The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1864-08-19
about Army Signals.

llou VI lut ullles Vi Slpilul OLlCclS anu
their manner of WORKING
This most interesting and useful arm
of the military service is, perhaps, less
heard Of by the public than any other,
and its invaluable labors rs well as its
frequent imminent perils are alike un-
recorded and therefore unappreciated;
the signal officer who would bring late
and full news to the commanding Gen
eral must undergo not a little fatigue
and hardship. He must climb high
trees to watch the enemy he must
penetrate through tangled thickets and
forests, in search of eligible stations !;
he must climb the sides of steep and
rugged mountains, and his bright and
snowy flag never fails to attract the
rebel sharpshooter's fire when he is in
reach, which he must often be to secure
good post, or observe the enemy.
When once a station is established
his flag must never droop by day nor
his torch grow dim by night, till he has
orders from his chief to abandon the
post for new one. And yet so great
is the mystery with which he must en-
shroud his art, SO profoundly secret
must he keep the weighty messages
|. and orders confided to him, and SO 81
lent are its operations, that the world
and even the army know little about
him. He alone is proof against the
wiles of those universal, walking in
terrogation points" the correspon-
dents, though he, above all others, is
the man whom they would delight to
be permitted to use" But he has
his reward for all this. In the clear,
upper air where he dwells, he sees, as
with a hawks eye, the whole great
drama played out beneath him, he sees
the long lines of men deployed through
the valleys and knows where they go
and why ; his eyes feast upon the field
of battle, where the column of attack
rushes impetuously down a wooded
slope, across an open field, and up into
another piece of woods, and all is
clear to him and Ineligible, while to
others, who must grovel on the ground,
there is nothing but an exasperating
muddle.
Signal stations are of two kinds: re-
fleeing stations, and stations of obser-
walton the former for transmitting
dispatches, the latter for watching the
enemy and communicating the results
to the commander. Both are con-
structed on the same principles, and
employ the same instruments. The
latter are few and simple.
The flag is made of different colors,
to contrast with the line of the back
ground, white, black or red. The one
usually employed is but four feet
square for the largest distances it is
made six feet square, and mounted on
a third joint of staff to give it wider
range. The marine glass is used for
scanning the horizon, and making gen
eral observations the telescope for
reading signals at a great distance,
and observing fixed points infinitely.
Beside these there is certain mysteri-
GUS pasteboard disc, stamped with a
circle of figures, and sliding interior
one of letters corresponding to each.
This is the key and clue of the whole
course impenetrable.
When message is about to be sent,
the fiagman takes his station upon
some elevated object, and "calls" the
station with which he desires to COM
municate by waving the flag or torch
slowly to and fro. The operator seat
ed at the glass watches closely the dis
tant flag, and as soon as it responds by
dipping, he is ready to send his dis
patch. Holding the written message
before him, he calls out to the fagman
{. certain numbers, each figure or com
bination of figures standing for letter.
The flagman indicates each separate
figure by an ingenious combination of
a few very simple motions For in
stance, one stroke of the flag from a
perpendicular to a right horizontal in
dicates one figure stroke to the left
horizontal, indicates another q stroke
executing half circle another, &c.
After each motion indicating a figure,
the flag returns always to perpen-
dicular. There are few syllables
which are indicated by single stroke
of the flag otherwise the word must
be spelled out letter by letter. Expert
enced signal officers, however, employ
many abb eviations by emitting vowels,
&c, SO that scarcely single word, I'M
less very unused one, is spelled out
in full.
When message is being received
the operator sits at the glass, with the
fagman near to record it. This the
operator then interprets, for not even
the General himself is in the secret,
and by supplying the omitted vowels'
&c, makes out an ineligible piece Of
the Kings English.
The rapidity with which all this is
executed by experienced operators is
astonishing, The flag is kept in such
rapid motion that the eye of the mex
pert can scarcely follow, and his won
der is increased by being told that the
reader, of whom he can not see the
slightest indication with his naked eye,
is ten or twelve miles away An ordi-
nary message of few lines is des-
patched iii ten minutes (; whole page
of foolscap occupies about thirty min
utes in its transmission. Officers who
have long worked together, and are
intimately acquainted with each others