Memorial Day and the Origin of Taps

You might hear the somber notes of #Taps played at a #Memorial Day observance in the next week. The two are connected, according to the Memorial Day Foundation: Memorial Day grew out of the Civil War, which took as many as 600,000 American lives; Taps was first played by Pvt. Oliver Willcox Norton, brigade bugler for the Army of the Potomac, in July 1862 after Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield — unhappy with the sound of his nightly “lights out” bugle alert — asked him to replay a tune he whistled. The melancholy yet peaceful Taps eventually became the official soundtrack to military burials and #remembrances. #MemorialDay