In a recent thread I started about being on a cruise and having a Veterans get together where some stories were told, there was a story about how Taps became the funeral melody we all know. I knew the story about Br. Gen. Daniel Butterfield composing it. If I remember correctly, that was part of the Bluejacket training all Navy recruits go through. On the cruise we heard another story that I had to look up on wikipedia because I’d never heard it before. Here is the text from wiki:
The most widely circulated story states that a Union Army infantry officer, whose name often is given as Captain Robert Ellicombe, first ordered "Taps" performed at the funeral of his son, a Confederate soldier killed during the Peninsula Campaign. This apocryphal story claims that Ellicombe found the tune in the pocket of his son's clothing and performed it to honor his memory, but there is no record of any man named Robert Ellicombe holding a commission as captain in the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign.
According to the piece read by the gentleman hosting the event, a Union officer heard the plaintive cries of a young gravely wounded soldier, and not knowing his allegiance, decided to brave Confederate fire to bring the lad to safety. When he got back behind his own lines, he realized the soldier had died and only then did he see that he wore the uniform of the Army of Virginia and upon further examination, he realized it was his own son! His son had been studying music at a Southern college and had been conscripted into the Confederate Army. He tried to arrange a military burial with full honors, but because his son wore the enemy’s uniform, he was denied. He went up the chain of command and was finally granted a somewhat subdued military burial and could only have one musical instrument of his choosing. The story goes that he found the music and verses written on a sheet of paper in the pocket of his sons uniform and decided to have that played by a bugler. The Union officers and men who were in attendance were so moved by the haunting melody that within a few months, it became the official melody played at all military funerals.
Has anyone else heard this tale before? I was surprised to find that there may be many “stories” of how Taps came about when I read more about it.
I heard another story...unrelated...at the same gathering that seemed a little far fetched and I began to wonder about how historical accounts of things we may take for granted could be factual “sea stories” that have been somewhat embellished to fit a certain narrative. One example that comes to mind is the story that my Father in law told me and my Dad about being shot down and making it back to friendly lines only to have to escape from Tan Son Nhut Airbase just ahead of the invading NVA in late April 1975. When I told that story here, I was called out by a couple of you that were there and had first hand knowledge of events around that time. And he was a decorated Air Force Colonel.
The most widely circulated story states that a Union Army infantry officer, whose name often is given as Captain Robert Ellicombe, first ordered "Taps" performed at the funeral of his son, a Confederate soldier killed during the Peninsula Campaign. This apocryphal story claims that Ellicombe found the tune in the pocket of his son's clothing and performed it to honor his memory, but there is no record of any man named Robert Ellicombe holding a commission as captain in the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign.
According to the piece read by the gentleman hosting the event, a Union officer heard the plaintive cries of a young gravely wounded soldier, and not knowing his allegiance, decided to brave Confederate fire to bring the lad to safety. When he got back behind his own lines, he realized the soldier had died and only then did he see that he wore the uniform of the Army of Virginia and upon further examination, he realized it was his own son! His son had been studying music at a Southern college and had been conscripted into the Confederate Army. He tried to arrange a military burial with full honors, but because his son wore the enemy’s uniform, he was denied. He went up the chain of command and was finally granted a somewhat subdued military burial and could only have one musical instrument of his choosing. The story goes that he found the music and verses written on a sheet of paper in the pocket of his sons uniform and decided to have that played by a bugler. The Union officers and men who were in attendance were so moved by the haunting melody that within a few months, it became the official melody played at all military funerals.
Has anyone else heard this tale before? I was surprised to find that there may be many “stories” of how Taps came about when I read more about it.
I heard another story...unrelated...at the same gathering that seemed a little far fetched and I began to wonder about how historical accounts of things we may take for granted could be factual “sea stories” that have been somewhat embellished to fit a certain narrative. One example that comes to mind is the story that my Father in law told me and my Dad about being shot down and making it back to friendly lines only to have to escape from Tan Son Nhut Airbase just ahead of the invading NVA in late April 1975. When I told that story here, I was called out by a couple of you that were there and had first hand knowledge of events around that time. And he was a decorated Air Force Colonel.
