Taps
written in 1862

Day is done. Gone the sun, 
from the lake, from the hill, from the sky.
All is well. Safely rest, 
God is nigh.

Thanks and praise, for our days, 
'neath the sun,'neath the stars, 'neath the sky. 
As we go, this we know. 
God is nigh. 

**Newly found second verse!
Fading light....Dims the sight
And a star....Gems the sky....Gleaming bright
From afar....Drawing nigh
Falls the night. 

(From the Encyclopedia of Amazing but True Facts by Doug Storer)
 
In 1862 during the Civil War, Union Army Captain Robert Ellicombe
was with his men near Harrison's Landing, VA.  The Confederate
Army was on the other side of this narrow strip of land.  During
the night, Ellicombe heard the moan of a soldier who lay wounded
in the field. Crawling on his stomach through gunfire, the
captain reached the stricken soldier and began pulling him
toward his encampment.

When he finally reached his own lines he discovered it was
actually a Confederate soldier, but the soldier had died.
Suddenly, the Captain went numb with shock.  In the dim light
he saw the face of the soldier--his son.
 
The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke
out and, without telling his father, enlisted in the Confederate
Army.
 
The heartbroken father asked if he could have a group of Army band
members play a funeral dirge for his son at the funeral.  That
request was turned down because the soldier was a Confederate.
 
Out of respect for the father; however, they said they would give
him one musician.  He chose a bugler, whom he asked to play a
series of notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket
of the dead youth's uniform.  That music was the haunting bugle
melody we now know as "Taps."