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POINTS TO REMEMBER:

the small organization known as the Signal Corps was founded after the U.S army needed better ways to communicate with their large population

Most of these communication methods were used UNTIL the invention of the telegraph

some people used trumpets as communication for short distance, some used employed runners to get messages to others from long distances (These seem like they can become not effective easily)

Albert J. Myer invented a way of communication in armies/battle fields for the deaf. This originally was made as words being spelled on one's cheek, hand, etc. Objects were used as well (Tables and things similar to that). The converted this language to flag and torch symbols. They were known was "Wigwag".

"Wigwag" required only one flag unlike other signaling with flags.

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The Birth of the Signal Corps

Effective communications have always been vital to military forces. Commanders must be able to maintain control over their units in order to fight successfully. By the mid-nineteenth century the extended battlefields created by more powerful weapons posed new challenges for military signaling. As armies grew larger and more complex, it became increasingly difficult to integrate their various components. For the U.S. Army, a small organization spread across a vast continent, geography provided an added impetus for the development of a means of rapid, long-distance military communication. In this milieu, the United States Army became the first army in the world to establish a separate communications branch, beginning with the appointment in 1860 of a signal officer to the Army staff in the War Department. This event marked the official origin of the US Army Signal Corps.
Early Military Signaling
A separate institution was not, of course, necessary for the act of communication. Armies had managed to transmit information throughout the millennia without the help of a signal corps. As long as military units remained relatively small and engaged in close-order combat, the commander's voice provided an adequate means for transmitting signals on the battlefield. From ancient times armies also used musical instruments, such as trumpets and bugles, as signaling devices. For long-distance communication commanders employed runners or mounted messengers. In 490 B.C. a Greek runner delivered the news of victory over the Persians at Marathon to Athens and then died from the exertion. (This heroic feat gave rise to the athletic event known as the marathon.) Other less strenuous signaling methods included the use of beacon fires and pigeons. With the development of gunpowder, firearms and cannon increased the size of the battlefield, but signaling techniques made few significant advances until the dawn of the electrical age.

During the American Revolution the Continental Army closely followed the organization and procedures of the British Army, including its signaling techniques. Fifers and drummers provided the field music-that is, the transmission of signals in battle. During the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben instituted the Continental Army's first system of drill procedures, which included standardized signals.1 After achieving indepen-

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dence, the US Army's signaling methods remained virtually unchanged until the invention of the electric telegraph in the 1840s. The new and still unreliable device saw limited service during the Mexican War (1846-1848). The quartermaster general, Brig. Gen. Thomas S. Jesup, for example, used the telegraph to communicate from his Washington office with the quartermaster offices in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. As a precautionary measure, however, he supplemented each telegram with a letter.2

European nations, meanwhile, moved more quickly to adopt new communication methods. In the 1790s Claude Chappe, a French engineer, invented a semaphore telegraph system that consisted of mechanical arms mounted on towers. The raising or lowering of the arms in the proper combinations indicated specific letters, words, or phrases. Using this system, messages could be exchanged over long distances in hours rather than days. The British, noting the success of the French system, constructed a telegraph employing pivoted shutters that were opened and closed by levers. Other countries, among them Germany, Sweden, and Russia, adopted their own optical telegraph systems.3

While European armies had not yet fully exploited the potential of electric telegraphy, the Crimean War provided a glimpse of its possibilities. By 1856 the Prussian Army had introduced the use of the telegraph. Meanwhile, a young doctor from New York who had recently entered the United States Army was destined to play a vital role in the further development of military communications.
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MYER IN 1854
Albert J. Myer-Father of the Signal Corps
While serving at Fort Duncan, Texas, in 1856, Myer wrote to Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and offered his signaling system to the War Department. Although he did not provide details as to the mechanics-perhaps because he had not yet fully worked them out-he did envision a means "to communicate between detachments of troops, marching or halted, or ships at sea in motion or at rest. . . ." Listing the general characteristics of his proposal, Myer explained that communication would be made "by day or by night, in wet or in dry weather, in fogs or in sunshine." The equipment would be "such as can be rapidly transported and used by one man mounted or on foot." As for personnel, only two men, a sender and a receiver, would ordinarily be required.11 Myer hoped to receive a formal hearing, and he secured the support of the Army's chief of engineers, Col. Joseph G. Totten. Myer's lack of specificity, however, cost him
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the attention of Secretary Davis, who wrote on his letter: "In the absence of more full information no opinion can be formed of the plan proposed."12

Myer began these trials in April 1859 at Fort Monroe, Virginia, later moving to New York Harbor; West Point, New York; and Washington, DC Several officers and enlisted men assisted him, chief of whom was 2d Lt. Edward Porter Alexander, who began working with Myer in October. By then Myer had developed a new code. A combination of numerals represented each letter of the alphabet, and he assigned numerical values to the movements of the flag or torch to each side of a central reference point. For example, a movement to the left could equal "1" and to the right, "2." To discern the message, the receiver interpreted the movements of the flag or torch in accordance with the code. The end of a word, sentence, or message was indicated by dipping the flag forward one or more times.15 During their three months of working together, Myer and Alexander communicated at distances up to fifteen miles and made some modifications to the equipment. In late November Myer reported to the War Department that the tests had "exceeded anticipation." Myer also suggested that if the Army adopted his signaling system he should be placed in charge of it.16 ( Figure 1)

The fate of Myer's plans now rested with the War Department and Congress. Secretary Floyd provided some encouragement by devoting two paragraphs of his annual report for 1859 to Myer's system, stating that "the plan proposed appears to be ready and reliable."17 Floyd subsequently recommended that Congress add a signal officer to the Army staff. As a result, Myer and Alexander appeared in February 1860 before the Senate Committee on Military Affairs. Jefferson Davis, now a senator from Mississippi, served as its chairman. While awaiting action by the Senate committee, Myer (who was proving to be a consummate behind-the-scenes politician) also received a hearing from the House Committee on Military Affairs, which unanimously recommended the appointment of a signal officer with the rank of major. On 29 March 1860 the House approved the Army appropriations bill for fiscal year 1861 with the following amendment attached:
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FIGURE 1-FLAG POSITIONS OF MYER'S ORIGINAL TWO-ELEMENT CODE*

For the manufacture or purchase of apparatus and equipment for field signals, $2000; and that there be added to the staff of the Army one signal officer, with the rank, pay, and allowance of a major of cavalry, who shall have charge, under the direction of the Secretary of War, of all signal duty, and all books, papers, and apparatus connected therewith.18

The bill then moved to the Senate where the amendment ran into opposition, notably that of Jefferson Davis. While Davis thought that Myer's signals should be used by the Army, he opposed the creation of the position of signal officer, believing that this appointment would lead to the establishment of a new department (which it ultimately did). Instead, signals should be placed within one of the existing departments. Despite Davis' objections, the Senate accepted the amendment, and President James Buchanan signed the appropriations bill into law on 21 June 1860. With this stroke of the pen, the US Army Signal Corps was born.19
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for the Southwest, Myer applied for a patent on his signaling system, which he received in January 18 Arriving at Santa Fe in October 1860, Myer was assigned to the staff of the departmental commander, Col. Thomas T. Fauntleroy, and was further assigned to duty in the field with troops commanded by Maj. Edward R. S. Canby. Myer's signal party consisted of two detailed officers, an enlisted assistant for each officer, and a mounted escort. Among the officers who served under Myer was 2d Lt. William J. L. Nicodemus, later to become chief signal officer. Myer and his men accompanied troops on campaign, maintaining communication between the columns, performing reconnaissance, and reporting by signals. The simplicity of the Myer system, with its lightweight, portable equipment, made it well suited to use in the rugged terrain under winter conditions.

Meanwhile, larger events were taking shape that would profoundly affect the future of Myer and his signals. By February 1861 seven southern states had seceded from the Union, and soon thereafter Jefferson Davis became the provisional president of the newly formed Confederate States of America. Shortly before Myer's relief from duty in New Mexico, the firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, by Confederate forces on 12 April 1861 proved to be the opening shots of the Civil War. Myer soon found himself back in Washington facing the challenge of his career: The time had come to test his signals in a full-scale conflict.
The Civil War Organization and Training
Having worked out the basic mechanics of his system, Myer prepared to furnish communications in the various theaters of war. At first, however, the signal officer had no personnel because the June 1860 legislation had not allowed for any. Therefore, the various field commanders had to detail officers and men to signal duty from their regular units. The detailed officers were known as acting signal officers, and the corps was sometimes referred to as the "acting signal corps." The detail system, however, possessed serious drawbacks for both the branch and its personnel. Myer's primary concern was the fact that the men could
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be called back to their units at any time. On the other hand, soldiers considered signal duty detrimental to their careers because they were not eligible for promotion while on detail.

These problems prompted Myer in August 1861 to submit draft legislation to Secretary of War Simon Cameron "for the organization of a signal corps to serve during the present war, and to have the charge of all the telegraphic duty of the Army." Myer proposed that every officer of the corps be trained in both aerial and electrical signals. His plan, based on an Army of 500,000 men, called for a force consisting of seven assistant signal officers-two captains and five lieutenants-plus forty warrant officers and forty signal artificers who would serve as line builders and repairmen. Myer intended that each division "be accompanied by its corps of telegraphists or signal men, and that it be equipped with suitable apparatus and the appurtenances for both fixed and movable field telegraph and for the use of aerial and electric signals."25 Myer, apparently influenced by Major Canby's arguments, now adopted the idea of a separate corps. Congress adjourned, however, before taking action, forcing the signal officer to continue his exertions to get the legislation passed.

Early in the war Myer "wore two hats," for he was also assigned in August 1861 as chief signal officer of the Army of the Potomac commanded by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan. As such he obtained officers and men from various regiments and sent them to signal training camps run by officers instructed at Fort Monroe. In late August Myer established a central training camp at Red Hill, Georgetown, DC, in the area now occupied by the former Soviet embassy. The original class comprised soldiers detailed from regiments of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps who were stationed nearby. Sgt. Luther C. Furst of the 10th Regiment was among the first to report there. In his diary he remarked upon the strict discipline maintained at the camp. "I suppose [we] will have a West Point life of it.... We are kept very busy drilling four hours a day in signaling besides attending to some 100 horses."28 In September the students from outlying camps joined those at Red Hill, and signal training was consolidated there. For the officers this meant learning the code and then practicing the sending and receiving of messages, using telescopes to read them at long distances. As a security precaution the enlisted men (or flagmen) were not given access to the code; they simply manipulated the flag or torch at an officer's direction. (Some, no doubt, managed to unravel the mysteries of the talking flags in the process.) The men also
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SIGNAL CORPSCAMP OF INSTRUCTION, RED HILL, GEORGETOWN, DC

received riding drill, for they were to be mounted and, armed with carbines, able to fight either on horseback or on foot. In the spring of 1862, when the Army of the Potomac embarked upon the Peninsula campaign, the drain on personnel led to the camp's closing. But Myer reopened it early the following year, and it remained in operation for the rest of the war.29

By this action Myer intended to recognize "every signal officer who shall skillfully and bravely carry in action and use his signal flag." The honorary flags displayed a star in the center, and each point of the star would be embroidered with the name of a battle in which the flag had been used. Due to the large number of engagements as the war continued, the Signal Corps determined that the flags would be decorated at the end of the conflict. Today the battle star is depicted on the Signal Corps regimental flag and insignia.32
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Myer now began a determined campaign to win legislative approval. He had resigned his field position as chief signal officer of the Army of the Potomac in October so that he could devote more attention to running the Corps and, no doubt, to his lobbying. He distributed copies of his 1862 annual report to the members of the House and Senate Committees on Military Affairs, the House Committee on Ways and Means, and various other influential congressmen. In late December he submitted to the secretary of war his third draft of an organizational bill. Receiving Stanton's approval, Myer then sent his proposal to both the House and Senate military committees. To promote his cause, Myer appeared before the Senate Committee on Military Affairs and solicited testimonials on the
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SECRETARY STANTON

usefulness of signals from important officers, such as McClellan. Myer also circulated petitions to acting signal officers in the field as a means by which they and the enlisted men on signal duty could demonstrate their support for the legislation.

