Lullaby of Taps
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After having fought in the “Seven Days Battle” and at camp at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia, Union General, Daniel Butterfield, Brigade Commander, honoring his troopers of Third Brigade, First Division, Fifth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, revised an earlier bugle call known as “Extinguish Lights”...(lights out, rest, sleep). This new bugle call, sounded that night in July 1862, soon spread to other units of the Union Army, and was reported to have been used by the Confederates. Some Union troopers, back then in the American Civil War, apparently referred to the bugle call as “Butterfield’s Lullaby”. That bugle call is now known officially as “Taps”.
Around five and eight at evening’s rest,
Or anytime raised in solemness,
Taps melancholy notes proclaim,
Farewell to those in honor pay,
With the Lullaby that ends the day.
Copyright © John Howard | Year Posted 2023
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