The Story of Taps

The Story of Taps
by David Trumbull -- May 22, 2025

This Memorial Day we remember and honor the men and women who died to preserve our freedom. Even as we enjoy kicking off summer however we chose this weekend, that is itself a testimony to their sacrifices, for we enjoy the cookouts, trips to the beach, and so forth because they made it possible. We especially honor those who died for our country when we decorate their graves or participant in patriotic parades and ceremonies this weekend.

At those solemn memorial events in our towns and cities, in our churches and synagogues, and in the halls of our veterans or other lodges, a familiar, haunting melody will mark the day --

The familiar bugle call "Taps" is generally believed to be based on a traditional French call to curfew (from Middle English "curfeu," from Old French "cuevrefeu," meaning cover the fire and turn in for the night).

According to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs the version of those 24 melancholy notes that we know from military funerals was crafted during America's Civil War by Union General Daniel Adams Butterfield, heading a brigade camped at Harrison Landing, Va., near Richmond. This music was made the official Army bugle call after the war, but not given the name "taps" until 1874. The first time taps was played at a military funeral may also have been in Virginia soon after Butterfield composed it. Union Capt. John Tidball, head of an artillery battery, ordered it played for the burial of a cannoneer killed in action. Not wanting to reveal the battery’s position in the woods to the enemy nearby, Tidball substituted taps for the traditional three rifle volleys fired over the grave. Taps was played at the funeral of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson 10 months after it was composed. Army infantry regulations by 1891 required taps to be played at military funeral ceremonies.

Taps now is played by the military at burial and memorial services, to accompany the lowering of the flag, and to signal the "lights out" command at day's end.

The Story of Taps

POST-GAZETTE - Res Publica
The Story of Taps
by David Trumbull -- May 24, 2013

This Memorial Day we remember and honor the men and women who died to preserve our freedom. Even as we enjoy kicking off summer however we chose this weekend, that is itself a testimony to their sacrifices, for we enjoy the cookouts, trips to the beach, and so forth because they made it possible. We especially honor those who died for our country when we decorate their graves or participant in patriotic parades and ceremonies this weekend.

At those solemn memorial events in our towns and cities, in our churches and synagogues, and in the halls of our veterans or other lodges, a familiar, haunting melody will mark the day --

The familiar bugle call "Taps" is generally believed to be based on a traditional French call to curfew (from Middle English "curfeu," from Old French "cuevrefeu," meaning cover the fire and turn in for the night).

According to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs the version of those 24 melancholy notes that we know from military funerals was crafted during America's Civil War by Union General Daniel Adams Butterfield, heading a brigade camped at Harrison Landing, Va., near Richmond. This music was made the official Army bugle call after the war, but not given the name "taps" until 1874.

The same Veterans Affair internet resource, http://www1.va.gov/opa/publications/celebrate/taps.pdf, states that: "The first time taps was played at a military funeral may also have been in Virginia soon after Butterfield composed it. Union Capt. John Tidball, head of an artillery battery, ordered it played for the burial of a cannoneer killed in action. Not wanting to reveal the battery’s position in the woods to the enemy nearby, Tidball substituted taps for the traditional three rifle volleys fired over the grave. Taps was played at the funeral of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson 10 months after it was composed. Army infantry regulations by 1891 required taps to be played at military funeral ceremonies."

Taps now is played by the military at burial and memorial services, to accompany the lowering of the flag, and to signal the "lights out" command at day's end.

The Last Hope of Mankind

POST-GAZETTE, Res Publica
The Last Hope of Mankind
by David Trumbull -- June 15, 2012

Last week I discussed the first half of Daniel Webster's First Bunker Hill Oration; here, in time for Bunker Hill Day, is the rest.