In February 1863 a bill emerged from the Senate committee that provided for the organization of a Signal Corps during the "present rebellion." It created the position of chief signal officer, with the rank of colonel, who would be assisted by two clerks in the Washington office. Additional officers included a lieutenant colonel, two majors, a captain for each army corps or military department, and as many lieutenants (not more than eight) per corps or department as the president deemed necessary. The bill provided for one sergeant and six privates for each officer. The legislation also required entrance examinations for both officers and enlisted men in order to establish high technical standards for the branch. Furthermore, Regular Army officers appointed to the Signal Corps would be restored to their units after the war without the loss of rank or the right of promotion.

Myer's campaign must have been persuasive, for the bill passed the Senate without debate and then moved to the House, where its provisions were incorporated into the sundry civil appropriations bill. After approval by a conference committee and reconfirmation by both houses, President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill into law, with the signal provisions intact, on 3 March 1863. It was truly a signal victory.38

As specified in the legislation, candidates had to appear before an examining board in order to join the Signal Corps. Those already performing signal duties were not exempt from testing; if they failed, they returned to their regiments. One board, known as the central, or principal board, sat in Washington, and others convened in the various military departments. The boards examined potential signal officers in reading, writing, composition, arithmetic, elementary chemistry, natural philosophy, surveying, and topography. They also tested the prospective officers in the use and management of field signals. Current members received additional examination upon the operation of signal parties in the field and the preparation of reports. The boards questioned candidates for warrants on reading, writing, geography, and arithmetic. A separate, or revising, board reviewed the
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findings of the other boards and then submitted its reports to the secretary of war for approval. Of course, the possibility existed of being reduced in rank as a result of the examination, and the chief signal officer later reported "quite a number" of resignations for this reason. From the beginning the Signal Corps expected its soldiers to be highly qualified.39

On 28 April 1863 Myer appeared before the central board, which unanimously recommended him for the position of chief signal officer with the rank of colonel. He received the appointment, signed by Secretary Stanton, the following day, and he immediately accepted it. Since Congress was in recess, however, Myer's appointment could not be immediately confirmed by the Senate.40

The Military Academy introduced a course in signaling in July 1863, fulfilling a request repeatedly made by Myer since early in the war. Unfortunately, for reasons that are not clear, West Point discontinued the course the following year. Signal instruction continued at the US Naval Academy where it had been introduced in 1862 when the Navy adopted Myer's signals.41 In July 1864 Myer issued a General Service Code to facilitate communication between the Army and the Navy. ( Table 1)

Even more important was the publication in 1864 of the first edition of Myer's A Manual of Signals: For the Use of Signal Officers in the Field, which codified signal doctrine for the first time. In it he discussed at length the principles of signaling and included a section on the history of signals, tracing the origins of military communication to the writings of the Greek historian Polybius, who had described a system in which the letters of the alphabet were transmitted by means of lighted torches. This manual, subsequently revised and expanded, remained the basis of signal doctrine for many years.42
Signal Equipment and Methods
The regulation signal equipment carried by a signal officer during the Civil War comprised three parts: the kit, the canteen, and the haversack. The canvas kit contained the flags, staffs, torches, a torch case, and a wormer used to extract the wick if it became lodged inside the torch. These were rolled together and bound by straps. The copper canteen carried one half-gallon of turpentine or other flammable fluid to fuel the torches. The haversack housed wicking, matches, pliers, shears, a funnel, two flame shades, and a wind shade. All three pieces had shoulder straps by which the officer could carry them. ( Figure 2)

The flags came in seven varieties of colors and sizes to provide optimal visibility under prevailing conditions. Light colors were used to signal against dark backgrounds and vice versa. Made of cotton, linen, or another lightweight fabric, the types were:

6' x 6', white, with red center, 2' x 2'
6' x 6', black, with white center, 2' x 2'
4' x 4', white, with red center, 16" x 16"
4' x 4', black, with white center, 16" x 16"
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TABLE 1-GENERAL SERVICE CODE*

4' x 4', red, with white center, 16" x 16"
2'x 2', white, with red center, 8" x 8"
2'x 2', red, with white center, 8" x 8"

The flags were tied to a hickory staff constructed in four-foot jointed sections. The Signal Corps most commonly used four-foot flags attached to a twelve-foot staff, with white being the most versatile color. Red flags were generally used at sea. Under exceptional circumstances when a flagman had to seek shelter while signaling, or did not want to attract the enemy's attention, he used the two-foot flag, known as the "action flag."

Signal torches were copper cylinders, eighteen inches long and one and one-half inches in diameter. The torch used cotton wicking, and the flagman attached it to the staff by clamp-rings and screws. The flame shade, a circular piece of copper, prevented the flame from traveling down the side of the torch. The signalman also used a wind shade, consisting of copper strips, when necessary. The foot torch, used as a reference point, was similar in structure but slightly wider. When flags or torches were not appropriate, signalmen could send messages by means of rockets or colored lights.43

Officers carried telescopes for reading signals at long distances and used binoculars or field glasses for reading messages at distances of four miles or less. (The latter were also useful on shipboard where the movement interfered with
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FIGURE 2-REGULATION SIGNAL EQUIPMENT
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telescopes.) Signal officers' equipment also included pocket compasses for reconnaissance and the locating of signal stations as well as notebooks for keeping a record of the messages sent and received.

Signal stations consisted of two types-communication and observation-but one station could serve both purposes. A distinguishing call sign, a letter or combination of letters, was assigned to each station. Each signal officer, likewise, had a call or signature by which his messages could be identified.46 Careful site selection proved especially important to avoid such obstacles as dust or rows of tents. Signal officers often used trees as stations and, according to the signal manual:

In some cases soldiers constructed special towers as signal platforms. Church steeples and other tall buildings also made good stations. While the Union Army often used balloons for reconnaissance early in the Civil War, they never came under the Signal Corps' auspices during the conflict. The Army employed civilian aeronauts, of whom Thaddeus S. C. Lowe is the best known. Signal officers, however, sometimes made observations from aloft and relayed the information to the ground using flags or the electric telegraph.48

Myer was already knowledgeable about electric telegraphy when he became signal officer in 1860 because of his experience as an operator in Buffalo. This background may explain why he interpreted his duties under the 1860 legislation to include electrical signaling. Another factor may have been the formation early in the war of an organization known as the US Military Telegraph. Despite its name, the Military Telegraph employed civilian operators, and its supervisory personnel received military commissions in the Quartermaster Department so
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that they could disburse funds and property. Anson Stager, an official of the Western Union Telegraph Company, became its general manager. After President Lincoln took control of the nation's commercial telegraph lines in February 1862, they became available for use by Stager's organization.49

The fact that the Military Telegraph functioned independently of the army commanders it was supposed to serve created potential problems of command and control. Only the operators themselves knew the cipher codes used to transmit messages, and even President Lincoln, a frequent visitor to the War Department telegraph office, was denied access to them.52 The placement of electric telegraphy under the Signal Corps could have alleviated this situation and provided a more closely coordinated communication system. Failing that, a reasonable compromise would have been to place tactical communications under the Signal Corps and leave strategic lines with the Military Telegraph.

In June 1861 Myer first sought to gain control over electric telegraphy in addition to aerial signals. Such a request merited consideration, because Myer's visual signaling system was restricted to use in good weather over relatively open terrain with favorable atmospheric conditions. Message transmission by flag or torch was also slow, averaging about three words per minute with a range of ten to fifteen miles. By contrast, electrical signals were faster and less affected by the weather.53

When using the term train, Myer was not referring to a vehicle that ran along tracks, but to light wagons drawn by horses. The wagons carried the telegraph sets and other necessary items, such as reels of insulated copper wire and iron lances, for stringing temporary field lines-called "flying telegraph lines." Each
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train was to be equipped with five miles of wire and two wagons, each with a telegraph instrument.56 In battle, one wagon remained at the starting point as a receiving station, while the other traveled into the field with the sending instrument.

Myer contracted with Henry J. Rogers, a telegraphic engineer from New York City, to construct a model train. Rogers had assisted Samuel E B. Morse in building the first commercial telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore in 1844, and his arrangement with Myer began a tradition of civilian-military cooperation in the development of signal equipment that continues to this day.

In January 1862 Rogers delivered the model to the Georgetown signal camp. He had adapted the conventional Morse telegraph instrument for field use by replacing the sending key and the sound receiver with a dial indicator. The indicator consisted of a circular index plate bearing the letters of the alphabet and a pointer that was turned to the letter to be transmitted. A similar pointer spelled out the message at the receiving end. This adaptation eliminated the need for skilled operators with a knowledge of Morse code and required only the ability to read and write. To provide power, Rogers had designed a galvanic battery that eliminated the danger of acid spills.57

Shortly after the train's arrival in Georgetown a board of three signal officers examined it, and on 25 February they issued a generally favorable report. The examiners tested two miles of wire laid by the train and found that it "transmitted the galvanic current uninterruptedly." Even the passage of heavily laden wagons over the wire did not damage it. The officers concluded that the train was satisfactory for experimental purposes but that Rogers needed to make the mechanical portions more durable for field service. Overall, they believed that such a train would be of great use as an auxiliary to the permanent telegraph lines.58

The telegraph train received its first field test during the Peninsula campaign. In May 1862 a detachment from the Georgetown signal camp took a modified train to Myer in the field. For this model Rogers had substituted a new type of telegraph instrument, the invention of George W Beardslee of New York City. The Beardslee magneto-electric telegraph required no heavy, acid-filled batteries; rather, the turning of a crank generated current by revolving a set of magnets. Rogers had retained the dial indicator, however. In its final form the Beardslee telegraph was housed in a wooden chest with handles and weighed about one hundred pounds.59

Signal Corpsmen primarily employed visual signals during the Peninsula campaign, but they used the telegraph train on a limited basis to connect general headquarters with the field. Messages received at the field telegraph from visual stations were transmitted to headquarters, providing coordination between the visual and electrical systems. As the French and British had discovered in the Crimea, the novelty of the telegraph line brought some unforeseen problems. Curious soldiers cut off pieces of the wire for examination, and some evidently thought the wire to be an enemy device. To prevent tampering, patrols were stationed along the line.
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BEARDSLEE TELEGRAPH

In his report covering the operations on the Peninsula, General McClellan spoke highly of the Signal Corps' services, including its field telegraph:
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While McClellan's conception of the Signal Corps as a supplement to the Military Telegraph probably did not entirely please Myer, it is nonetheless clear that the Corps performed satisfactorily in the general's view.

