The Story of Taps

There are two stories about the origins of Taps. The following is one that is widely accepted as true by many, but only one of the following is the truth.

 

It all Began in 1862 during the Civil War when Union Army Captain, Robert Ellicombe, was with his men near Harrison’s Landing, in Virginia. The Confederate Army was on the other side of a narrow strip of land. During the night Captain Ellicombe heard the moan of a soldier who was mortally wounded on the field. Not knowing whether the soldier was Union or Confederate, the Captain decided to risk life and limb to bring the stricken man back for medical attention. Crawling on his stomach through the gunfire, Captain Ellicombe reached the wounded soldier and began dragging him back to his camp. When the Captain reached his own lines, he discovered it was actually a confederate soldier, but the soldier was dead. Ellicombe lit a lantern. Suddenly, he caught his breath and went numb with shock. In the dim light he saw the face of the soldier. It was his own son. The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out. Without telling his father, he had enlisted in the Confederate Army. The following morning the heart-broken father asked his superiors to give his son a full military burial despite his enemy status. His request was partially granted.

Captain Ellicombe had asked if he could have a group of Army Band members play a funeral dirge for his son at the funeral. The request was denied because his son was a Confederate soldier. Out of respect for the father however they did say he could have one musician. Captain Ellicombe chose a bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found in the pocket of his dead sons uniform.

This wish was granted. That music was the haunting bugle melody we know today as “TAPS” used today on all military funerals.

This next story is a beautiful one once read by John Wayne.

It was July in Virginia. The scent of dogwood and laurel lay heavy on the land, while the burgeoning fruit of the peach and the apple marked the full sway of summer.

For seven fateful days the trees, the flowers, yes, the very ground itself had shuddered under the roar of cannon. The bark of howitzers…and the crackling of a legion of rifles.

Now all was silent. The sledgehammer blows of Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson had mauled the Army of the Potomac, and yet that army was not destroyed. Seven thousand men had fallen in that dreadful week…and the savagery of the conflict was grimly evident in the river of wounded…that wound through the green hills.

Now, a new sound drifted in the soft evening sky. For Colonel Dan Butterfield, a courageous and able soldier, was also a man of music. On July second, in the year 1862, its stains floated over the graves that scarred the dark Virginia earth.

It has been more than a hundred years since that sound was born, but those notes have never died away. Every night of the year, throughout the world, fighting men of America, from the North and South, the East and West, close their eyes in sleep to its call. And in each of their hearts…there glows a fierce surge of pride.

 

The later story is most accurate according to one of the finest buglers in the country Jari Villinueva, and he would know. Jari has been the Master Bugler with the Air Force Band as far back as anyone can remember. This is what he had to say about Captain Ellicombe and his son.

“I have spent years on this one tune… The story is a fake, a tall tale, a good story to tell around a campfire, but a story that holds no truth whatsoever. This is one of those stories tha is reprinted and forwarded to others and makes its way around the internet around Memorial day, July 4^th, and Veterans day. The story gets printed in papers, newsletters, and sad to say even on some military websites as the true version of how the bugle call Taps came to light.”

“I Have sounded the call over 1600 times over the past 16 years an Air Force bugler at Arlington National Cemetery. I am the curator of the Taps Exhibit at Arlington, and a Civil War re-enactor and historian. Along with ither history buffs, I have researched the real story tried to squash ths fake story.”

“We know much about the two men involved in the creation of Taps. General Daniel Butterfield and the bugler, Private Oliver Wilcox Norton, who created the new call, survived the Civil War, went on to become prosperous and respected businessmen and citizens. Both wrote about their civil war experiences and the creation of Taps in July of 1862.

“There is no proof that Captain Robert Ellicombe ever existed. The myth gives no indication of which unit or state he served. In order to be believed one needs to produce muster, discharge or pension papers and background history of both father and son, units, etc. Lastly, were is the sons grave? There is no basis at all to the story, except that it occurred near Harrison’s landing in July 1862, were the true origin took place.”

“So where did the myth come from? I have traced the tale to a Ripley’s Believe it or Not story that Robert Ripley created for his short-lived TV program in 1949. This is chronicled in the book Ripley. The Modern Marco Polo–The Life And Times of The Creator Of Believe It Or Not by Bob Considine, published by Doubleday & Co. in 1961.

“The myth took on a life of its own and was even printed as fact in an Ann Landers or Dear Abby Column. A retraction was later printed. It has acquired a new life on the internet and is spread by many unsuspecting but well meaning people who believe it to be true. It is unfortunate to see it on websites, especially military and veteran sited that should know better. It is hoped that those who are interested in history will spread the word to stop the myth.