Taps to be sounded, May 1864 Chattanooga TN Federal IN Reg't

Here's one of several interesting orders I found last week while perusing the 68th and 74th Indiana regimental books at the National Archives.


Head Qurs 68th Reg. Ind. Vols.

Chattanooga May 5th 1864

Gen Order
No 5

From and after this date, the calls will be sounded as follows

Rev[eille] Daydawn.
Fatigue Call 6 30 A.M.
Sick Call 7.00 "
Drill Call 7.30 "
Recall 8.30 "
Dinner Call 12 M.
Dress Parade 5:30 "
Tattoo 7.30 "
Taps 8 "

Reveille[,] Dinner and Retreat and Tatoo calls will be sounded by the field music on Regimental parade. Fatigue[,] sick & Taps by the Bugle and 1st call for Dress Parade on the Bugle. One drummer will be detailed each day who will be in attendance at the Adjutants office from whence all signals will be sounded. All fatigue parties relieved from duty as such by 5 o'clock P.M. will appear on dress parade.

C. B. Goodwin By Order
of
Adjutant
H. J. Espy

Col 68th Ind Vols
(((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))))) )))))))
Although Taps in Chattanooga in May 1864 'might' be
"To Extinguish Lights" (see many other call schedules from Artillery, Infantry and Cavalry in 1861 - 1862 that call for Taps to be sounded by the Bugler, Bugler of the Yard, Chief Bugler....prior to Butterfields 'arrangement' (he never claimed he composed it))....based on Oliver Norton's 1892 letter my guess would be that this is in fact Butterfield's Lullaby.

Basically Norton states that the East Coast buglers were using Taps in late 1862 onward, and that when the XI and XII Corps came west to form the XX Corps and relieve the siege of Chattanooga in November 1863 they taught the 'Go To Sleep' bugle call to the Western Regiment's buglers.

Thanks for the find, Mark Jaeger!


RJ Samp

RJ - I note the differentiation of some calls as bugle only and others by the field music. Is this standard? Where can I read more about this division of responsibility?

thanks for this Mark and RJ - we are doing a Lookout Mountain 12th Corps unit at an event this year and this gives us some good background.

Greetings,

What makes the order I found potentially even more interesting is the duty history of the 68th IVI in 1863-1864, as per "Dyer's Compendium":

Attached to 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, 14th Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to October, 1863.

1st ("Willich's") Brigade, 3rd Division, 4th Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to April, 1864. (Between Oct 63 - April 64, August Willich's Brigade consisted of the 32nd IN, 89th IL, 15th OH, 49th OH, 25th IL, 35th IL, 15th WI, and 68th IN)

Garrison [Duty] at Chattanooga, Tenn., Dept. of the Cumberland, to November, 1864.

R. J. and I have found quite a bit of evidence indicating that Willich's Brigade did, indeed, use at least some "German" (Prussian, Hanoverian, or a combination of both) calls including the "Zapfenstreich" (Tattoo). Therefore, if we take the 68th IVI order at face value, this suggests that the regiment used standard calls while it was in the 14th Army Corps, then had to adapt to "Willich's M.O." when it served under him, and then reverted back to standard calls when it reported for duty in Chattanooga--all within a period of six months!

Thoughts?

Mark Jaeger

[QUOTE=DougCooper]RJ - I note the differentiation of some calls as bugle only and others by the field music. Is this standard? Where can I read more about this division of responsibility?

This is definitely not the norm. Traditionally the bugles sound from up high (say Corps or Brigade) and then they are echoed in turn by lower down the food chain buglers. Battalion/Regimental bugler sounds, and then the Principal Musician gets his boys a bangin' and a screechin'. This goes all day until the Bugler sounds Taps (To Extinguish Lights)...which is followed several minutes later by The Taps which are beat by the duty drummer and is the official end of the soldier's day.

[The Taps are three flams at 8 count intervals. A Flam is beat by placing two sticks above the drum head at different heights...say 6" and 12". Both sticks are beat at the same time, which means one stick arrives later than the other... Ba-Dum.]


Reveille by Field Music: this always has been the signal for Morning Roll Call (with wakeup being Reveille on the bugle). 9 and a half minutes of wheezing and banging, followed immediately upon it's cessation by the First Sergeant announcing: "Company A, Attention to Roll". Don't know why they don't want a wakeup call.....but I do have a quote about Reveille being sounded all over camp at various times and by various branches of service (it's different for cavalry).

A bugled dinner call is a frisky triple tongue exercise that none of you know.....much better to play the old British tune "Roast Beef".

And using the Field Musics for the other two roll calls (Retreat and Tattoo) is perfect. They have a whole caucophony of rolls, The Troop, and quick steps to entertain the troops. Tattoo can go on for up to an hour, during which the lads can mend uniforms, write letters home, and tidy up their quarters. Dress Parade probably comes after Retreat (notice that Retreat roll call is not specified in the orders)...it would be held around 5PM so as to return the work details that are mentioned in the orders. Retreat roll call is the head count at the end of the Work Day....to make sure no one's away for the wrong reasons.

After Retreat, the bugle goes through it's three step form the Battalion routine.

1. Assembly of the Buglers (First Call, get your formal evening wear on, brighten brass)

2. Assembly (form on company streets) (Color and Color Guard report to the color line/Adjutant/Sgt. Major.

3. To the Color (form battalion on the color line). Companies report in succession from inside to outside company order, field musics plays martial airs as the companies from on the color line).