The telegraph train received more extensive use in December 1862 during the battle of Fredericksburg where fog and smoke from the burning town often impeded visual signaling. Telegraph lines connected Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, who now commanded the Army of the Potomac, with the headquarters of the commanders of grand divisions (consisting of two or more corps), Maj. Gen. Edwin V Sumner and Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin, and with the supply base at Belle Plain, seven and one-half miles away. On 13 December, the main day of the battle, Signal Corpsmen, while under fire, extended a line across the Rappahannock River into the town of Fredericksburg in twenty minutes. The successful use of the telegraph during this battle enabled Myer to secure funds for additional trains, and by late 1863 thirty of them were in service throughout the Army.61

The Signal Corps' success, however, exacerbated the still unsettled issue of control over electric telegraphy. Both the Signal Corps and the Military Telegraph were operating lines in the field. Congress failed to solve the problem in the legislation organizing the Corps in 1863, because it did not specify the branch's duties. Secretary Stanton, however, sympathized with the civilians and in his 1863 annual report wrote of placing restrictions upon the duties of signal officers. Although he did not elaborate, it is reasonable to assume that he did not consider electric telegraphy to be a Signal Corps function. At the same time, he praised the services of the Military Telegraph. General Manager Stager, meanwhile, reporting on the Military Telegraph's activities, lauded the secretary in print.62

Concurrently, the technical limitations of the Beardslee device created serious problems for the Signal Corps. At the battle of Chancellorsville, in the spring of 1863, the Corps had to relinquish some of its lines to the Military Telegraph to operate with its more powerful machines. The Beardslee's revolving magnets could not generate enough electricity to transmit signals more than about five to eight miles. Therefore, it alone could not connect the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, situated on the south side of the Rappahannock, with his chief of staff, General Butterfield, at general headquarters over ten miles away on the other side of the river. Using both electrical and visual signals, the Signal Corps took three hours to deliver messages between them. To make matters worse, many of the Corps' operators were new, and the telegraph wire itself was in poor condition, having been in constant use for several months. The system broke down completely when Hooker and Butterfield overloaded it, sending more messages than the officers and equipment could handle, and obliging the Military Telegraph to take over. Even with this change, the inadequacy of the Union's field communications contributed to the failure of the Chancellorsville campaign.63

Despite the mitigating circumstances, the Signal Corps could not escape the fact that the Beardslee system had considerable technical shortcomings. The ten-
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THE SIGNAL TELEGRAPH TRAIN AS USED AT THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG

dency for the sending and receiving index pointers to get out of synchronization and thereby transmit garbled messages posed yet another difficulty, and much time was lost by sending the machines back to New York for repair. Clearly, something drastic had to be done.

By the autumn of 1863 Myer had decided to convert the Beardslee machines to use Morse keys and sounders, but it was a calculated risk. Morse telegraphs required trained operators, and the recruitment process placed Myer in direct competition with the Military Telegraph for personnel. In September 1863 Myer placed a series of advertisements in the Army and Navy Official Gazette calling for expert telegraphers to apply for commissions in the Signal Corps. Because he had not cleared these notices with the secretary of war, he incurred Stanton's wrath. On 22 September Assistant Secretary of War W. A. Nichols wrote a letter to Myer informing him that his actions had been "irregular and improper" and reminding him to "bear in mind that the Signal Corps is not an independent organization, but a branch of the Service under the direction of the War Department."64 Stager, meanwhile, reacted by recommending to Stanton that all field telegraphs be placed under the direction of the Military Telegraph.65The crisis culminated in Stanton's removal of Myer as chief signal officer on 10 November 1863. The secretary turned all telegraph apparatus over to Stager and relegated Myer to duty in Memphis, Tennessee.66

After his dismissal, Myer met with Stager in an attempt to establish a working relationship between their respective organizations. They reached an agreement, but it was never put into effect; perhaps if Myer had made such an overture two years earlier, he would not have found himself in virtual exile.67

Ironically, after all the controversy, the Military Telegraph never used the Beardslee machines it acquired from the Signal Corps. The civilian telegraphers considered them unreliable and an "expensive failure.68 For the remainder of the
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war the Military Telegraph and its Morse equipment provided telegraphic support for the Union Army. For field service, the Military Telegraph adopted Myer's telegraphic train technique. According to Stager's annual report for 1866, the Military Telegraph constructed a total of 15,389 miles of field, land, and submarine lines.69 Despite the abandonment of the Beardslee, the Signal Corps deserves credit for developing the first portable, rugged, electrical communication system designed for the battlefield. The machines used in the signal telegraph train were the ancestors of the sophisticated battlefield communication devices used by the Army today.

With Myer's departure, Maj. William J. L. Nicodemus became acting chief signal officer. A native of Maryland and a West Point graduate, class of 1858, Nicodemus' first signaling assignment had come when he assisted Myer during the New Mexico campaign in 1861. He returned to signal duty in February 1863 as commander of the Georgetown training camp, and the following September he was appointed to one of the two majorities in the Signal Corps. Upon becoming chief, he took command of a branch that had grown to include approximately two hundred officers and one thousand enlisted men.70 Like Myer before him, however, Nicodemus soon ran afoul of Secretary of War Stanton. His transgression consisted of printing copies of his 1864 annual report on the Signal Corps' press and distributing them in pamphlet form without the secretary's approval. Because the report revealed the fact that the Corps could read the enemy's signals, Stanton
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considered it a breach of security, and he dismissed Nicodemus, now a lieutenant colonel, from the Army in December 1864.71

In the wake of Nicodemus' removal, Col. Benjamin F. Fisher took command of the Signal Corps. Fisher had been captured near Aldie, Virginia, in June 1863, while serving as chief signal officer of the Army of the Potomac, and he spent the next eight months in Libby Prison. After a harrowing escape in the middle of winter, he returned to his former duties. As the US Army's chief signal officer, Fisher managed to avoid Stanton's ire and retained his position into the postwar period.72
Wartime Operations
Signal Corpsmen served throughout the Union Army, with the largest number of officers assigned to the Army of the Potomac and the Departments of the Cumberland and the Tennessee. When Myer was chief signal officer of the Army of the Potomac, he urged that signal personnel be centralized and that the chief signal officer of the army, after obtaining details of coming operations at headquarters, direct the signal parties to wherever they were needed. Instead, commanding generals usually determined the employment of the signal parties, most often assigning them to army or corps headquarters. When inclement weather or unfavorable terrain made visual signaling impossible, signal officers often served commanders as aides.73

In the field, confusion over how best to employ signal personnel had been evident from the start. During the war's first major encounter, the battle of Bull Run, the chief signal officer reached the battlefield, but the Union Signal Corps did not. Myer had intended to command a balloon detachment at Manassas, but a delay in the receipt of his orders left him with little time for preparation. Although he requested signal personnel from Fort Monroe to assist him, there was not enough time for them to reach Washington before the fighting began. Consequently, the eve of the battle found Myer rushing toward Manassas with a balloon and a detachment of twenty men from the 26th Pennsylvania Infantry. In their haste, the balloon became caught in some trees and was badly damaged.
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CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER MYER (ENINSULA CAMPAIGN STANDING) DURING THE P

Abandoning the sphere, Myer continued to the battlefield where he served as an aide to Brig. Gen. Daniel Tyler. During this engagement at Bull Run, the Union Army relied solely upon the services of the Military Telegraph, which provided administrative support only.76
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The Union forces retreated to a line of hills south of Gettysburg where they were joined by heavy reinforcements and the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade. By midmorning on 2 July, Union signal officers had established communication between General Meade and his corps commanders. They had located stations at key positions along the Union line: Cemetery Hill, Culp's Hill, Power's Hill, Little Round Top, and the Leister House, where Meade made his headquarters.

Little Round Top proved a particularly important location because it offered a panoramic view of the battlefield, and signalmen were the first Union troops to occupy the strategic hilltop. Just before noon on 2 July, Lieutenant Jerome (now
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GENERAL WARREN AT THE SIGNAL STATION ON LITTLE ROUND TOP

The new signal party included Sgt. Luther C. Furst, flagman for Capt. Edward C. Pierce, a signal officer attached to the VI Corps. Like those before him, Furst faced the dangers of the exposed position. Fighting became very heavy on 3 July, with shell, shot, and shrapnel filling the air. The deadly aim of the sharpshooters in Devil's Den at the foot of the hill prevented Furst from using his flag. Furst noted in his diary that seven men had been wounded or killed that day near the station. Unable to send visual signals, Furst acted as a mounted courier to Meade's headquarters. Warned that he would never make it through, Furst defied the odds and delivered his message. The following morning, Furst reported the situation to be "all quiet," as the Confederates withdrew from the field in defeat.86
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In his report of the campaign Captain Norton also cited the services on 3 July of Capt. Davis E. Castle, who operated from the signal station at the Leister House. On that day the Confederates launched a massive assault against the Union center, known as Pickett's charge, in which Alexander commanded the artillery. After all others had abandoned the signal station during the onslaught, including his flagman, who left with the signaling equipment, Captain Castle remained on duty, sending messages with a bedsheet attached to a pole.89

During the Gettysburg campaign, some authorities in Washington feared that the capital might be attacked. Personnel from the Georgetown signal camp, and even those working in the signal office, were called out to observe and report on rebel movements. Among the signal stations established was one in the unfinished Capitol dome. A more serious threat to the capital occurred during Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's raid in 1864. At that time signal stations were set up in most of the forts surrounding the city. While the Confederates never launched a full-scale attack, skirmishing did take place at Fort Stevens, where the signal officer narrowly escaped being killed.90

Not all signaling occurred on land. During the joint Army-Navy operations in 1863 to open navigation on the Mississippi River, Army signalmen maintained communication between ship and shore. When Rear Adm. David Farragut ran his fleet past the defenses of Port Hudson, Louisiana, in March, signal officers high in the mastheads kept the vessels in contact with each other. They continued on duty throughout the siege of that city that ended with its fall on 9 July. Signal officers provided similar service at Vicksburg, Mississippi, where the garrison surrendered the day after the Union victory at Gettysburg.91

Having finally achieved formal existence, the Signal Corps continued to gain recognition and use by commanders during the final two years of the war. One of the most famous instances occurred in October 1864 at Allatoona, Georgia, a battle that marked the end of the fighting around Atlanta. Allatoona, about thirty miles northwest of Atlanta, was the site of a strategic railroad pass through the mountains, as well as a supply base for Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's army group. Moreover, the capture of Allatoona Pass by the Confederates would cut off Sherman's communications to the north. A small force under the command of Lt. Col. John E. Tourtellotte, 4th Minnesota Infantry, defended the position. After a signal officer atop Kennessaw Mountain, about eighteen miles south of Allatoona, spotted enemy movement toward the latter place, General Sherman called to Brig. Gen. John B. Corse at Rome, Georgia, north of Allatoona, to reinforce the threatened garrison. Lt. Charles H. Fish, stationed at Kennessaw, relayed
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the message by flag signals to the station at Allatoona, from which it was transmitted via telegraph and locomotive (the telegraph wires having been cut) to Rome.92 Messages sent to the garrison at Allatoona during the ensuing siege reputedly inspired the song "Hold the Fort," which became famous as a gospel hymn and later served as an anthem of the labor movement.93 On 4 October Brig. Gen. William Vandever signaled to Tourtellotte from Kennessaw that: "Sherman is moving in force. Hold out." Later that day another message read: "General Sherman says hold fast. We are coming." The following day Tourtellotte received a third message from Kennessaw. "Tell Allatoona hold on. General Sherman says he is working hard for you."94 Fortunately, Corse arrived in time, and despite heavy fighting on 5 October, in which members of the Signal Corps participated, the position held.95

Ironically, Sherman did not place a great deal of reliance on the Signal Corps. In his memoirs he commented that he had "little faith in the signal service by flags and torches, though we always used them; because, almost invariably when they were most needed, the view was cut off by intervening trees, or by mists and fogs." The one notable exception was at Allatoona "when the signal flags carried a message of vital importance over the heads of Hood's army." Sherman placed his faith in the magnetic telegraph and felt that the commercial lines would "always supply for war enough skillful operators."96

During the war years not all signal parties operated against the Confederates. In the spring of 1865 signal officers accompanied the Powder
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River expedition to Wyoming and Montana, commanded by Brig. Gen. Patrick E. Connor. Seeking out Indians who were attacking travel and communication lines, Connor used signals to communicate between the troop columns.97

