Ditto

You said it well.

I take NO CREDIT...as most vets know they are the words / lyrics to "Taps"

those of us who have had the honor to be a part of the Honor Guard at the funerals of our lost brothers in arms can hear them in the bugle.

i have copy /pasted the story on post 3 if you care to read it. its well worth your time.

they are not mine, they are the widely believed words, or lyrics if you will, to taps. we have them posted at the VFW. most vets know it.there are two versions i will post both for those who are or at least SHOULD BE interrested;

The Story Behind "TAPS":

It all began in 1862 during the Civil War, when Union Army Robert Ellicombe
was with his men near Harrison's Landing in Virginia. The Confederate Army was
on the other side of the narrow strip of land. During the night, Captain
Ellicombe heard the moan of a soldier who lay mortally wounded on the field. Not
knowing if it was a Union or Confederate soldier, the captain decided to risk
his life and bring the stricken man back for medical attention. Crawling on his
stomach the gunfire, the captain reached the stricken soldier and began pulling
him toward his encampment. When the captain finally reached his own lines, he
discovered it was actually a Confederate soldier, but the soldier was dead. The
captain lit a lantern, suddenly he caught his breath and went white 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 enlisted in the Confederate Army. The following morning,
heartbroken, the father asked permission of his superiors to give his son a full
military burial despite his enemy status. His request was partially granted. The
captain had asked if he could have a group of Army band members play a funeral
dirge for the son at the funeral. That request was turned down since the soldier
was a Confederate. Out of respect for the father, they did say they could give
him only one musician. The father chose the bugler. He asked the bugler to play
a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of his
dead son's uniform. This wish was granted.

This music was the haunting melody we now know as "Taps" that is used at all
military funerals.

The following Version is from the
Military District of Washington, D.C.
(archives):

ORIGIN OF "TAPS"

During the Civil War, in July 1862 when the Army of the Potomac was in camp,
Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield summoned Pvt. Oliver Wilcox Norton, his brigade
bugler, to his tent. Butterfield, who disliked the colorless "extinguish lights"
call then in use, whistled a new tune and asked the bugler to sound it for him.
After repeated trials and changing the time of some notes which were scribbled
on the back of an envelope, the call was finally arranged to suit Gen.
Butterfield and used for the first time that night. Pvt. Norton, who on several
occasions, had sounded numerous new calls composed by his commander, recalled
his experience of the origin of "Taps" years later:

"One day in July 1862 when the Army of the Potomac was in camp at Harrison's
Landing on the James River, Virginia, resting and recruiting from its losses in
the seven days of battle before Richmond. Gen. Butterfield summoned the writer
to his tent, and whistling some new tune, asked the bugler to sound it for him.
This was done, not quite to his satisfaction at first, but after repeated
trials, changing the time of some of the notes, which were scribbled on the back
of an envelope, the call was finally arranged to suit the general.

"He then ordered that it should be substituted in his brigade for the
regulation "Taps" (extinguish lights) which was printed in the Tactics and used
by the whole army. This was done for the first time that night. The next day
buglers from nearby brigades came over to the camp of Butterfield's brigade to
ask the meaning of this new call. They liked it, and copying the music, returned
to their camps, but it was not until some time later, when generals of other
commands had heard its melodious notes, that orders were issued, or permission
given, to substitute it throughout the Army of the Potomac for the time-honored
call which came down from West Point.

In the western armies the regulation call was in use until the autumn of
1863. At that time the XI and XII Corps were detached from the Army of the
Potomac and sent under command of Gen. Hooker to reinforce the Union Army at
Chattanooga, Tenn. Through its use in these corps it became known in the western
armies and was adopted by them. From that time, it became and remains to this
day the official call for "Taps." It is printed in the present Tactics and is
used throughout the U.S. Army, the National Guard, and all organizations of
veteran soldiers.

Gen. Butterfield, in composing this call and directing that it be used for
"Taps" in his brigade, could not have foreseen its popularity and the use for
another purpose into which it would grow.

Today, whenever a man is buried with military honors anywhere in the United
States, the ceremony is concluded by firing three volleys of musketry over the
grave, and sounding with the trumpet or bugle "Put out the lights. Go to
sleep"...There is something singularly beautiful and appropriate in the music of
this wonderful call. Its strains are melancholy, yet full of rest and peace. Its
echoes linger in the heart long after its tones have ceased to vibrate in the
air."