Taps

I looked up the meaning and history of “Taps.”  Actually, it was originally a bugle call sounded as a signal for “lights out” at the end of a military day.  However, it came to be used at military funerals conducted by the United States Armed Forces.  The official military version is played by a single bugle or trumpet.  The tune is also sometimes known as “Butterfield’s Lullaby,” or by the first line of the lyrics, “Day Is Done.”  “Taps” was derived from the same source as “Tattoo.”  It may have originated from the Dutch taptoe, meaning “close the beer taps and send the troops back to camp.”  An alternative explanation, however, is that it carried over from a term already in use before the American Civil War.  This tune is a variation of an earlier bugle call known as the “Scott Tattoo,” which was used in the USA from 1835 until 1860, arranged in its present form by the Union Army Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield (1831-1901), a Medal of Honor recipient.  It was officially recognized by the United States Army in 1874.  Captain John C. Tidball of the West Point Class of 1848, started the custom of playing “Taps” at military funerals, so that it became a standard component to USA military funerals in 1891.  “Taps” was a bugle call, a signal, not a song.  As such, there are no official associated lyrics.  However, Horace Lorenzo Trim (1849-1915) is often credited for a set of words intended to accompany the music with a beginning “Day is done, gone the sun” and then finishes with “To your hands, Lord, we commend our souls.”  Thus, “Taps” has a long military funeral history dating from the American Civil.  Even today, whenever I hear “Taps” played, I think of my brother Johnny.  What do you know about “Taps”?