• Boy Scout volunteers placing flags in the Andersonville National Cemetery for Memorial Day

    Andersonville

    National Historic Site Georgia

Echotaps at Andersonville NHS

Bugler blowing taps below a bronze and stone monument

NPS/Andersonville NHS

Bugler blowing taps at the Illinois Monument

On Armed Forces Day, the third Saturday of May, the solemn tune Taps will be sounded at every National Cemetery and U.S. Veterans Cemeteries worldwide at 11:00 a.m. This tribute to veterans is called Echotaps.

The public is encouraged to be at Andersonville National Historic Site to witness this unique tribute. The National Park Service maintains fourteen National Cemeteries nationwide. Two of these, Andersonville National Historic Site and Andrew Johnson National Historic Site are classified as active, continuing to bury veterans and their dependents. All National Cemeteries within the National Park Service will serve as host sites for this commemorative event.

In 2012 EchoTaps will occur in the National Cemetery on Saturday, May 19.

 

Resources:
Poster [PDF file]

Did You Know?

Monument showing the Shield of the Grand Army of the Republic at the historic prison site

The site of Andersonville prison was owned by both the Grand Army of the Republic and the Woman’s Relief Corp before being transferred to the federal government in 1910.  The prison site was administered, along with Andersonville National Cemetery, by the Department of the Army until 1971.