Taps
Tradition
tells of a chime that changed the world on July 8, 1776, when the Liberty Bell
rang out from the tower of Independence Hall summoning the citizens of
Philadelphia to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of
Independence by Colonel John Nixon. Eighty-plus years later, the Liberty Bell
gained iconic importance when abolitionists in their efforts to put an end to
slavery throughout America adopted it as a symbol. Did you know that on the
side of the bell is inscribed a quote from Leviticus 25:10, “…proclaim liberty throughout all the land
unto all the inhabitants thereof…” in the KJV. The NLT is just as good, “…proclaim freedom throughout the land for
all who live there.” This nation was founded on the idea of liberty. That,
as Americans, to live our lives as free people was a right given to us by God.
From
the beginning, there have always been some willing to defend this idea. For
many, it cost them their lives. Memorial Day is a day to remember their
sacrifice with prayer and song. One song that evokes this sacrifice, perhaps
more than any other, came to be during the war that cost over 600,000 American
lives.The Civil War.
In
July 1862, after the Seven Days battles at Harrison’s Landing (near Richmond),
Virginia, the wounded Commander of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V
Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, General Daniel Butterfield, and his bugler
Oliver Wilcox Norton, reworked a bugle call, known as “Scott Tattoo,” into a
new song. Gen. Butterfield thought that the regular call for Lights Out was too
formal. This new tune was adopted throughout the Army of the Potomac and
finally confirmed by orders. Soon other Union units began using the new tune.
Even a few Confederate units began using it as well. After the war, the tune
became an official bugle call. Col. James A. Moss, in his Officer’s Manual gives
an account of the first time the song was used at a military funeral:
“During the
Peninsular 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 unsafe 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 [this new bugle call] would be the most
appropriate ceremony that could be substituted.”
And
so, they played it. We know it as “Taps.” Jesus said in John 15:13, “There is no greater
love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Taps has come
to be a tradition to honor those who have given the ultimate price in the
service of this country.
We
know not every war or military action has been popular with American citizens.
However, the men and women who fight the battles and often never come home, do
not have a hand in those decisions. For them, it is simple. Their country
called them, and they answered. Please remember the sacrifice of all those who
fought and died, and who served and died this Memorial Day. They did not die
for their own cause. They died for ours – freedom.
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are taking prayer requests now. Email your requests to southchurchprayer@gmail.com. We will lift
them up live every weekday at 4:00 pm on our South Church, Hartford Facebook
page.
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