
Guide to the Fort Monroe Telegrams, 1862
... American Telegraph Company, who extended his company’s lines from Pennsylvania to the War Department in Washington, DC. Formal executive sanction of the Corps came in October 1861 from Abraham Lincoln. Congress permitted the establishment in January 1862, and the President took control of all telegr ...
... American Telegraph Company, who extended his company’s lines from Pennsylvania to the War Department in Washington, DC. Formal executive sanction of the Corps came in October 1861 from Abraham Lincoln. Congress permitted the establishment in January 1862, and the President took control of all telegr ...
Running the Blockade - National Museum of American History
... boat pilot and on May 12, 1862, he used his skills to steal the ship CSS Planter with his boat crew and family, who all were slaves. Once his ship reached the Union blockade, he offered the Union navy the CSS Planter. Having escaped into Northern territory, he was no longer a slave. He fought alongs ...
... boat pilot and on May 12, 1862, he used his skills to steal the ship CSS Planter with his boat crew and family, who all were slaves. Once his ship reached the Union blockade, he offered the Union navy the CSS Planter. Having escaped into Northern territory, he was no longer a slave. He fought alongs ...
Signal Corps in the American Civil War

The Signal Corps in the American Civil War comprised two organizations: the U.S. Army Signal Corps, which began with the appointment of Major Albert J. Myer as its first signal officer just before the war and remains an entity to this day, and the Confederate States Army Signal Corps, a much smaller group of officers and men, using similar organizations and techniques as their Union opponents. Both accomplished tactical and strategic communications for the warring armies, including electromagnetic telegraphy and aerial telegraphy (""wig-wag"" signaling). Although both services had an implicit mission of battlefield observation, intelligence gathering, and artillery fire direction from their elevated signal stations, the Confederate Signal Corps also included an explicit espionage function.The Union Signal Corps, although effective on the battlefield, suffered from political disputes in Washington, D.C., particularly in its rivalry with the civilian-led U.S. Military Telegraph Corps. Myer was relieved of his duties as chief signal officer by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton for his attempts to control all electromagnetic telegraphy within the Signal Corps. He was not restored to his role as chief signal officer until after the war.