Because of the nature of its duties, the Signal Corps provided fewer opportunities for heroic acts of bravery on the battlefield of the type for which medals are usually bestowed. While perhaps not glamorous, signal duty proved to be especially hazardous, with a ratio of killed to wounded of 150 percent.98 The Signal Corps had one Medal of Honor winner, Pvt. Morgan D. Lane, who entered the Signal Corps in 1864 as a second-class private and served with the Army of the Potomac. In the spring of 1865 he was attached to Headquarters, V Corps, as the orderly of Lt. P H. Niles, a Signal Corps officer. On 6 April 1865, near Jetersville, Virginia, during Lee's retreat from Petersburg, Niles, Lane, and an engineer officer captured several members of the crew of the Confederate gunboat Nansemond. In the process, Lane captured the Nansemond's flag, a feat that during the Civil War warranted recognition by the Medal of Honor.99 Three days after Lane's accomplishment Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, bringing the war to an end.
The Confederate Signal Corps
The Signal Corps of the United States Army and its rival the Military Telegraph did not monopolize the field of Civil War communications. The Confederate Army had a signal corps of its own, thanks to the knowledge possessed by Edward P Alexander, Myer's able assistant in his early testing of wigwag. Alexander was a native of Georgia and ranked third in his class of 1857 at West Point. When the Civil War broke out, he resigned his commission in the United States Army and accepted one in the Confederate Army as a captain of engineers. Because Jefferson Davis was aware of Alexander's work with Myer, he sent the talented captain to Manassas, Virginia, to set up a system of signals for the forces under the command of Brig. Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard.100

In April 1862 the Confederate Congress authorized the establishment of a signal corps-a year before the US Congress passed such legislation. Alexander apparently declined an offer to lead the new organization, and Capt. William Norris, a Yale-educated lawyer from Maryland, took command.103 Norris had pre-
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Because of its clandestine nature, much of the work of the Confederate Signal Corps is shrouded in secrecy. Moreover, most of the documentary record of its activities has been lost. The Confederate government burned its records upon the fall of Richmond, and a subsequent fire at Norris' home destroyed most of his personal papers.110
The Signal Corps Survives Its Baptism of Fire
In its wartime debut, the Signal Corps did not contribute significantly to the Union's victory. Yet its presence on the battlefield was important, because it
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marked the beginning of a new era in military communications. The Signal Corps' birth in 1860 coincided with technological advances that were drastically altering the nature of warfare and would ultimately make communications an integral part of the combat team. The increased range and accuracy of rifled weapons enlarged the killing zone and made close-order tactics suicidal. With his troops widely dispersed, a commander could no longer control them with his voice alone. Transmitting orders by messenger was slow, and couriers were extremely vulnerable to enemy action. The situation demanded new methods of tactical signaling, and Myer's wigwag system helped to bridge this communication gap. Before the invention of the telephone and the radio, the soldier possessed no tactical communication device that he could carry onto the battlefield. Wigwag, despite its limitations, enabled signalmen to communicate between prominent points on or near the battlefield and the commander's headquarters. The portability of the equipment permitted its use on horseback and on shipboard as well.

While the electric telegraph had received some combat testing by European armies, it had by no means been perfected as a tactical communication device in 1861. With his development of the field telegraph train, Myer attempted to adapt the telegraph to the needs of a mass, mobile army. At the same time, the creation of the Military Telegraph, of which Secretary of War Stanton tightly held the reins, placed a powerful competitor in the field. No doubt Stanton's inability to control the operations of the Signal Corps contributed to his stormy relationship with Myer. Moreover, the Signal Corps could not expect to compete with the established commercial lines for strategic communications, and its Beardslee machines proved no match for the Morse instruments used by the civilian operators. Consequently, the Corps lost both Myer and electrical communications after November 1863. Yet, with the end of the war, the Military Telegraph ceased to exist and the Signal Corps survived.111

Albert Myer may have been stubborn and contentious, but he was also resourceful. Through determination and hard work he succeeded in establishing an important branch of the Army. At the outset, the Signal Corps' birth may have seemed premature: Both Congress and the Army resisted the idea. No other army in the world contained such an organization, and the need for a specialized communications branch was not generally recognized. As with many novel endeavors, Myer's efforts met with mixed results, but they were not futile. Although the Signal Corps' military role and mission remained largely undefined when the Civil War ended in 1865, the foundation for its future achievements had been laid. The Civil War experience made possible the expansion of an organization consisting of a signal officer and temporary assistants into a Signal Corps that was part of the permanent military establishment.
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Return to Table of Contents
Go to Endnotes Chapter II

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The Birth of the Signal Corps Effective communications have always been vital to military forces. Commanders must be able to maintain control over their units in order to fight successfully. By the mid-nineteenth century the extended battlefields created by more powerful weapons posed new challenges for military signaling.

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An Innovative Technology of War

Armies through the ages used drums, trumpets, and banners to communicate on the battlefield. These methods were used in the American Civil War as well. However, during the Civil War, both armies introduced a new signal technology that permitted rapid communication across the battlefield and farther. The new system used flags or torches to talk to each other. With signal stations on the field and surrounding ridges, the U.S. Signal Corps operated throughout the Battle of Antietam, not only sending messages, but also observing behind the Confederate lines.

Maj. Albert Myer

Wig Wag: The Army's "talking flags"

A signal system using flags and torches was invented by a U.S. Army surgeon, Major Albert Myer, in the 1850's and adopted by the U.S. Army in 1860. Myer's system permitted messages to be sent across areas where telegraph wires were unavailable. To the untrained observer, the flagman appeared to be merely waving a flag back and forth, hence the name "wig wag." Myer became the U.S. Army's first chief signal officer. Myer's assistant during the development of the wig wag system was an exceptional young officer named Lt. E. Porter Alexander. Alexander was a Georgian who resigned his commission in the U.S. Army to fight for the Confederates. He helped organize, equip, and train the Confederate Signal Service. Thus both armies used essentially the same signal system, so encoding messages became critical.

Cipher Disk

Codes and Ciphers

Two forms of code were used: initially a four-element code and later, a two-element code. In the four-element code, movements of the flag conveyed the numerals 1, 2, 3, or 4 which were grouped to stand for letters and sometimes words or phrases. The letter "B" might be "1423," for example. By the end of the war, a two-element code was in use. Letters were formed using just the numerals 1 and 2, as dots and dashes were used in telegraphy. A "1" was indicated by moving the flag from the vertical to the sender's left: a "2" indicated by waving to the sender's right. So "A" might be "12" or "X" sent as "1221." The motion of the flag was an integral aspect of the wig wig system enhancing readability of the signal.

To encrypt the message, a signal disk made of two disks of brass or cardboard was used. One contained the alphabet, the other numeral combinations. By rotating the disk and changing the alignment of the numbers and letters, the codes could be easily changed.

Sending a message with signal flags

Flags, Torches and Telescopes

Signal parties used different combinations of flag size, color, and staff length to increase the readability of the signal. Signal kits issued by the U.S. Army included seven different flags in three different sizes--2'x2', 4'x4', and 6'x6'. The 2-foot flag, permitted sending a signal over short distances in tactical situations where the flagman had to lie down or signal from cover. The 4-foot flag was the most commonly used. The 6-foot flag was employed for extra long distances. Color combinations were, red or black with a white center square and white with a red center square. In any given situation the color selected was that which gave the best contrast to the background. The flag staff was made of hickory in 4-foot sections.

Myer's Manual of Signals stated that with a 12-foot staff and 4-foot flag, signals "are easily read at a distance of 8 miles at all times, except in cases of fog or rain. They are read at 15 miles on days and nights ordinarily clear."

Special torches, fueled with turpentine, were used to send signals at night. One torch was placed in the ground. A flying torch was mounted on the end of the signal staff. By moving the flying torch form side to side relative to the motionless foot torch, the "1" or "2" could be read.

Telescopes and field glasses were an essential part of a signal party's equipment. Union officers were accountable for their equipment and were under strict orders not to let any fall into enemy hands.

Signal Corp Detachment on Elk Ridge overlooking Antietam Battlefield
Library of Congress

A Signal Party on Duty in the Field

A U.S. Army signal party could be as small as an officer and two privates. This ratio of officers to men is evident in Alexander Gardner's photograph taken of the signal detachment on Elk Mountain east of the battlefield a few weeks after the battle. There are three officers and six enlisted men.

Only the officer understood the code, and he was responsible for encoding and decoding messages. The enlisted men would flag the signals and assist in reading incoming signals which were given to the officer for translation. Signalmen were selected by examinations and were generally more educated. Commissioned officers were tested in reading and writing, composition, arithmetic, chemistry, natural philosophy, surveying and topography.

Not only were they expected to serve as communicators, they also assisted commanders with reconnaissance and surveillance by virtue of their location at high points on the terrain and their mobility. The life of a signalman could be behind the lines enjoying good food and the comfort of a commander's headquarters-or in advance of the army exposed to the elements in remote and isolated locations, experiencing hardship and danger.

Signal Stations During the Battle

There were several U.S. signal stations on or near the Antietam Battlefield. The most important, under Lt. Joseph Gloskoski, was located on Elk Mountain overlooking the field from the east. Lt. Gloskoski reported that during the battle he communicated with at least five different stations on the field. These were General McClellan's headquarters at the Pry House; General Burnside's headquarters on the Union left; and General Hooker's headquarters on the Union right. Additionally, he refers to "two stations in the center of our lines." One of these was possibly at the Roulette farm. The other may have been the station situated near the Miller farm.

Gloskoski's Elk Mountain station sent the most famous signal of the battle. Late in the afternoon this party observed Lt. General A.P. Hill's division of Confederates approaching the battlefield after its long march from Harpers Ferry. The Elk Mountain station sent an urgent message to Gen. Burnside, "Look well to your left. The enemy are moving a strong force in that direction."

Confederate signalman were also active during the battle and official maps of the battlefield indicate a CSA signal station was located behind the West Woods.

Union signal station at Antietam
Library of Congress

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The Signal Corps - Antietam National Battlefield (U.S. National Park Service)

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Armies through the ages used drums, trumpets, and banners to communicate on the battlefield. These methods were used in the American Civil War as well. However, during the Civil War, both armies introduced a new signal technology that permitted rapid communication across the battlefield and farther.

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When Albert J. Myer wrote his doctoral thesis A New Sign Language for Deaf Mutes in 1851, he could not have foreseen the impact it would have on battlefield communications 10 years later. After receiving his commission as a surgeon in the United States Army in 1854, Myer was sent to Texas, where, in addition to practicing medicine, he continued his experiments in signaling. He eventually came up with a system using one flag, with the position of the flag indicating a specific number. The numbers would be combined in a sequence that would equal a letter. For example, the letter B is 1-2-2-1. In 1858, the Army expressed interest in Myer's system, and after extensive testing, the United States Signal Corps was born, with Myer appointed as major and chief signal officer. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Myer was tasked with recruiting and training officers and establishing schools of instruction. By the end of the war, the Signal Corps consisted of almost 300 officers and 2,500 soldiers.

To serve in the Signal Corps, candidates had to pass a strict exam consisting of reading, writing, arithmetic, surveying, and topography. Once chosen, the soldier was assigned to a signal party, usually consisting of one officer and several privates. The officer was responsible for encoding and decoding signals, while the privates would wave the flag and observe incoming messages. The soldiers were all mounted and could move quickly from place to place. The equipment they needed, including several different sizes of flags, torches for night signaling, and telescopes, could be quickly packed up and transported on horseback. The average distance that signals were sent and received was from 8 to 15 miles, depending on weather conditions. Stations would often be set up in a relay system, ending at a location with access to a telegraph.

One of the earliest uses of the Signal Corps was at the battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. Several signal stations were established in the Sharpsburg, Maryland area, including one on Elk Ridge, and one at the Pry House, which was used by Union General George McClellan. These stations sent messages to commanders on the field and observed and reported the movements of the Confederate army. The most important signal of the battle was sent to General Ambrose Burnside warning of the approach of Confederate General A.P. Hill's troops from Harpers Ferry. Information on the progress of the battle was relayed to Washington D.C. via a series of stations set up from the Pry House to South Mountain to Middletown to Frederick, Maryland. Once received in Frederick, the message was then telegraphed to Washington. Using this system, President Lincoln was able to receive updates from the battlefield in just 30 minutes.

