Heritage Auctions will offer the bugle that played Taps at Abraham Lincoln’s funeral. 

Taps is a bugle call that was first played at US military funerals during the civil war. It has been a central part of the ritual ever since.

Ohioan officer Hiram Cook served as the bugler that day in 1865.

Bugler Hiram Cook played Taps during the president's funeral

He would later tell the Ohio Citizen: "At six o'clock (Thursday) morning, after a prayer by Dr. Gurley, members of the Cabinet, Navy Officials, and a number of other dignitaries followed the coffin to the railway station, where the funeral train waited to carry the body from Washington to Springfield.

“A great crowd of people had gathered for the last scene of the tragedy.

“They stood in absolute silence with uncovered heads, while I raised my bugle to my lips and sounded taps over the body of Abraham Lincoln."

The train slowed to a halt at a number of cities and towns along the way, to allow the people to pay their respects to Lincoln. At each stop, Cook would repeat the call.

He would play one last time at Lincoln's graveside. 

The bugle has passed down in Cook’s family ever since.

It’s expected to sell for more than $31,250 when it heads to auction in Heritage's Americana sale in Dallas on December 2.

We have these fragments of wallpaper from Lincoln’s bedroom in Springfield for sale.

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