The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-04-29

mentous rs campaigns, battles and sieges
got on at all. Fancy a driving business
man Of Wall street sitting down to lonely
bachelor supper at Delmonico's and chat
ting away with his wife and children at the
Worlds fair in Chicago over the events and
pleasures Of the day; then fancy President
Lincoln and cabinet, the whole country and
all the armies not In the fight, waiting for
hours and hours in suspense over the issue
at Gettysburg; imagine Grant proposing to
absent himself from army headquarters In
the midst of the siege of Petersburg and
travel nearly 1000 miles to Nashville in
order TO be in close communication with
Thomas, and think OF Lincoln staying in
camp at the front, roughing it through all
kinds Of discomforts and dangers, to save
himself anxiety over the slackness Of war
news.
Today general could ring up tho presi-
dent and read of battlefield reports be-
tween maps, and president could ring up
the general at vicksburg or New Orleans
to explain to him that some Kearsarge had
sunk an Alabama that morning In the seas
of the Orient and that Russian contingent
of allies landed in New York at noon would
be in Virginia ready to attack Fredericks-
burg next morning.
Bismarck fought the six weeks war OF
1896 by rail and telegraph, but that was the
first time electricity played a part at all
analogous to it's position in affairs today.
Nevertheless the telegraph was big thing
in the civil war, and the fact that it was
comparatively new and in an experimental
stage made the life Of those operating it
one of exposure and daring Telegraphy
was on trial, and so with its champions, and
A.. H. ..l L~< ii
the pent up lightning to the scratch In time
Of need.
The ancients made use of swift runners
or Of men with phenomenal voices to carry
battle news and orders, while Napoleon
used carrier pigeons, like Caesar before him.
The first method in our war to come to my
notice was primitive indeed-simply line
Of men stretched across the feld passing
messages by word Of mouth. The theory
was perhaps that there would be ravins
or hill or some sort of shelter for tho men,
but It turned out that our people were
hemmed In on an open plain, and the teleg-
raphers made better targets than did the
combatants, for they stood the ordeal
bravely. They were soldiers detailed from
the ranks Shortly after that enlisted men
who could handle the key were put to work
on field telegraph, and the wires, strung
up on bayonets or pointed saplings set in
the earth, came into use on every battle
ground. Every risk was taken to get line
working. When Yorktown was evacuated,
young Ohioan named Lathrop, who was
an operator at headquarters, entered the
works with McClellan's skirmishers and
hurried to the telegraph Office to test the
circuit. The wires had been cut and left
dangling from pole. He quickly sprang
TO the foot of the pole, intending to climb it
and make a splice, but landed on buried
torpedo and was so badly injured by the
explosion which followed that he died in q
few hours.
The getting at wires and establishing q
circuit was the first thought of the operator.
In moving into the enemy's country the old
wires, poles and offices were looked after
first. II they were destroyed or damaged,
as was often the case, other means had to
be improvised. The wits OF the operators
were equal to every occasion Operator
Nichols at Summers headquarters during
the Seven Days battles on the peninsula
found that he had only three feet Of wire
with which to tap line ~ feet from the
ground. The main wire was in constant
use so he dare not ground 1t to make a
circuit, and General Sumner was anxious
to telegraph to his chief. A pile of cracker
boxes was lodged against tho pole, upon
which Nichols climbed and opened his Of
fice 1t was dark. and he was compelled to
hang a lantern on the wire in front of him.
The light gave the enemy n good target,
and they shelled it briskly, but Nichols
held the Office open until General Sumner
ordered him down. The daring operator
was lad under 1a
Another witty expedient was tho work of
w. G. Fuller in Kentucky early in 1862,
Morgan, the raider, captured his instru-
ments, and on reaching Columbia the Office
was found dismantled. The commanding
officer, General J. 4. Boyle, had some inn
portant messages to send, and thinking that
Fuller was trihing with him threatened to
have him shot. To vindicate his good in
tentions as well as save his life the unlucky
operator seized the ground wire in one