A @usarmyband bugler can be seen behind members of The Old Guard as they perform Taps in honor of a veteran. Photograph captured by Arlington Media photographers. There are several legends concerning the origin of “Taps”. The most widely circulated one 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. Another, perhaps more historically verifiable, account of “Taps” first being used in the context of a military funeral involves John C. Tidball, a Union artillery captain who during a break in fighting ordered the tune sounded for a deceased soldier in lieu of the more traditional—and much less discreet—three volley tribute. Army Col. James A. Moss, in an Officer’s Manual initially published in 1911, reports the following: During the Peninsula Campaign in 1862, a soldier of Tidball’s Battery A of the 2nd Artillery was buried at a time when the battery occupied an advanced position concealed in the woods. It was not safe to fire the customary three volleys over the grave, on account of the proximity of the enemy, and it occurred to Capt. Tidball that the sounding of Taps would be the most appropriate ceremony that could be substituted. While not necessarily addressing the origin of “Taps”, this does represent the first recorded instance of “Taps” being sounded as part of a military funeral. Until then, while the tune had meant that the soldiers’ day of work was finished, it had little to none of the connotation or overtone of death, with which it so often is associated today.

[igp-video src=”” poster=”https://www.arlington.media/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/a-@usarmyband-bugler-can-be-seen-behind-members-of-the-old-guard-as-they-perform-taps-in-honor-of-a-1-1.jpg” size=”large”]A @usarmyband bugler can be seen behind members of The Old Guard as they perform Taps in honor of a veteran. Photograph captured by Arlington Media photographers. There are several legends concerning the origin of "Taps". The most widely circulated one 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. Another, perhaps more historically verifiable, account of "Taps" first being used in the context of a military funeral involves John C. Tidball, a Union artillery captain who during a break in fighting ordered the tune sounded for a deceased soldier in lieu of the more traditional—and much less discreet—three volley tribute. Army Col. James A. Moss, in an Officer's Manual initially published in 1911, reports the following: During the Peninsula Campaign in 1862, a soldier of Tidball's Battery A of the 2nd Artillery was buried at a time when the battery occupied an advanced position concealed in the woods. It was not safe to fire the customary three volleys over the grave, on account of the proximity of the enemy, and it occurred to Capt. Tidball that the sounding of Taps would be the most appropriate ceremony that could be substituted. While not necessarily addressing the origin of "Taps", this does represent the first recorded instance of "Taps" being sounded as part of a military funeral. Until then, while the tune had meant that the soldiers' day of work was finished, it had little to none of the connotation or overtone of death, with which it so often is associated today.