![]() (See: Origin of the Corps)Ī QUIT EVENING, BEFORE THE DANGEROUS WORK BEGAN Nevertheless, the gallant, efficient services of its patriotic men and officers in the face of the foe were of such striking military value as to gain the confidence and win commendation of the most distinguished generals. Denied a separate organization until the war neared its end, the corps suffered constantly from strife and dissension in Washington, its misfortunes culminating in the arbitrary removal of its first two chiefs. When the stern actualities of war were realized, its evolution proceeded in the federal army in face of corporation and departmental opposition, yet despite all adverse attacks it ultimately demonstrated its intrinsic merits. Myer, it met with indifferent reception and evoked hostility in its early stages. The invention of a non-combatant, Surgeon A. The signal system, an American device, was tested first in border warfare against hostile Navajos afterward the quick-witted soldiers of both the Federal and Confederate armies developed portable signaling to great advantage. They signaled to Porter clearing the central Mississippi River, and aided Farragut when forcing the passage of Mobile Bay. ![]() They were on the advanced lines of Yorktown, and the saps and trenches at Charleston,Vickburg, and Port Hudson, near the battle-lines at Chickamauga and Chancellorsville, before the fort-crowned crest of Fredricksburg, amid the frightful carnage of Antietam, on Kenesaw Mountain deciding the fate of Allatoona, in Sherman's march to the sea, and with Grant's victorious army at Appomattox and Richmond. ![]() In every important campaign and on every bloody ground, these men risked their lives at the forefront of the battle, speeding stirring orders of advance, warning of impending danger, and sullen admissions of defeat. Against a variegated background the red color was seen farther. In the case of snow, a black flag could be used. White flags with a red center were most frequent. One of the signal flags is lying in front of the group, and another is extended in the breeze behind. Leaning against the table is a bunch of staffs, to which the flags were attached. Every man has a collapsible telescope, or a powerful field-glass. It is interesting to examine the field paraphernalia with which the corps was provided. Most of the enlisted men were from the same volunteer organization. ![]() Cushing, Second United States Infantry, with seventeen officers selected for signal duty from the noted Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. General (then Major) Myer is distinguishable, in the center, sitting and leaning against the table, by the double row of buttons on his field-officer's coat. EXPERTS OF THE UNITED STATES SIGNAL SERVICE ![]()
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