Taps...

[Liota]

It's 2200 Local here in the Republic of Korea. Taps is playing just loud enough for me to hear it. All I can think of is the last bayonet charge in US military history at Hill 180, just over 300 yards from where I work. What a cool sound. I was up there in February, ankle deep in snow, while both nations honored the American Soldier who led the charge with the typical soldier "damn the odds, here we go!" attitude.

[LPatterson]

It's been a long time since I was in the Army but I think the evening Bugle call is called Retreat. Taps is usually reserved for funerals.

[North]

Reveille in morning for wake up.

Retreat is in the evening when the flag is lowered.

Taps is lights out usually at 10 pm.

Edited May 23, 2006 by North

[Wakal]

Origin of "Taps"

During the Civil War, in July 1862 when the Army of the Potomac was in camp, Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield summoned Pvt. Oliver Wilcox Norton, his brigade bugler, to his tent. Butterfield, who disliked the colorless "extinguish lights" call then in use, whistled a new tune and asked the bugler to sound it for him. After repeated trials and changing the time of some notes which were scribbled on the back of an envelope, the call was finally arranged to suit Gen. Butterfield and used for the first time that night. Pvt. Norton, who on several occasions, had sounded numerous new calls composed by his commander, recalled his experience of the origin of "Taps" years later:

"One day in July 1862 when the Army of the Potomac was in camp at Harrison's Landing on the James River, Virginia, resting and recruiting from its losses in the seven days of battle before Richmond, Gen. Butterfield summoned the writer to his tent, and whistling some new tune, asked the bugler to sound it for him. This was done, not quite to his satisfaction at first, but after repeated trials, changing the time of some of the notes, which were scribbled on the back of an envelope, the call was finally arranged to suit the general.

"He then ordered that it should be substituted in his brigade for the regulation "Taps" (extinguish lights) which was printed in the Tactics and used by the whole army. This was done for the first time that night. The next day buglers from nearby brigades came over to the camp of Butterfield's brigade to ask the meaning of this new call. They liked it, and copying the music, returned to their camps, but it was not until some time later, when generals of other commands had heard its melodious notes, that orders were issued, or permission given, to substitute it throughout the Army of the Potomac for the time-honored call which came down from West Point.

In the western armies the regulation call was in use until the autumn of 1863. At that time the XI and XII Corps were detached from the Army of the Potomac and sent under command of Gen. Hooker to reinforce the Union Army at Chattanooga, Tenn. Through its use in these corps it became known in the western armies and was adopted by them. From that time, it became and remains to this day the official call for "Taps." It is printed in the present Tactics and is used throughout the U.S. Army, the National Guard, and all organizations of veteran soldiers.

Gen. Butterfield, in composing this call and directing that it be used for "Taps" in his brigade, could not have foreseen its popularity and the use for another purpose into which it would grow. Today, whenever a man is buried with military honors anywhere in the United States, the ceremony is concluded by firing three volleys of musketry over the grave, and sounding with the trumpet or bugle "Put out the lights. Go to sleep"...There is something singularly beautiful and appropriate in the music of this wonderful call. Its strains are melancholy, yet full of rest and peace. Its echoes linger in the heart long after its tones have ceased to vibrate in the air."

[AikiDale]

A bayonet charge during the Korean conflict? I had to know more. So I started searching and got distracted by the following. The Brits are still at it!

WITH BAYONETS ATTACHED, THEY FINISHED OFF THE ENEMY WHO HAD NOT RUN AWAY..

Glasgow Daily Record ^ | 5/21/04 | Keith Mcleod And Michael Christie

SCOTS TELL OF CHARGE

By Keith Mcleod And Michael Christie

SCOTS soldiers last night told how they launched a bayonet charge on Iraqi militiamen after hours of battle.

An Army insider last night gave the Record an insight into the bravery of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

They were forced to use ?cold steel? as supplies of ammunition ran low.

Many of the militiamen turned and fled but the close-quarters fighting left around 20 rebels dead.

Thirty-five of Shia Moslem cleric Muqtada al-Sadr?s followers died and two British troops were injured during the three-hour battle.

A senior Argylls officer said last night: ?After a fierce fight and with small amounts of ammo left, they put in a conventional left-flanking attack.