After the battle of Chancellorsville, in May 1863, the Signal Corps started to employ cipher disc coding systems when sending messages. The Confederate army had the same signal system, and it was not uncommon for each side to read the other's messages. Two discs made of brass or cardboard were used. One disc was inscribed with the alphabet and the other with the numeral combinations that represented letters. When the disc was rotated, the alignment of numbers and letters could be changed. The Union often changed its discs daily, while the Confederate army rarely switched. As a result, the Union code was never cracked.

During the battle of Gettysburg, in July 1863, the Signal Corps established a station on Little Round Top and reported the movements of Confederate troops. Due to their high visibility, the signal party suffered severe casualties from Confederate artillery and sniper fire.

The Signal Corps continued to relay information after the battle, when they followed the retreating Confederates through Pennsylvania, Maryland, and back into Virginia. 2 nd Lt. Julius M. Swain was ordered to establish signal stations in the Washington County, Maryland area. Swain related his experience in a letter to a friend:
At 12, Capt. D. [Daniels] came on and ordered me with him to front where we ran a station all day and night. Our friends sent us several remembrances in the way of shot and shells which made me feel a little white at times but no one was hurt in our party. Next morning Capt N. [Nicodemus] left me on station but learned that the rebs were in fine retreat on Hagerstown and I followed with party, arriving there at 10am just as the devils were leaving town and shelling our advance in fine style. By 12M I had a grand station where I could see all the enemy's movements on our right and the flag was not exposed to his sharpshooters. Remained there till the morning of the 14th and sent several messages some of which were telegraphed to Washington and most of them were sent either to Gen Meade or the Corps commanders. On my way to Williamsport on the morning of the 14th captured three rebs representing No. Carolina, Va., Georgia. With immense courage and a deal of strategy I surrounded three as willing captives as ever surrendered. One had a loaded carbine which I took and shall send home if possible. They were tired of war and had not been happy for a long time till in the hands of their enemies. I treated them just as I would any man and on our arrival in W. [Williamsport] handed them over to the Provost M. [Marshal] . . .
The Signal Corps continued to play an important role for the rest of the war, taking part in all the major battles and covering General Sherman's march to the sea. After the fall of Richmond, Virginia in April 1865, the first Union message was sent by the Corps from the roof of the Confederate Capitol building.

Albert J. Myer was eventually promoted to the rank of Brevet Brigadier General in recognition of his role in forming the Signal Corps. Because of Myer's interest in storm telegraphy, the Signal Corps was authorized by the United States Congress in 1870 to conduct "meteorological observations at the military stations in the interior of the continent and at other points in the states and territories of the United States, and for giving notice on the northern lakes and seaboard by telegraph and signals of the approach and force of storms." Thus began the U.S. Weather Bureau, now the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 1873, Myer proposed establishing a system of communication around the world between weather stations which eventually became the World Meteorological Organization. Myer headed the Signal Corps until his death in 1880.

Today, the U.S. Signal Corps is still an important part of the Army. Instead of flags and torches, soldiers use radios and GPS satellite systems. Despite the change in technology, the Corps still plays an essential role in facilitating communications and gathering information-carrying on the traditions first established in the Civil War.
Artifact exhibits on the Signal Corps in the Civil War can be found at:
The National Cryptologic Museum, https://www.nsa.gov/museum/

The Ochs Memorial Observatory at Lookout Mountain - Chickamauga/Chattanooga National Military Park, https://home.nps.gov/chch/learn/lookout-mountain.htm

About the Author

Tracey McIntire earned her BA in English at Rivier College in Nashua, N.H. She is Director of Communications at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, an interpretive volunteer at Antietam National Battlefield, a Historical Interpreter at South Mountain State Battlefield, and an active Civil War living historian, where she portrays a woman soldier in various guises. Discovering her ancestor, 2nd Lt. Julius M. Swain, sparked her interest in the U.S. Signal Corps.

SOURCES

Army Heritage Center Foundation. "Keeping the Lines Open: The U.S. Army Signal Corps."
www.armyheritage.org/soldier-stories-information/keeping-the-lines-open-the-united-states-army-signal-corps
Brown, J. Willard. The Signal Corps in the War of the Rebellion. U.S. Veteran Signal Corps Association, 1896.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, https://vlab.noaa.gov/web/nws-heritage/-/the-first-synchronized-weather-observations

Ibid., https://vlab.noaa.gov/web/nws-heritage/-/a-brief-history-of-signal-flags

Signal Corps Association 1860-1865. www.civilwarsignals.org

Swain, Julius M. Personal letter July 19, 1863. Collection of Julius M. Swain, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

U.S. National Park Service. "The Signal Corps at Antietam Battlefield," www.nps.gov/anti/learn/historyculture/signal.htm
Tags: Civil War, Signal Corps Posted in: Uncategorized

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The Flag That Talks - The U.S. Signal Corps in the Civil War

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The U.S. Signal Corps was founded in the Civil War. Learn how it developed and how it is still in use in today's Army.

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Effective communications have always been vital to military operations. By the mid-nineteenth century, modern weapons led to extended battlefields where the simple horns, drums, and flares of the past no longer sufficed. Larger, more complex armies needed to communicate over larger and larger distances. The U.S. Army was spread over a vast continent, and the reality of geography meant the Army needed a means of rapid, long-distance communication. Thus the United States Army became the first army in the world to establish a separate communications branch.

Albert James Myer, an Army doctor, first conceived the idea of a separate, trained professional military signal service. He proposed that the Army use his visual communications system, called "Wigwag", while serving as a medical officer in Texas in 1856. When the Army adopted his system on June 21, 1860, the Signal Corps was born with Myer as the first, and at that time only, Signal Officer.

With flags for daytime signaling and torches at night, Myer first used his visual signaling system in New Mexico during the 1860-1861 Navajo expedition. Wigwag's combat test occurred early in the Civil War in June of 1861, when the system was used to direct the fire of a harbor battery at Fort Calhoun (Fort Wool) against the Confederate positions. In 1863, Congress authorized a regular Signal Corps for the duration of the war. Some 2,900 officers and enlisted men served in the Civil War Signal Corps.

Myer's Civil War innovations included an unsuccessful balloon experiment at the Battle of Bull Run and the use of the telegraph. The Wigwag system relied on line of sight. Soldiers had to establish relay stations in sight of each other. While this system worked well enough to relay updates during the Battle of Gettysburg to Washington D.C., the system required a significant number of well-trained Soldiers and good weather. Even as the Signal Corps came to be, the Wigwag system was giving way to the telegraph.

After the war, the use of the telegraph grew as fast as the expanding nation. Between 1867 and 1879, the Corps strung some 4,000 miles of telegraph lines along the country's western frontier.

In 1870, Congress established the Weather Bureau. Since accurate weather forecasting depended on disciplined observers and rapid reporting of conditions via telegraph, the task of organizing this service naturally fell to the Signal Corps. Myer, now a general and Chief Signal Officer, chose Adolphus Greely as his assistant. By the time of Myer's death in 1880, he and Greely had built the internationally renowned organization now known as the National Weather Service. Responsibility for the operation of the service passed to the Department of Agriculture in 1891.

The Signal Corps played a significant role in the Spanish American War and the subsequent Philippine Insurrection. The Corps still used visual signaling, including the heliograph, in areas that lacked existing telegraph wires. During this conflict, however, the Corps laid telephone and telegraph wire lines and cable communications, fostered the use of telephones in combat, employed combat photography, and renewed the use of observation balloons to great effect. Shortly after the war, the Signal Corps constructed the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System (WAMCATS), introducing the first wireless telegraph in the Western Hemisphere.

On August 1, 1907, the Corps established an Aeronautical Division within the Office of the Chief Signal Officer. In 1908, the Wright brothers began making test flights of the Army's first airplane built to Signal Corps' specifications. Army aviation remained within the Signal Corps until 1918, when it became the Army Air Service.

The Signal Corps lost no time in meeting the challenges of World War I. Chief Signal Officer Major General George Squier worked closely with private industry to perfect radio tubes and built a major laboratory at Camp Alfred Vail (Fort Monmouth). In 1918, early radiotelephones, which transmitted voice signals and were developed by the Signal Corps, were introduced into the European theater. Though superior to the radiotelegraph sets, which used Morse code, telephone and telegraph remained the major technology of World War I.

A pioneer in radar, Colonel William Blair, director of the Signal Corps laboratories at Fort Monmouth, patented the first Army radar in May 1937. Even before the United States entered World War II, mass production of two radar sets, the SCR-268 and the SCR-270, had begun. Along with the Signal Corps' tactical FM radio, also developed in the 1930s, radar was the most important communications development of World War II.

During Project Diana in 1946, the Signal Corps successfully bounced radar signals off the moon, paving the way for space communications. On December 18, 1958, with Air Force assistance, the Signal Corps launched its first communications satellite and demonstrated the feasibility of worldwide satellite communications.

Technologies such as telephone and telegraph required a physical link between Army units in the form of a wire that could be broken or cut. When the Korean War flared up the rough terrain, poor roads, and sheer distances and speed of battle limited the use of wire for communications. The Signal Corps' VHF radio became the "backbone" of tactical communications throughout the conflict.

Wired communications, however, are more secure. The enemy can more easily monitor radio communications, so the Signal Corps help pioneer the use of codes and signal encryption to keep military secrets secret.

The complex communication needs of the Army in Vietnam led the Signal Corps to develop new and more sophisticated methods of providing large scale, long-range communication systems. Then, as now, the Signal Corps had to balance the need for rapid communications against the increasing ability of the enemy to monitor radio and telephone conversations. Today, the Signal Corps continues to lead the way in innovative communication systems and methods.

Sources:

Coker, Kathy Rae. "The Signal Corps and the U.S. Army Regimental System" U.S. Army Signal Center, Fort Gordon, 1989.

Raines, Rebecca Robbins. Getting the Message Through: A Branch History of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Army Historical Series, Center of Military History, U.S. Army, Washington, D.C. 1996.

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Keeping the Lines Open: The United States Army Signal Corps - Army Heritage Center Foundation

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Effective communications have always been vital to military operations. By the mid-nineteenth century, modern weapons led to extended battlefields where...

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Civil War Signal Corps Kit | U.S. Army Center of Military History

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Various elements of a typical Regulation Civil War Signal Corps Kit, from top to bottom: two signal flags, two torches, one a Foot Torch, the other a Flying Torch. The Flying Torch has attachments for use with a long pole and could thus be used by mounted personnel. The artifact on the bottom is an…

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Research materials held in Special Collections & Archives relating to Civil War history include both large and small manuscript collections as well as books, pamphlets, maps, photographs, and realia. Most of the unpublished resources relate to Bowdoin alumni who served in the Union Army, primarily with Maine units, and their families. These papers, and other collections less immediately related to the conflict, include pertinent correspondence, diaries, reminiscences, military reports and orders, photographic portraits and views, hand drawn illustrations and maps, and scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings and mementos documenting military life in the field and domestic life at home. Considered more broadly, these primary sources also document antebellum and postbellum politics and social life, especially in Maine, and provide a regional context for the Civil War era.

Described below are the collections that contain extensive information; the collections that, although not directly describing the war, relate to its study; and smaller caches of material or individual items that may be of interest to researchers. The lists are updated as new items are identified or acquired.

General Information on Locating Resources

Individual Correspondents:
Although this list of Civil War resources will give readers a general idea of the material available for research use, it will not list all the officers, soldiers, politicians, and civilians whose letters are held by Special Collections. In order to determine if there is correspondence with a particular individual, please contact the Special Collections & Archives staff.

The Civil War at Bowdoin:

For information on Bowdoin College during the Civil War, read Chapter 6 of Charles Calhoun's A Small College in Maine; for lists of alumni who served in the war, go to Patrick Rael's Web resource, Bowdoin Alumni in the Civil War and Alpheus S. Packard's Bowdoin in the War (1867); check the Archival holdings, including the administrative papers of President Leonard Woods, the Records of the Executive Government and the Class Records, 1861-1869; or consult with the staff.