After his brief summary of the history of America, from Christopher Columbus to the Battle of Bunker Hill, our guide, Daniel Webster, next surveys the fifty years since the battle and finds progress both in America and abroad although not at the same pace, which he compares to "vessels on a common tide, propelled by the gales at different rates, according to their several structure and management, but all moved forward by one mighty current, strong enough to bear onward whatever does not sink beneath it." Knowledge, he says, has triumphed and mankind in 1825 are, "better fed and better clothed . . . they are able also to enjoy more leisure; they possess more refinement and more self-respect. A superior tone of education, manners, and habits prevail." More importantly, he finds those past fifty years to have been given over to "the great question of politics and government."

“A great wheel of political revolution," says Webster, "began to move in America." He compares the guarded regularity and safety of that wheel's rotation in America with its irregular and violent impulses elsewhere and concludes that America was fortunate in the condition of the land and character of the populace at the time of our Revolution. Americans, while under the authority of the mother country, had, nevertheless, many years' experience of self-government as regards internal matters and were accustomed to some of the basic elements of our Constitution: representative bodies, division of power, and checks and balances. He credits the character of the American people -- sober, moral, and religious -- for the restraint from plunder and spoil that might otherwise have attended our Revolution.

Webster exhorts Americans to exult in the conviction that our Revolution was a beneficial example to the world. It is, however, an example that he would not necessarily apply as a template. "We are not propagandists," he says. "Wherever other systems are preferred . . . we leave the preference to be enjoyed." However, given the favorable circumstances of America's experiment in democratic government he concludes that if the representative system fail here, it is unlikely to ever succeed. With America, he asserts, rests "the last hope of mankind." this is a phrase that will be echoed by Abraham Lincoln in his December 1862 Annual Message to Congress ("the last best, hope of earth") and Ronald Reagan in his January 1974 "We Will Be a City on a Hill" speech ("the last best hope of man on earth").

America: Prodigy of Modern Times, the Wonder and the Blessing of the World.

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America: Prodigy of Modern Times, the Wonder and the Blessing of the World.
by David Trumbull - June 8, 2012

From last week's subject, Martin Lomasney, remembered for saying, "Don't write when you can talk, don't talk when you can nod," I turn to a man who was never shy about speaking. Daniel Webster, one of our greatest orators, in his 1825 address at the laying of the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, took the occasion to sketch a history of America of her people and their character.

In the introductory paragraphs he sets forth the purposes of the speech: (1) to move the listeners to an appreciation of the sacrifices of their ancestors; (2) to place the Battle of Bunker Hill as a pivot point in American history; and (3) to sketch a likely future of American prosperity.

He begins, not with the battle, nor even the War of Independence, but with the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and continues through the early English settlements of North American -- in New England in 1620 by the Protestant Pilgrim Fathers and in Maryland in 1634 by Roman Catholics -- passing to "that prodigy of modern times, at once the wonder and the blessing of the world," the American Revolution. Webster justifies the erection of a monument to the first great battle of the revolution by pointing to the happiness and prosperity of America fifty years later, to the New World generally shaking off European colonialism, and to both Europe and American progressing in knowledge, legislation, commerce, in the arts, in letters, and in freedom since the American Revolution inaugurated a new age in the world.

Above, Don Feder addresses the June 8th Boston "Stop Obama's HHS Mandate / Stand Up for Religious Freedom" Rally. Note how Webster traces the origin of the United States not to the 1607 English settlement in Virginia, an essentially commercial enterprise, but the Protestants of Massachusetts and the Catholics of Maryland who came to America for religious liberty.

Returning to the subject at hand, Webster addresses the survivors of the Battle of Bunker Hill, about 40 of them, present. He pays homage, by name, to some the heroes of that battle who have since been gathered to their fathers. Finally, he addresses all the veterans of the Revolutionary War.

