obsolete word "taptoo," derived from
the Dutch "taptoe." Taptoe was the command - "Tap toe!" - to shut ("toe to")
the "tap" of a keg.
The revision that gave us present-day taps was made during America's Civil
War by Union Gen. Daniel Adams Butterfield, heading a brigade camped at
Harrison Landing, Va., near Richmond. Up to that time, the U.S. Army's
infantry call to end the day was the French final call, "L'Extinction des
feux." Gen. Butterfield decided the "lights out" music was too formal to
signal the day's end. One day in July 1862 he recalled the tattoo music and
hummed a version of it to an aide, who wrote it down in music. Butterfield
then asked the brigade bugler, Oliver W. Norton, to play the notes and,
after listening, lengthened and shortened them while keeping his original
melody.
He ordered Norton to play this new call at the end of each day thereafter,
instead of the regulation call. The music was heard and appreciated by other
brigades, who asked for copies and adopted this bugle call. It was even
adopted by Confederate buglers.
This music was made the official Army bugle call after the war, but not
given the name "taps" until 1874.
The first time taps was played at a military funeral may also have been in
Virginia soon after Butterfield composed it. Union Capt. John Tidball, head
of an artillery battery, ordered it played for the burial of a cannoneer
killed in action. Not wanting to reveal the battery's position in the woods
to the enemy nearby, Tidball substituted taps for the traditional three
rifle volleys fired over the grave. Taps was played at the funeral of
Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson 10 months after it was composed. Army
infantry regulations by 1891 required taps to be played at military funeral
ceremonies.
Taps now is played by the military at burial and memorial services, to
accompany the lowering of the flag and to signal the "lights out" command at
day's end.
*******************
The Origins of Veterans Day
In 1921, an unknown World War I American soldier was buried in Arlington
National Cemetery. This site, on a hillside overlooking the Potomac River
and the city of Washington, became the focal point of reverence for
America's veterans.
Similar ceremonies occurred earlier in England and France, where an unknown
soldier was buried in each nation's highest place of honor (in England,
Westminster Abbey; in France, the Arc de Triomphe). These memorial gestures
all took place on November 11, giving universal recognition to the
celebrated ending of World War I fighting at 11 a.m., November 11, 1918 (the
11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month). The day became known as
"Armistice Day."
Armistice Day officially received its name in America in 1926 through a
Congressional resolution. It became a national holiday 12 years later by
similar Congressional action. If the idealistic hope had been realized that
World War I was "the War to end all wars," November 11 might still be called
Armistice Day. But only a few years after the holiday was proclaimed, war
broke out in Europe. Sixteen and one-half million Americans took part. Four
hundred seven thousand of them died in service, more than 292,000 in battle.
Armistice Day Changed To Honor All Veterans
An answer to the question of how to pay tribute to those who had served in
this latest, great war came in a proposal made by Representative Edwin K.
Rees of Kansas: Change Armistice Day to Veterans Day, and make it an
occasion to honor those who have served America in all wars. In 1954
President Eisenhower signed a bill proclaiming November 11 as Veterans Day.
On Memorial Day 1958, two more unidentified American war dead were brought
from overseas and interred in the plaza beside the unknown soldier of World
War I. One was killed in World War II, the other in the Korean War. In 1973,
a law passed providing interment of an unknown American from the Vietnam
War, but none was found for several years. In 1984, an unknown serviceman
from that conflict was placed alongside the others. To honor these men,
symbolic of all Americans who gave their lives in all wars, an Army honor
guard, The 3d U.S. Infantry (The Old Guard), keeps day and night vigil.
A law passed in 1968 changed the national commemoration of Veterans Day to
the fourth Monday in October. It soon became apparent, however, that
November 11 was a date of historic significance to many Americans.
Therefore, in 1978 Congress returned the observance to its traditional date.
National Ceremonies Held at Arlington
The focal point for official, national ceremonies for Veterans Day continues
to be the memorial amphitheater built around the Tomb of the Unknowns. At 11
a.m. on November 11, a combined color guard representing all military
services executes "Present Arms" at the tomb. The nation's tribute to its
war dead is symbolized by the laying of a presidential wreath. The bugler
plays "taps." The rest of the ceremony takes place in the amphitheater.
Veterans Day ceremonies at Arlington and elsewhere are coordinated by the
President's Veterans Day National Committee. Chaired by the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs, the committee represents national veterans organizations.
Governors of states and U.S. territories appoint Veterans Day chairpersons
who, in cooperation with the National Committee and the Department of
Defense, arrange and promote local ceremonies.
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