Antislavery Material:

For information on holdings related to slavery in America, consult Antislavery Materials at Bowdoin College : A Finding Aid, edited by Angela M. Leonard; check the on-line catalog; see the department's Africana Studies Resources guide; or consult with the staff.

Bowdoin Alumni in the War:

For information on specific Bowdoin graduates who served in the war, begin with the General Catalogue of Bowdoin College ... 1794-1950 , where any military service would be listed, then consult the biographical files of individual alumni.

Photographs and Images:

For information on images of Civil War soldiers please consult with the Special Collections & Archives staff.
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Manuscript Collections Containing Civil War Material

[Citations: "Warner's Generals in Blue" refers to Ezra J. Warner's Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964).]

Jonathan M. Ballard files (M194 box 1):

5 folders of material, 1842-1906, with one folder of Civil War era letters, 1862-65, mostly to Ballard. Many are letters from Alfred C. Holmes, Acting Gunner on the Ordnance Schooner "B.C. Scribner," concerning ordnance issues at Stone Inlet, S.C. Ballard was a Gunner in the U.S. Navy, serving, in 1865, on the Ordnance Barque "Paramount" off Morris Island, S.C. His naval service dated from 1838 to 1885.

Bridge-Maurice Papers (M19):

The 0.25 linear foot collection includes nine letters from the Civil War period, including two from Horatio Bridge to his wife Charlotte; two from Samuel Francis Du Pont to Bridge, written during the blockade of Port Royal, S.C.; four from admiral David D. Porter to Bridge; and one from Sophia Hawthorne, Nathaniel Hawthorne's wife.
Although trained as a lawyer, Horatio Bridge (1806-1893) joined the U.S. Navy in 1838 and served as Paymaster-General and Chief of the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing during the Civil War. He retired in 1868 with the rank of Commodore.

Alexander Simms Buchanan Civil War Collection (M209):

Contains documents and realia pertaining to the Civil War, including an album containing a signed photograph of Abraham Lincoln, original military documents, clippings, and ephemera. Also included in the collection is a signed photograph of General Ulysses S. Grant and a whiskey glass used by Grant, and Buchanan's buttons and spurs.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Collection (M27):

3.25 linear feet of correspondence, addresses, lectures, diaries and clippings relating to the life and career of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Bowdoin 1852), including information on his service in the U.S. Army (1862-1865), as governor of Maine (1867-1870), and as president of Bowdoin College (1871-1883).
For a selection of items that have been digitally reproduced, see the Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Bowdoin College Digital Archive.
See Warner's Generals in Blue for a summary of Chamberlain's Civil War career, and the Chamberlain resource guide for further information.

Chandler Family Papers (M29):

The collection includes the Civil War correspondence (63 letters) and journal entries (May 22 through June 14, 1861) of Charles Peleg Chandler (Bowdoin 1854).
Chandler entered the war in 1861 as Major of the 1st Massachusetts Volunteers and died in service June 30, 1862 at Malvern Hill, Virginia.

Civil War Miscellany (M131):

Miscellaneous Civil War material from various sources, including correspondence, diaries, photographs and printed material.
Please note that some items from this collection are mentioned later in this guide.

James Warren Clark Papers (M322):

The collection includes thirty-seven letters (1862-1863), most received or sent by James Warren Clark (member of 42nd Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry) during the Civil War. Also included are Clark's "cipher" diary (1862-1863) and Civil War related documents and printed ephemera (1861-1911) belonging to Clark. In the letters from James, he discusses his experiences while stationed in New Orleans and his opinions about the war; the family letters shed light on daily life in Clarke's home environs in Massachusetts.

Elisha Coan Collection (M36):

There are 9 Civil War era letters from Elisha Coan (Med. Sch. 1870) to his family in the is 0.25 linear foot collection, as well as his reminiscences in manuscript. With this is an account of the action at Gettysburg by Colonel William C. Oates of the 15th Alabama.
Coan joined the 20th Maine in 1862 and served in the Signal Corps from 1863 to 1865.

Edwin Emery Diaries and Memoir (M288):

Five pocket diaries, 1863-1865, kept by Edwin Emery (Bowdoin 1861), and four pages transcribed from an 1864 diary. Emery participated in a number of Civil War battles, including the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, and the capture of Petersburg. Also included is an undated memoir by Emery about the Battle of the Wilderness.

Augustus Bowman Farnham Papers (M57):

Correspondence, diaries and documents (lists of equipage, dead and wounded, etc.) make up the Civil War portion of this collection (0.25 linear feet).
Farnham was a member of the 16th Maine.

Fessenden Collection (M59):

Approximately 6 linear feet of material (letters, documents, addresses, ephemera, etc.), 1801-1908, including ca. 1300 letters from William Pitt Fessenden (Bowdoin 1823), who served as Senator from Maine (1854-1869) and as Secretary of the Treasury (1864-1865); and ca. 450 letters to or from his sons, Francis Fessenden (Bowdoin 1858), James Deering Fessenden (Bowdoin 1852) and Samuel Fessenden (Bowdoin 1861). Francis Fessenden's album of carte-de-visite photographs of uniformed officers is also part of the collection.
See Warner's Generals in Blue for a summary of Francis Fessenden's and James D. Fessenden's Civil War careers; Samuel Fessenden was mortally wounded at the Second Battle of Manassas.

Charles Henry Howard Collection (M90):

1 linear foot of letters, articles and addresses and other ephemera, 1852-1907; containing ca. 150 Civil War era letters. Howard's service included the 3rd Maine (1861) and the 61st New York (1862-1864). He was Colonel of the 128th U.S. Colored Troops; and rose to Bvt. Brigadier General in 1865. Howard also served as an assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau.

Oliver Otis Howard Papers (M91):

60 linear feet of material of material, of which 1.5 linear feet is Civil War era correspondence, concerning the life and career of Oliver Otis Howard (Bowdoin 1850). Also included are articles and addresses, many on Civil War events and individuals, and a volume of copies of his outgoing correspondence, daily action reports, orders, etc. (1861-1865). Some of the items of greatest interest to researchers are post-1865.

See Warner's Generals in Blue for a summary of Howard's career in the Civil War and as commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau.

Hubbard Family Papers (M95):

Approximately 26 linear feet of correspondence, diaries, addresses, clippings, etc., 1789 to 1917. Included are Civil War letters, a letter-book (Jan-Jun 1863), a Special Orders volume (Oct 1862-Feb 1864) and indices, all by John Barrett Hubbard (Bowd. 1857); Civil War letters and journals (Nov 29, 1863 - Mar 31, 1864; Mar 15-Jun 18, 1865), and reports and brigade files of Thomas Hamlin Hubbard (Bowdoin 1857). Their correspondence and that of other family members, including Albert Reed Barrett, is also of interest.

John B. Hubbard rose to Captain and Asst. Adjutant General in the 1st Maine Battery, and died in service May 27, 1863 at Port Hudson, Louisiana. Thomas H. Hubbard served with the 25th Maine, the 30th Maine and the 1st Brigade, rising to Bvt. Brigadier General by 1865. Albert R. Barrett was with the 7th New York (1861) and the 1st Sharpshooters (1862-1864) and with the Quartermasters Department (1864); he rose to the rank of Lieutenant.

Charles O. Hunt Letters and Personal Recollections (M241):

Holograph transcriptions (2 vols.) of correspondence and memoirs of Charles O. Hunt, dated Portland [Me.], December 28, 1898, documenting Hunt's participation in the Civil War. He joined the Union Army upon his graduation in 1861, serving as a sergeant in the 5th Maine Battery, and was made lieutenant in 1863. His service included the second battle of Manassas, the Wilderness Campaign, and Gettysburg, as well as internment as a prisoner of war at Hilton Head, S.C., and Danville, Va. Principal correspondents include his mother and brother, Henry Hastings Hunt, and other Maine acquaintances; and also General Johnson Hagood with whom Hunt carried on a post-bellum correspondence concerning his internment under Hagood's command. Pasted in are various photographs, currency notes, signed orders and other documents, and brochures concerning a memorial at Gettysburg battle field.

Henry Hastings Hunt Papers (M195):

30 letters (August 25, 1862 - April 11, 1865) from Henry Hastings Hunt (Bowdoin 1862) to his mother and sister, and three diaries (January 6, 1863 - July 11, 1865).

Hunt served in the 1st Maine Battery and fought in many battles, including Second Bull Run and Gettysburg.

Thomas W. Hyde Family Papers (M199):

The correspondence (ca. 35 letters) is mainly between Thomas W. Hyde and Annie Hayden. Many of the letters pre-date their marriage and were written by Hayden to Hyde during the Civil War.

Hyde raised a company for the Seventh Maine Infantry and was elected major. He was present with his regiment at the Siege of Yorktown, the battles of Williamsburg and Mechanicsville, and all of the seven-day battles in front of Richmond. He commanded the regiment at Second Bull Run, Crampton's Gap and Antietam, and was appointed Acting Inspector General of the Left Division, Army of the Potomac. He was with General Sedgwick at Gettysburg and all the battles following in which the Sixth Corps was engaged, was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and remained with the Sixth Corps until his three years expired, when he was commissioned colonel of the First Maine Veteran Volunteers. He was present at Sailor's Creek and at the surrender of Lee, and was made brigadier general in 1865.

Needler R. Jennings Papers (M97):

Five letters (1861-63) relating to Jennings and his service in the Confederate Army. Three are letters from Pierre Soulé, two of them introducing Jennings to Edward Everett and P.G.T. Beauregard. Jennings, originally from New Orleans, served to Major in the CSA.

Lee Family Papers (M106):

Photograph album, owner unknown, which includes thirty-three images of Union officers, from lieutenant to general.

McArthur Family Papers (M116):

10.6 linear feet of material (1790-1890) relating to this Limington, Maine, family, including the Civil War letters of Arthur McArthur, Jr. (Bowdoin 1850) and his brother William McArthur (Bowdoin 1853). Also within the papers are records of the 8th Maine, containing muster rolls, payrolls, discharges, enlistments, courts martial, special orders, military maps, quarter reports, adjutant reports, and other related material (ca. 500 items). The 19th century pension records for the Limington area, kept by William and his father, Arthur McArthur, Sr., fill a further 6 linear feet.

William served with the 8th Maine, ending the war with the rank of Bvt. Brigadier General. Arthur served as Captain of the 6th Louisiana (C.S.A.) and died in service on May 25, 1862 at Winchester, Virginia.

Holman Melcher Papers (M127):

0.25 linear feet of correspondence, military records and clippings related to Holman Melcher, including 85 wartime letters to his brother, Nathaniel Melcher (Bowdoin 1864).

Holman Melcher served in the 20th Maine and the 5th Corps.

Mellen Family Papers (M129):

Box 1, Mellen Family Material: 0.25 linear feet of material (1856-1940) relating to the William P. Mellen and the Mellen Family, including approx. 50 Civil War era letters. Of special interest is the correspondence between W.P. Mellen and Salmon P. Chase and a letter from Gen. U.S. Grant (1863 Aug. 1) concerning the cotton trade.

Mellen was Supervising Agent of the Treasury Department and a Special Agent of the Post Office Department, stationed in Cincinnati.

Horatio Fox Smith Civil War Journal and Letters (M131):

12 items, including an 1863 journal documenting a summer journey to Providence, R.I., to help recruit college students for a "college regiment" of artillery; and letters home during his 1864 service in the 31st Maine Infantry Regiment, in which he recounts camp life and describes military engagements in Virginia, including the Wilderness Campaign.

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Manuscript Collections Related to the Civil War

John J. Pullen Papers (M153):

Notes and manuscripts for Pullen's books The Twentieth Maine and A Shower of Stars, 5 linear feet. Both manuscripts are accompanied by the photographs, maps, and sketches used as illustrations for the works.