For the buglers a reference to Taps (an unofficial bugle call until 1883 (when JP Sousa uses the tune but continues to call it To Extinguish Lights)) being sounded during the ACW is always an eye opener.

Always good to do this correctly, authentically.

Mark has been pulling lots of neat quotes out for the buglers, yeoman's work to be sure.

RJ Samp

I may be wrong but I always thought that tattoo was the call to tell the men to get ready for bed and Taps was for the men to tap out their pipes and go to sleep. We often forget the prevalence of pipe smoking in the Civil War.

Thanks,
Mark C. Foster

PS - When have you ever heard a sgt. give the "Pipes Out" command before roll call. It is not in the regulations but I have seen it referenced several times in memoirs one regiment even trained their dog to smoke a pipe and take it out at the sgt's command.

Tattoo can be defined as an assembly to 'quarters' before taps, a steady roll of the drum or a display of military field music and entertainment in the evening.
Can some of you vets sound in here? I would like to know if I really understand the term.

Good post and thread. Thanks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vuhginyuh

Tattoo can be defined as an assembly to 'quarters' before taps, a steady roll of the drum or a display of military field music and entertainment in the evening.
Can some of you vets sound in here? I would like to know if I really understand the term.

Good post and thread. Thanks.

---

Modern US Military Veterans views on Tattoo would differ from what occurred during the American Civil War. My father is a retired WWII Vet and Colonel in the reserves, brother is north of Baghdad this minute training in the new Iraqi Army. They both concur on this statement.

There are 3 roll calls per day in the ACW: Morning, Afternoon and Evening (Reveille, Retreat, Tattoo). Reveille established a rifle count for the day of men present. Retreat roll call was used for the issuance of orders for the following 24 hour period (who's on guard, who's cleaning the sinks, who's drilling, etc.)

Tattoo is the third roll call of the day.

Depending on season, weather, presence of visiting brass and dignitaries, proximity of the enemy, camp vs campaign, and the vagaries and exigencies of the commanding officers (RHIP).....
Tattoo can be anything from a Dress Review, Dress Parade, band concert, fife and drum concert, formal elaborate ceremony including lowering the colors, assembly on company street head count, to a simple return from a night out on the town (which is what the original German bugle call was for). So Tattoo may or may not be return to quarters depending on what Tattoo for that evening was going to consist of.

There is no bugle call in the ACW for Quarters, or Pipes, or Smoking Lamp is lit.

Fort McHenry has an excellent Tattoo Ceremony and well worth the family vacation time to go see. The Canadians and British out do even Fort McHenry however, lots of pomp and meticulous circumstance in their Centuries old set of customs and traditions. By Regiment. By Fort.

Here's a reenacting Tattoo that Dom Dal Bello had us perform at Camp Randall in 1998, in front of near 500 spectators.

1. Bugler sounded Recall to bring the boys back to camp (tavern just outside the camp gate was a rockin.....)

2. First Call sounded, Assembly of the Buglers, get dressed in your Frock Coats and Hardee Hats (2nd WVI Iron Brigade impression so not a problem).

3. Assembly, form by company on company streets.

4. To the Color sounded, form battalion on the color line.

5. Dress Parade, including trooping the color.

6. Inspirational message to the men thanking them for their 3 years service (this was the return of the 2nd to Camp Randall in 1864).

7. Tattoo sounded for roll call, men where wheeled by company to form a column of companies at full distance, roll call taken by first sergeants.
(officer's call held at the same time).

8. Attention Sounded. Forward March sounded, and the men were marched back to camp and dispersed for the night.

9. To Extinguish Lights sounded, followed by the Taps.

And then the Tornado warnings started to come in..... (the storm hit about 2AM by which time most of us had gone home or sought shelter in the Quonset hut like indoor track and baseball practice field Memorial Stadium).

Bruce & Emmet has a formal fife and drum tattoo.....consisting of many passages of rolls, The Troop, and various quick steps and melodies......

Lots of quotes of Band Concerts being performed with the men listening.....

Your mileage, and Tattoo ceremony, will vary.

RJ Samp

[QUOTE=The Pigman]I may be wrong but I always thought that tattoo was the call to tell the men to get ready for bed and Taps was for the men to tap out their pipes and go to sleep. We often forget the prevalence of pipe smoking in the Civil War.

Thanks,
Mark C. Foster

The "Taps" are from the Drum Beats that ended an Infantryman's day. A Tap is a drum rudiment (like a roll, flam, paradiddle, drag, ratamacue).

The word TATTOO for return to barracks ostensibly comes from the GERMAN practice of drinking bier at the local tavern until the bugler sounded the call to return to barracks. The bugle call is called the 'Zapfenstreich', literally a chalk stripe on the beer barrel. The innkeeper would hammer the wooden zapf into the bung of the beer barrel to shut down the dispensement of this golden nectar of the gods. A chalk stripe would be placed on the barrel to where the tap was lined up. If the tap moved before the official opening of business the next day the innkeeper was fined.

So the innkeeper would put the beer Tap To the line. TapTo [Tap toe]: Tattoo. The story is up on the web......I got my copy out of the West Point library.

who knows.

RJ Samp