?With bayonets attached, they finished off the enemy who had not run off.?

It was the first time in 22 years the Army had used bayonets in action.

The last came when the Scots Guards stormed Argentinian positions during the Falklands War.

The battle developed following a distress call from a group of eight British soldiers last Friday.

The troops under the command of Major Adam Griffiths were surrounded on the notorious Route Six highway while en route to Camp Abu Naji in southern Iraq. Their LandRovers were riddled with bullets and they came under attack from rocket launchers and grenades.

But as a 30-strong platoon of Argylls responded to the SOS, the militia were getting reinforcements.

The men from the Stirlingshire-based regiment were forced to dig in and shoot back.

The Argylls were aided by a detachment of the Princess of Wales? Royal Regiment, who arrived at the scene in armoured Warrior vehicles.

More than 150 Iraqis were said to be involved in last week?s battle. Military sources say the militiamen miscalculated the response from the original group of soldiers.

Last night, a source said: ?Morale is very good following this serious incident.

?The insurgents have been laying ambushes on Route Six one of the main roads between Basra and Baghdad for some time.

?Previously, the response from small British groups has been drive on. These militiamen were obviously expecting this to happen again.

?The enemy have been picking their targets, mainly two LandRovers with six to eight soldiers on board. With those odds, it is sometimes best to keep on going, but the attack was so sustained, the LandRovers stopped and returned fire.

?We now hope that these attacks on Route Six will stop, but we are taking nothing for granted.?

Intelligence gathered since the bayonet charge suggests it shocked the militia fighters, who expected the outnumbered Scots to flee.

The source added: ?The injuries received by our troops were shrapnel to the hand and shrapnel to the groin. Both of these casualties were as a result of rocket-propelled grenades fired at them.

?Both the injured guys are back with their units and doing fine.?

The Princess of Wales? Royal Regiment arrived on the scene in 37ton Warriors just as the Scots? ammo was getting low.

They found many Iraqi militia fleeing the bayonet charge.

Around 20 Iraqis who chose to stand and fight were killed by the troops of both regiments.

The Argylls? forebears formed The Thin Red Line which kept 25,000 Russians at bay at Balaclava during the Crimean War of the 1850s.

In 1967, Argylls commander Lieutenant-Colonel Colin Mitchell known as Mad Mitch stormed a rebel stronghold in Yemen.

Accompanied only by 15 pipers playing Scotland The Brave, he recaptured Crater Town, the commercial heart of Aden, which had been in enemy hands for two weeks.

The regiment has won 16 Victoria Crosses.

[Round_Gun_Shooter]

Accompanied only by 15 pipers playing Scotland The Brave, he recaptured Crater Town, the commercial heart of Aden, which had been in enemy hands for two weeks.

The regiment has won 16 Victoria Crosses.

http://www.aboutscotland.com/argylls/index.html

[Chills1994]

Retreat at 1600 or 1630 hours, at da Zoo, Taps was every night at 2300 hours from Sunday through Thursday.

Taps was also played at the memorial homecoming services while reunion classes are there. Usually about the same time, a missing man formation would fly by.

Very "make the hair stand up on your neck" feeling.

[uscbigdawg]

Okay...here goes:

Retreat is the first of two songs played signifying the end of the day. Folks in uniform will face the music or the post (base) flag and take the position of Parade Rest. On the last tone of Retreat, soldiers will move to the position of Attention and Present Arms where To The Colors is played and the flag is lowered. On the last note to To The Colors, soldiers will return to the position of Attention (or Order Arms) and then carry on with what they were doing.

FWIW, when not in uniform, soldiers will assume the position of attention on the first tone of Retreat and maintain that position (facing the music or the post flag) through Retreat and To The Colors.

Taps is played typically at 2200. As Alex pointed out its intent is to say lights out and go to sleep.

Hope that helped.

Rich

Edited May 25, 2006 by uscbigdawg

[Chills1994]

Unless you're at da Zoo....Taps is a reminder that at most you'll get 7 hours of sleep.

Or you're well on your way to an all-nighter.

192.5 credits in 4 years. Yuck! Yuck! 27 or 28 credits my last semester.

Amazing how loud a dot matrix printer is at 2 am....mmm...errr Oh dark thirty.

Edited May 27, 2006 by Chills1994