Stowe Collection (M172):

0.25 linear feet of material relating to Harriet Beecher Stowe and Calvin Ellis Stowe (Bowdoin 1824 and faculty); together with a large collection of editions of Uncle Tom's Cabin; The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, and other works by the Stowes.

Tucker Shipping Papers (M177):

The papers of this Wiscasset shipping family include 0.5 linear feet of correspondence (including one letter press volume), 1861-1866, which deal with the effects of the war on shipping. The collection also contains the records of the individual ships.
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Individual Civil War Manuscripts

Jonathan Edwards Adams (Bowdoin 1853): Notes of two months service in 1863 with the U.S. Christian Commission 1 v. (M194 .A3367)

William F. Allison: Als, Camp Brightwood [Washington, D.C.] November 18, 1861, describing camp life, 2 p. Allison served in the 2nd Rhode Island. (M194 box 1)

George M. Atwood: Military letterbook of the 24th Maine, 1862-1863. Atwood was the regiment's Colonel. (M194 .A896 Folio)

Autograph album: Includes signatures of the officers of the 108th U.S .Colored Infantry. Owner unknown. (M131)

Isaac Winslow Case (Bowdoin 1848): Diary, October 21, 1862- July 6, 1863. Case was Captain of the 22nd Maine. (M194 .C374)

Isaac Somes Cushman (Bowdoin 1844): Als to "Sister", Lookout Valley, April 1, 1864, discussing religious activities at the front and the action of the army, 8 p. Cushman was chaplain of the 33rd Massachusetts in 1864 and Assistant Surgeon of the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry in late 1864 and 1865. (1.3.1, box 18).

Jefferson Davis (Bowdoin hon. 1858): Als to Joseph Williamson, July 3, 1889, 2 p. Davis thanks the College for having kept his name on the rolls of honorary graduates. (M131)

Owen Warren Davis, Jr. (Bowdoin 1864): Ts. copy of a diary, June 17- September 27, 1862. Davis served with the 7th Rhode Island Cavalry. (M194 .D38569)

John Deering, Jr. (Bowdoin non-grad. 1864): Journal January 29, 1861-September 6, 1862. Deering enlisted in the 13th Maine in December 1861 and was medically discharged in July 1862. (1.3.3 v.171)

Diary, owned by a succession of soldiers: "S.W. Croft Co E 1st Regt. Excelsior Brigade USV"; "Lieut. A.M. Riddle Louisiana Guard Artillery"; "Capt.. C.H. Small Co D 5th Maine Vols"; "picked up on the battlefield at raperhanock [sic] Station Nov. 7th 1863 by Sewall C. Smith Co D 5th Maine Vols."; laid into the volume were a pledge of loyalty to the C.S.A. signed by Riddle and a C.S.A. military pass. Entries are in several hands. (M131)

Diaries: Washington D.C. 1861 and 1864, civilian owner unknown. Brief entries, some on events in the city. (M131)

Anna Dickinson: "The Assault on Fort Wagner," an 18 page essay on the actions of the 54th Massachusetts, commanded by Robert Gould Shaw. The volume appears to be an exercise book, and is tentatively identified as the work of orator and author Anna Dickinson (1842-1932). (M194 box 2)

John Calvin Dodge (Bowdoin 1834): "Daily Records," diary of events, 1850 Jan 1 - 1866 Nov 8 in the John Calvin Dodge Papers. (M46.3 v.1)

Simeon Adams Evans (Bowdoin 1860): Ms. volume of "Reminiscences" contains a large section on his experiences during the Civil War. Evans was a hospital steward for the 13th Maine in 1861, and became Assistant Surgeon of the 14th Maine in 1863. (M194 .E936)

Frick Lincoln Autograph Album: An extra-illustrated copy of Carl Schurz's Lincoln: A Biographical Essay... , containing ten letters by Abraham Lincoln, members of his cabinet and prominent contemporaries, dated between 1849 and 1893. Once owned by Henry Clay Frick.(M67)

John P. Handly: Diary, 1865; together with two tintypes, both in uniform, and Bible. Handly was a member of the 8th Maine. (M131)

George Beaman Kenniston (Bowdoin 1861): Diary, TMs (copy), 1861 July 26 - 1862 Aug 16, recording time spent as a prisoner of war in Virginia, Alabama, and North Carolina subsequent to his capture at the Manassas Campaign (1st Battle of Bull Run). At the time, Kenniston served as 1st Lt., 5th Maine; he was released in August 1862. (1.3.1)

D.P. Morse: Als to "My Dear Emeline", E. N[ew] York, November 29, 1862, 2 p. Morse was a member of a Maine regiment. (M131)

Jesse J. Peacock: Letters, 1862 Aug-Dec, chiefly to his wife, Addie. (15 items; transcriptions and photocopies only). Source of originals unknown. (M131)

Roster: Records of soldiers' services and musters, unit unknown. (M131)

Sarah Sampson and the 3rd Maine Regiment: Transcriptions of letters by Sampson, a nurse with the regiment, most from the Oliver Otis Howard Papers, some from other sources, 1 v.
(M194 .S267)

Samuel Beal Shea: Als, Gettysburg, July 4, 1863, deathbed letter; with note from Jesse Mitchell, Gettysburg, July 10, 1863, concerning Shea's death from wounds received in battle. Shea and Mitchell were members of the 19th Maine. (M131)

Horatio B. Soule: Als to "Brother Frank", Sharpsburg Md., September 24, 1862. Soule's unit is not known. (M131)

Visitor's pass: U.S. Army, April 14, 1864. (M131)

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Other Related Holdings -- General Descriptions

Newspapers and Periodicals: Several Louisiana newspapers of the Confederate era were sent to the Hubbard family of Hallowell, Maine, by John Barrett Hubbard, Captain and Assistant Adjutant in General Weitzel's brigade, then in New Orleans. They include La Sentinelle de Thibodaux (Louisiana), October 25, 1862, printed on wallpaper and Natchitoches Union (Louisiana), April 2 and 4, 1864, printed on ledger sheets. Also Mississippi issue; Richmond (recent gift); Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vols. 20-32, 1859-60 - 1865-66; and the Atlantic Monthly, vols. 5-16, 1860 - 1865.

Broadsides: The broadside collection includes several ante-bellum anti-slavery and political broadsides, among them "The Slave's Dream", "The Constitution of the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society", Drury Lane Theatre's advertisement for "Uncle Tom's Cabin" "Democratic Platform Illustrated" from 1856; together with the "Soldier's Memorial - Co. B 25th Maine Volunteers", a colored broadside bearing the names of all the members of the regiment.

Atlases, etc.: Several miscellaneous maps, printed and manuscript, of the battles and operations. Among them are "Military Map of United States and its Territories", "Line Operations of the Army of the Ohio" dated 1862, the route of Sherman's March to the Sea showing the path of each division, the Battle of Shiloh, the area around Brandy Station, and maps in the Hubbard Papers (Pleasant Hill, Sabine Cross Roads, Cane River) and the Pullen Papers (maps used as illustrations for the book). Atlases include Atlas of the Battlefield of Antietam ... , 1904; Atlas of the Battlefields of Chickamaugua and Chattanooga, 1901; and The Middle Tennessee and Chattanooga Campaigns..., 1891.

Books, monographs, etc.: The Special Collections stacks contain many works about and reminiscences of the Civil War, including Chamberlain's The Passing of the Armies and Bayonets Forward!; O.O. Howard's The Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard; U.S. Infantry Tactics ... 1861; and Augustus C. Hamlin's Martyria, or, Andersonville Prison. The College Archives and the Bowdoiniana collection include the College Roll of Honor, with biographical sketches of all graduates who served in the U.S. Army. U.S. Navy or U.S. Volunteers; the Provisional List of Students and Alumni ... , listing name and rank only; and Roll of Honor: List of Members of Bowdoin College ... , all serving alumni and undergraduates with name and rank only.

Pamphlet collections: There are large uncataloged collections of Alumni Pamphlets (arranged alphabetically by author) and Miscellaneous Pamphlets (arranged by Library of Congress subject heading) both of which contain items relating to the Civil War. Binders with photocopies of the title pages are available for browsing by patrons.

Images: Winslow Homer Harper's magazine woodcut illustrations collection; Anti-secessionist cartoon scrapbooks, 3 v. (M194: A585); Tin-types (see John P. Handly entry in Other Related Holdings - Individual Items above); Photos and Photo Albums (Alexander Simms Buchanan Civil War Collection, Fessenden Papers, Lee Family Papers, and John J. Pullen Papers).

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Other Related Holdings -- Individual Items

Abbott Secession Cane: Carved by a rebel soldier, this cane has the names of 11 Confederate officers, at least 8 of them generals, twined along the shaft. The head of the cane, plainly added later, bears the stars and stripes and the Union eagle. From the Abbott Memorial Collection.

Army Roll of Maine Volunteers 22nd & 26th regiments, 1862. From the Maine Collection (Politics and Government series, P1.9).

John Marshall Brown (Bowdoin 1860): Bayonet.

Confederate bonds: $1000.00 bonds, #s 280 and 1973-1976, dated February 17, 1864. The first $30.00 coupon of each sheet is lacking.

Currency: $1.00 to $200.00 bills issued by the Confederate government, 1862-1864; together with Civil War era currency issued by the states of Georgia and Virginia; by banks in Richmond, Harrisonburg, Lynchburg, and Charlottesville, Virginia; and by the Inferior Court of Elbert County, Georgia. With contemporary U.S. currency from a bank in Brandon, Vermont; 1862 postal currency; and a flyer for the "United States Counterfeit Detector for Instantaneous Detection of All Counterfeit Paper Money ... John F. Beazell".

Flagstaff fragments: "Pieces of the flag staff at the Marshall House Alexandria, from which poor Coe Edsmith drew down the Secession flag the moment before his death: cut by me, August, 1861. C.P. Chandler, 1st Man [sic] Infantry." (M29.4)

Inscription on book: The Gems of Sacred Poetry, with inscription dated New York, March 1863, "Dear Son, This book was a great favorite of your mothers [sic], & was used by her many years. I now transfer it to you. Jacob Abbott. [Inscribed to] Mr. Edward Abbott, Now with the Army of the Potomac, Falmouth, Virginia." From the Abbott Memorial Collection. Jacob Abbott was the author of the Rollo series of boys' books; Edward, later the editor of the Literary World, served with the U.S. Sanitary Commission.

Inscription on book: Virgil's Aeneid, belonging to a rebel soldier, with inscription "Drifted ashore at Port Royal S.C. from a wrecked rebel gun boat in 1864."

Lee Family: Photo album containing 35 images of men in uniform. Most are U.S. Army, three are U.S. Navy; almost all are unidentified.

Abraham Lincoln: Hand print identified as Lincoln's by the donor of the Fessenden Papers, with which it was received; unauthenticated. See also the Frick Lincoln Autograph Album and Fessenden Papers for Lincoln manuscripts. (In Misc. Mass.)

Tin-type: Four Maine soldiers (41/4 x 51/2 in oval frame) two seated and two standing; in the Beston Papers's (M12) collection photos.

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Campus Memorial

Memorial Hall: This hall, which houses the College's Pickard Theater, was built as a memorial to those Bowdoin students and graduates who served in the U.S. Army or Navy during the Civil War. It houses a series of bronze plaques bearing their names; a separate plaque with the names of the Confederate alumni was added in the 20th century.

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Civil War Resources (Bowdoin - Subject Guides )

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Research materials held in Special Collections & Archives relating to Civil War history include both large and small manuscript collections as well as books, pamphlets, maps, photographs, and realia. Most of the unpublished resources relate to Bowdoin alumni who served in the Union Army, primarily with Maine units, and their families.

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found this SOOOO helpful!

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Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

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Fun with Flags: Civil War Battle Communication

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The Battle of Gettysburg represented perhaps the first time in military history that the commanding general of a large army could communicate with his corps and division commanders during active operations due to the use of the Signal Corps. The Union Signal Corps was stationed at Little Round Top. The Confederate Signal Corps used the cupola of the Lutheran Seminary.