Having addressed the men who had served in the war, Webster turns to the narration of the events leading to, and proceeding from, the Battle of Bunker Hill. He traces the conflict to the Intolerable Acts passed by the British Parliament in 1774. He discourses on how the British suppression of Boston, rather than bringing the other colonies back to obedience to British authority, drove the 13 colonies together in a common rebellion against British outrages. He rehearses how resistance to British mis-rule turned bloody at the April 19, 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord and how New England united with "one cause, one country, one heart" for the June 17, 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill. Bunker Hill, he asserts, transformed the patriot cause from a local insurrection to a full-blown war of independence and inspired the world by showing that Americans were prepared to die for freedom.

Next week, Part 2 of Webster's 1st Bunker Hill Oration.

In 1815 We Took a Little Trip…

POST-GAZETTE
Res Publica
In 1815 We Took a Little Trip…
by David Trumbull

The governor shall annually… issue a proclamation setting apart January eighth as New Orleans Day… to the end that the memory of the services of the soldiers and sailors of the war of eighteen hundred and twelve, and the lessons to be learned from the successes and failures of our arms in that war, may be perpetuated. 
-- General Laws Part I Title II Chapter 6 Section 12F

For many Americans of my age the strongest association with the January 8, 1815 Battle of New Orleans is the song of the same title which, as performed by Johnny Horton, was the Grammy Award "Song of the Year" in 1960 The song was written by Jimmy Driftwood (June 20, 1907–July 12, 1998), who based the melody on a traditional American fiddle tune, "The 8th of January."

One of the great American popular songs of my youth aside, quite a lot came out of the War of 1812, sometimes called the "Second War of Independence."

The Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 to September 3, 1783) ended with the King of Great Britain acknowledging, in the Treaty of Paris, the independence that the United States had asserted on July 4, 1776. The War of 1812 ended foreign interference with Americans on the seas and also ended British support of American Indians seeking to limit westward expansion of the young nation.

The Battle of Baltimore and the defense of Fort McHenry (September 12–15, 1814) was an important American victory and the inspiration for Francis Scott Key to pen the "Star Spangle Banner," which, set to the tune "To Anacreon in Heaven," was a popular unofficial national hymn well before congress, in 1931, made it our official National Anthem.

The Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812, in its Tenth Article stated that: "Whereas the Traffic in Slaves is irreconcilable with the principles of humanity and Justice, and whereas both His Majesty and the United States are desirous of continuing their efforts to promote its entire abolition, it is hereby agreed that both the contracting parties shall use their best endeavours to accomplish so desirable an object."

The United Kingdom and the United States both, in 1807, had, by law, abolished the slave trade. The American law took effect on January 1, 1808, the earliest date possible under Article I Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. law called for forfeiture of property and monetary fines. Following the Treaty of Ghent, congress strengthened the law to make the importation of slaves punishable by death. Having twice fought for our liberty, Americans were more and more awakening to the evils of slavery.

If most of us remember from school anything of the Battle of New Orleans, it is that the Treaty of Ghent ending the war was signed on December 24, 1814, but the sailing ships of the day did not get the message to New Orleans for some weeks. That is why the last battle of the war was fought two weeks after the end of the war!

Finally, here's Johnny Horton performing the song on the Ed Sullivan Show, (Season 12, Episode 38, Aired June 7, 1959) enjoy!

Constitution Day and Citizenship Day

POST-GAZETTE - Res Publica

Constitution Day and Citizenship Day

by David Trumbull -- September 16, 2011

“September 17 is designated as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day [to] commemorate the formation and signing on September 17, 1787, of the Constitution and recognize all who, by coming of age or by naturalization, have become citizens.” —(36 U.S.C.106)

We are accustomed to think of the United States as a relative young nation. It was just a bit over 500 years ago that Christopher Columbus from the Republic of Genoa on the Italian peninsula discovered the New World and even less time since the planting of the thirteen colonies that would become the United States. And yet we operate under the second oldest written constitution in the world. (Quiz, what nation has the oldest written constitution still in force?)

Our Constitution is claimed to be the world’s shortest. I can believe it! Certainly it is much, much shorter than the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. But then, unlike the Massachusetts Constitution, our nation’s fundamental law has not been frequently amended. In 224 years there have been but 27 amendments adopted.

