{"id":48567,"date":"2025-07-27T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/?p=48567"},"modified":"2025-07-21T13:17:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T17:17:51","slug":"the-story-of-taps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/the-story-of-taps\/","title":{"rendered":"THE STORY OF TAPS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Penny For Your Thoughts by: Nancy Whitaker<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This melody always grabs our heart strings and makes us tear up. If you have ever attended a military funeral, then there will most likely be a bugle player there to play Taps<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is something Every American should know.
We in the United States have all heard the haunting song, \u201cTaps\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, do you know the story behind the song? If not, I think it is so interesting to find out about its humble beginnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reportedly, it all began in 1862 during the Civil War, when Union Army Captain Robert Elli was with his men near Harrison’s Landing in Virginia . The Confederate Army was on the other side of the narrow strip of land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the night, Captain Elli heard the moans of a soldier who lay severely 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crawling on his stomach through 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Captain lit a lantern and suddenly caught his breath and went numb with shock. In the dim light, he saw the face of the soldier. It was his own son. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out. Without telling his father, the boy enlisted in the Confederate Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 only partially granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Captain had asked if he could have a group of Army band members play a funeral song for his son at the funeral.
The request was turned down since the soldier was a Confederate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, out of respect for the father, they did say they could give him only one musician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Captain chose a bugler. He asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of the dead youth’s uniform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This wish was granted.
The haunting melody, we now know as ‘Taps’ used at military funerals was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The words are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDay is done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGone the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom the lakes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom the hills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll is well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSafely rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGod is nigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFading light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDims the sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd a star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGems the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGleaming bright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom afar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDrawing nigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFalls the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThanks and praise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor our days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNeath the sun<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNeath the stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNeath the sky<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs we go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis we know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGod is nigh\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I too have felt the chills while listening to \u201cTaps\u201d but I have never seen all the words to the song until now. I didn\u2019t even know there was more than one verse. I also never knew the story behind the song and I didn’t know if you had either, so I thought I’d pass it along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I now have an even deeper respect for the song than I did before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember Those Lost and Harmed While Serving Their Country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also Remember Those Who Have Served And Returned; and for those presently serving in the Armed Forces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you get tears in your eyes when you hear the bugle playing TAPS at a military funeral? Did you know the story behind this old song? Let me know and I\u2019ll give you a Penny for your thoughts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Penny For Your Thoughts by: Nancy Whitaker This melody always grabs our heart strings and makes us tear up. If<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":48568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,12771],"tags":[26418,14955,26419,12838,12839,26417],"class_list":["post-48567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-pennies-for-your-thoughts","tag-captain-rober-elli","tag-civil-war","tag-harrisons-landing","tag-nancy-whitaker","tag-penny-for-your-thoughts","tag-the-story-of-taps"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Nancy-Whitaker-new.jpeg?fit=318%2C424&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YQd9-cDl","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 12:26:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48567"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48569,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48567\/revisions\/48569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}