Signal messages were sent by means of flags, torches, or lights, by combinations of three separate motions.

More than 2,000 signalmen served at the front (during the Civil War as a whole).

Questions: How many different characters and emoticons do you use to communicate when you text?
If you had to develop a distinct system of signal flags to communicate with your friends, how many would you make?

Although the balloon corps was disbanded prior to the Battle of Gettysburg, hot air balloons were used by both the Union and the Confederate troops during the Civil War to provide battlefield intelligence.

The Union fleet consisted of the Intrepid, Constitution, United States, Washington, Eagle, Excelsior, and the original Union. The balloons ranged in size from 32,000 cubic feet down to 15,000 cubic feet. Each had enough cable to climb 5,000 feet (1524 meters). They could carry between 3 and 5 people.

The Empire State Building is 1454 feet, so the balloon lifted them about 3 and a half times as high as the Empire State Building!
Questions: Five thousand feet is how many times the height of your home?
How many cubic feet of hot air does it take to lift one person?
How much energy does it take to heat that air?
During the Civil War more than 15,000 miles of telegraph lines were built for military purposes. It's 24,900 miles around the world so that is nearly half way around the world.

During the Civil War, there were more than 300 casualties among those who operated the telegraphs for the war effort.

Questions: If you connected all the wires inside your house, how long do you estimate the combined length would be?

Would people need wires to communicate for such a battle today?

What would they use?

20,000 to 30,000 drummers served during the Civil War. Each regiment of infantry was supposed to have 10 drummers (and 10 fifers).

Drummers beat a cadence for marching soldiers, but they also used various drumbeats to communicate signals between commanders and troops that could be heard above the sounds of battle.
Questions: What kinds of audio signals communicate messages or warnings to us today?
Who else uses audible signals to communicate?
Soldiers wrote letters home. Union soldiers could send their letters for free by writing "Soldier's Letter" on the envelope.

On the Union side, many regiments sent out an average of 600 letters per day. About 45,000 pieces of mail per day were sent through Washington D. C. (the East) and almost twice that through Louisville, KY (the West).

A soldier who kept track of his own outgoing mail reported that in 1863 he sent 109 letters to "homefolk," 55 letters to other friends and another 37 letters were written by him for fellows who could not write. He received 85 letters in return.

The Federal postal service processed around 8 million letters per month. Most Civil War soldiers received their mail within 2 weeks of it being sent. On the Confederate side, letters cost 5 cents to send up to 500 miles, and 10 cents to send more than 500 miles. Soldiers could, however, send letters postage due.
Question: How much of a soldier's pay did he have to spend to send a letter home over 500 miles every day?
TeachersFirst.com ⋅ Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers® ⋅ Copyright © 1998-2023 by The Source for Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Gettysburg by the Numbers: Communication - TeachersFirst

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Gettysburg by the Numbers invites you to move beyond dates and facts to questions that make the battle more meaningful and real. Designed for middle school learners and up, Gettysburg by the Numbers lets students go far beyond the typical textbook facts and captions, connecting to history through the numbers and questions - moving history beyond telling to connecting.

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Learn about ballooning in the American Civil War

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A signal system using flags and torches was invented by a U.S. Army surgeon, Major Albert Myer, in the 1850s and adopted by the U.S. Army in 1860. Myer's system permitted messages to be sent across areas where telegraph wires were unavailable. To the untrained observer, the flagman appeared to be merely "wig-wagging" a flag back and forth, and so the new system came to be known as the "wig-wag."

Major Myer became the U.S. Army's first chief signal officer. Myer's assistant during the development of the wig-wag system was an exceptional young lieutenant named Edward Porter Alexander, a Georgian who, when the war began, resigned his commission in the U.S. Army to fight for the Confederates. He helped organize, equip, and train the Confederate Signal Service. Thus, both armies came to use essentially the same signal system.

Drawing of cipher disc
Brown, J. Willard, "The Signal Corps, U.S.A. in the War of the Rebellion"

Two forms of code were used: initially a four-element code and later, a two-element code. In the four-element code, movements of the flag conveyed the numerals 1, 2, 3, or 4 which were grouped to stand for letters and sometimes words or phrases. The letter "B" might be "1423," for example. By the end of the war, a two-element code was in use. Letters were formed using just the numerals 1 and 2, as dots and dashes were used in telegraphy. A "1" was indicated by moving the flag from the vertical to the sender's left; a "2" indicated by waving to the sender's right. So "A" might be "12" or "X" sent as "1221." The motion of the flag was an integral aspect of the wig-wag system, enhancing readability of the signal.

To encrypt the message, a signal disk made of two disks of brass or cardboard was used. One contained the alphabet, the other numeral combinations. By rotating the disk and changing the alignment of the numbers and letters, the codes could be easily changed.

Illustration off technique using signal flags
National Park Service

A U.S. Army signal party could be as small as an officer and two privates. Only the officer understood the code, and he was responsible for encoding and decoding messages. The enlisted men would flag the signals and assist in reading incoming signals which were given to the officer for translation. Signalmen were selected by examinations and were generally more educated. Commissioned officers were tested in reading and writing, composition, arithmetic, chemistry, natural philosophy, surveying and topography.

Not only were they expected to serve as communicators, they also assisted commanders with reconnaissance and surveillance by virtue of their location at high points on the terrain and their mobility. The life of a signalman could be behind the lines enjoying good food and the comfort of a commander's headquarters-or in advance of the army exposed to the elements in remote and isolated locations, experiencing hardship and danger.

Photograph of a signal detachment on Elk Mountain, east of Antietam battlefield, a few weeks after the battle
Library of Congress

There were several U.S. signal stations on or near the Antietam battlefield. The most important, under Lt. Joseph Gloskoski, was located on Elk Mountain overlooking the field from the east. Lt. Gloskoski reported that during the battle he communicated with at least five different stations on the field. These were Maj. General George McClellan's headquarters at the Pry House; Maj. General Ambrose Burnside's headquarters on the Union left; and Maj. General Joseph Hooker's headquarters on the Union right. Additionally, he refers to "two stations in the center of our lines." One of these was possibly at the Roulette farm. The other may have been the station situated near the Miller farm.

Gloskoski's Elk Mountain station sent the most famous signal of the battle. Late in the afternoon this party observed Lt. General A.P. Hill's division of Confederates approaching the battlefield after its long march from Harpers Ferry. The Elk Mountain station sent an urgent message to Gen. Burnside, "Look well to your left. The enemy are (sic) moving a strong force in that direction."

Confederate signalmen were also active during the battle and official maps of the battlefield indicate a C.S.A. signal station was located behind the West Woods.

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An Innovative Technology of War (U.S. National Park Service)

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A signal system using flags and torches was invented by a U.S. Army surgeon, Major Albert Myer, in the 1850s and adopted by the U.S. Army in 1860. Myer's system permitted messages to be sent across areas where telegraph wires were unavailable.

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The Civil War was a time of great social and political upheaval. It was also a time of great technological change. Inventors and military men devised new types of weapons, such as the repeating rifle and the submarine, that forever changed the way that wars were fought. Even more important were the technologies that did not specifically have to do with the war, like the railroad and the telegraph. Innovations like these did not just change the way people fought wars-they also changed the way people lived.

New Kinds of Weapons

Before the Civil War, infantry soldiers typically carried muskets that held just one bullet at a time. The range of these muskets was about 250 yards. However, a soldier trying to aim and shoot with any accuracy would have to stand much closer to his target, since the weapon's "effective range" was only about 80 yards. Therefore, armies typically fought battles at a relatively close range.

Did you know? The rifle-musket and the Minié bullet are thought to account for around 90 percent ofCivil Warcasualties.

Rifles, by contrast, had a much greater range than muskets did-a rifle could shoot a bullet up to 1,000 yards-and were more accurate. However, until the 1850s it was nearly impossible to use these guns in battle because, since a rifle's bullet had roughly the same diameter as its barrel, they took too long to load. (Soldiers sometimes had to pound the bullet into the barrel with a mallet.)

In 1848, a French army officer named Claude Minié invented a cone-shaped lead bullet with a diameter smaller than that of the rifle barrel. Soldiers could load these "Minié balls" quickly, without the aid of ramrods or mallets. Rifles with Minié bullets were more accurate, and therefore deadlier, than muskets were, which forced infantries to change the way they fought: Even troops who were far from the line of fire had to protect themselves by building elaborate trenches and other fortifications.

"Repeaters"

Rifles with Minié bullets were easy and quick to load, but soldiers still had to pause and reload after each shot. This was inefficient and dangerous. By 1863, however, there was another option: so-called repeating rifles, or weapons that could fire more than one bullet before needing a reload. The most famous of these guns, the Spencer carbine, could fire seven shots in 30 seconds.

Like many other Civil War technologies, these weapons were available to Northern troops but not Southern ones: Southern factories had neither the equipment nor the know-how to produce them. "I think the Johnnys [Confederate soldiers] are getting rattled; they are afraid of our repeating rifles," one Union soldier wrote. "They say we are not fair, that we have guns that we load up on Sunday and shoot all the rest of the week."

Balloons and Submarines

Other newfangled weapons took to the air-for example, Union spies floated above Confederate encampments and battle lines in hydrogen-filled passenger balloons, sending reconnaissance information back to their commanders via telegraph-and to the sea. "Iron-clad" warships prowled up and down the coast, maintaining a Union blockade of Confederate ports.

For their part, Confederate sailors tried to sink these ironclads with submarines. The first of these, the Confederate C.S.S. Hunley, was a metal tube that was 40 feet long, 4 feet across, and held an 8-man crew. In 1864, the Hunley sank the Union blockade ship Housatonic off the coast of Charleston but was itself wrecked in the process.

The Railroad

More important than these advanced weapons were larger-scale technological innovations such as the railroad. Once again, the Union had the advantage. When the war began, there were 22,000 miles of railroad track in the North and just 9,000 in the South, and the North had almost all of the nation's track and locomotive factories. Furthermore, Northern tracks tended to be "standard gauge," which meant that any train car could ride on any track. Southern tracks, by contrast, were not standardized, so people and goods frequently had to switch cars as they traveled-an expensive and inefficient system.

Union officials used railroads to move troops and supplies from one place to another. They also used thousands of soldiers to keep tracks and trains safe from Confederate attack.

The Telegraph

Abraham Lincoln was the first president who was able to communicate on the spot with his officers on the battlefield. The White House telegraph office enabled him to monitor battlefield reports, lead real-time strategy meetings and deliver orders to his men. Here, as well, the Confederate army was at a disadvantage: They lacked the technological and industrial ability to conduct such a large-scale communication campaign.

In 1861, the Union Army established the U.S. Military Telegraph Corps, led by a young railroad man named Andrew Carnegie. The next year alone, the U.S.M.T.C. trained 1,200 operators, strung 4,000 miles of telegraph wire and sent more than a million messages to and from the battlefield.

Civil War Photography

The Civil War was the first war to be documented through the lens of a camera. However, the era's photographic process was far too elaborate for candid pictures. Taking and developing photos using the so-called "wet-plate" process was a meticulous, multi-step procedure that required more than one "camera operator" and lots of chemicals and equipment. As a result, the images of the Civil War are not action snapshots: They are portraits and landscapes. It was not until the 20th century that photographers were able to take non-posed pictures on the battlefield.

Technological innovation had an enormous impact on the way people fought the Civil War and on the way they remember it. Many of these inventions have played important roles in military and civilian life ever since.

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Civil War Technology - Weapons, Military, Advancements | HISTORY

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While the American Civil War saw the use of new weapons like the repeating rifle, other technological innovations from the era also impacted the fighting.

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Communications used on battlefields and in camps such as the "Wigwag" laid out the foundation for the telegraph and helped serve as a turning point in the Civil War and the history of the United States.