The stability of our Constitution over time is even more evident when we remember that the first ten amendments—the Bill of Rights—were ratified shortly after entry into force of the Constitution. In fact, the promise of prompt passage of such a Bill of Rights was one of the arguments the Federalists made for adopting the Constitution, so much so that those first ten amendments may be thought of as being practically part of the original text. That leaves but 17 changes made in the period 1795 to 1992—nearly 200 years, or, on average, between one and two per decade.

Addressing his fellow Americans on September 17, 1796 George Washington spoke of our national unity and pride as free Americans living under a Constitution at the time not yet a decade old, saying: “Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism...” and he expressed his desire “that the free Constitution... may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.”

On September 17th, all citizens, by birth or choice (to borrow Washington’s beautiful phrasing) are called on to commemorate the signing of our federal Constitution and the blessings of liberty under our Democratic Republic.

Quiz answer: The Republic of San Marino, an independent state on the Italian peninsula surrounded entirely by the Republic of Italy has the oldest written constitution still in force, dating to 1600.

Terrorist Plot Fails

POST-GAZETTE - Res Publica

Terrorist Plot Fails

by David Trumbull -- September 9, 2011

On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, ten terrorists hijacked two airplanes (American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines from 175) that departed Boston with scheduled destination of Los Angeles. The intention of the hijackers – unmercifully brought to completion – was the deliberate destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan on a day and hour chosen to kill the maximum number of innocent civilians – men, women, and children of every race, religion and nationality.

Five terrorists hijacked the Dulles, Virginia, to Los Angeles American Airlines Flight 77 and crashed it into the Pentagon. Another four terrorists hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco for similar nefarious ends, but brave passengers regained control and crashed the plane near Shankville, Pennsylvania before the terrorists could reach their target in Washington, D.C.

In all, 19 hijackers and about 3,000 innocent persons were killed, four airplanes were destroyed, and there was substantial loss of property and disruption of economic activity in lower Manhattan. We must never forget or minimize the losses incurred due to the unprovoked and unjustifiable attacks on September 11, 2001. However, even weighing the losses in human life, property, and economic activity, and the inconveniences we now undergo at airport security checkpoints and other places, the conclusion – the only possible conclusion – is that the terrorist attacks failed.

The terrorists thought that such dramatic scenes as airplanes flying into buildings and some of the tallest structures in America collapsing into the earth would shake American resolve to fight. Just the opposite happened. America strengthened her resolve to fight terrorists around the world. While the terrorists may have thought they were bringing the fight to American soil, the result was U.S. invasion, and overthrow of the regimes, of Afghanistan and Iraq. In the past ten years there has been no successful major terrorist attack in America. They failed to effect any substantive change in U.S. policy toward the Near- and Middle-East. They failed to cripple us economically. They failed to unite the Muslim world in a holy war against United States.

It is said that the hijackers believed that would die martyrs to Islam and be received into Heaven (a Heaven which, if popular accounts are to be believed, sounds rather like Hugh Hefner’s “Playboy Mansion”). The notion that an all-merciful God rewards mass murders with the delights of paradise is, on its face, an absurd proposition. Yes, even as regards their expectation for personal “reward” the 9/11 terrorists failed.

God bless the U.S.A. and the free, and freedom-loving, people of America!

Res Publica: Flying the Colors

Tuesday, June 14th, is Flag Day. Fly your American flag proudly. And be sure to observe these regulations: no disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.

(a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.

(b) The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.

(c) The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.

(d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker's desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.

(e) The flag should never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in such a manner as to permit it to be easily torn, soiled, or damaged in any way.

(f) The flag should never be used as a covering for a ceiling.

(g) The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.

(h) The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.

(i) The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising signs should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown.

(j) No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations. The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.

(k) The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.

Source: United States Code Title 4 Chapter 1 Section 6.