Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-07-18
MORNING LEADER.

II - = Z -
Signaling IA SheFmans's ARMY. Duties
| Of Signal officers. PleasureS ana
Danger Of the business.l How sls 1lsals
ing - done. RePidify and aecttEseey
Of the work. "A cOrresEl0naeAI rum
SlleEmam's army notes thustt @
This most interesting and useful arm of
/ the militaryservieep perhaps, less heard Of by
the publici than any other; and its In
valuable labors as well as its frequent i'm
niinent perils are alike unreeorded, and
therefore unappreeiated. The signal Of
6eer who would bring full late news to fhe
commanding General must undergo not a
little fatigue and hardship. Z he must
climb high trees to watch the enemy he
must penetrate through tangled thickets
and forrests IN search Of eligible stations;
he must climb the sides ofsteep and rug
ged mountains, and his bright showy flag
never. fails to attract rebel ,sharpshooter's
fire when he-is IN reach, which he must
often be to secure a good post, or observe
the enemy closely. When once a station
isestabIished, his Aag must never dFoop
by day nor his torch grow dim by night,
till he has orders from his GHETTO abandon
the post for a new one. And vet SO great
IS the mystery with which he must en4
Stroud his art so profoundly secret must
he keep the weighty messages and orders
eonfded to him, and SO silent are his OPP
perations. that the world and even the
army know little about him, He alone is
proof against the wiles Of those universal
walking interrogation-po points, the cores
pondents, though be, above all others, rs
he man whom they would delight to be
permitted to Huse.T But he has his re-
ward for all this In the clear upper air
where he dwells, he sees, as with hawks
eye, the whole great drama played out be-
meath him; he sees the 4Ongzhnes OF men
deployed through the valleys and knows
where they go and why; his eyes feast up
on the field Of battle where the columns
Of attack rush impetueQsly down a wooded
slope, across an open field; and mp To san-
other piece Of woods, and an Is clear to
him and ineligible, while, to others who
must grovel on the ground, there is moth
ing but an exaspeEatiilg nuldtndes ~
Signal stations are Of two kinds; reflect
ing stations and stations Of observation;
the former for transmitting dispatches, the
lstter for watching the enemy and cOmmu-
nicating the results to the commander
Both are constructed ON the same princi-
pies, and employ the same instruments.
The latter are few and simple, The flag
is made of different colors, to contrast with
the back ground, white black or red. The
ode usually efapleyod Is but Four feet
square; for the largest distance it IS made
Six feet square, and mounted on a third
Joint OF staff to give it wider range. The
margin glass sused for scanning the hor-
rikon rapidly and making general OBJ
servations; the telescope for reading signals
at a great distance and observing fixed
points minutely. Besides these there Is
a certain mysterious paste board disc,
stamped with a circle of figures and a
sliding interior one of letters correspond
tdeach This is the key and clue Of the
whole matter, and to the uninitiated Is, Of
course impehetrable. -g-.-...+ ~,
When a message is aboutto be sent the
flag man takes his station upon some ell
eYated object, and ''calls' the station with
which he desires to communicate, by way-
ing the flag or torch slowly to and fro
The operator seated at the glass watches
closely the distant flag, and soon as it re-
spends by dipping heis ready to send his
Dispatch Holding the written message
before him, he calls out to the tiagman GER
tain numbers each figure or combination
of figures standing for letter The flag
man indicates each seperate figure by an
ingenious combination Of a few very sim
/ pie motions. For instance, one stroke of
the flag from a perpindicular to a right
horizontal, indicates that another, a stroke
executing a lfcircle, another, &c. After
each motion indicating figure, the flag
returns always to perpindicular. There
are few syllables which are indicated
by a single stroke Of the flag; otherwise
the word must be spelled out letter by let
| ter.a Experienced signal officers, however,
employ many abbreyiations by emitting
| vowels, &c, so that scarcely a single word,
i unless very unused one is spelled out
in full
l. When message is being received the
operator sits at the glass, with the hagman
near to record it. This the operator then
i1iterperts for not even the General himself
IS in the secret and by supplying the
omitted voWels, d, makes out an intelhgl-
bic piece of the Kings English.
The rapidity with which all this Is exc
cpted by experienced operators is astonish-
ilg~ The flag is kept insuch rapid motion
that the eye of the expert can hardly fol.
low, and his wonder is increased by being
Ldld that the reader, of whom he can not
see the slightest indication with his naked
eye, is ten or twevs miles away. An or
dinary message Of few lines is dispatch.
ed in ten minutes; a whole page Of fools
cap occupies about thirty minutes IN it'
transmission Officers who have long
worked together, and are intimately &C
duainted with I each others abbrevia'
tibns and peculiar expressions, eanimprovt
upon even this speed. H-i7
The distance also through which signals
can be transmitted without an intermediate
station is surprising. Last spring, Capt
/ l yeonard, schief signal officer of the All
Corps, sent dispatches regularly from Ring
gold to oSummerville, on Lookout Mountain
/ a distance Of eighteen miles. Lieutenant
William Renolds, formerly Of the 10th
Corps, signalled from the deck of a guI
boat twenty miles into Port Royal Har-
Dor. n. Daniels was sent by the Secreta-
ry Of War to Maryland Heights to givein.
formation of the enemys movements, ano
he succeeded in sending messages rapidly
over the extraordinary distance Of twenty
four miles-from the Heights to SugAr-loai
Mountains-te Frederick But these
instances require remarkably favor
able conditions of the atmosphere, locality
&c. Ordinary messages are not sent 4
greater distance than six or eight miles
Last night a dispatch was sent to Genera
Sehofeld's headquarters to Lost Mountain
a distance of six miles, and returned t.
General Hoolzer's quarters, directly oYel
which it passed going out, and a message
returned to General Schofeld in twenty
minutes from the time the inquiry left him
General Hooker is one mile from Genera
Schoheld, and directly between him and
| the mountain. but an intervening forest