Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-08-22
THE U. S, SIGNAL CORPS.
A MILITARY BRANCH OFTEN CALLED
AN ARMY'S NERVOUS SYSTEM.


| ways Taken From the Ranks.
When an infantryman, an artillery
man OF a cavalryman by his own choice
becomes, at the end of his enlistment,
member of the United States Signal
Corps, he lays down his gun and
ceases to be counted among the often
sive elements which comprise the
army. He has not, however, chosen
a lighter berth, nor one fraught with
less danger and hardship. On the
contrary, his new place is oftener
than not the most dangerous one that
the life of soldier affords, and cer-
tainly always one of the most import
ant in modern scientific warfare.
A signal man is, by preference of
the War Department, chosen from the
ranks of the army and his officers from
the army line. Long service alone
does not make competent signal man
of soldier. Like the recruit in all of
the other branches, the new signal
man must go to school. A year of
hard work in the Government school
at one of the army posts fits him fairly
we'll for his new place
He begins by learning what can be
done with the signal flag, the simplest
instrument in the hands of the corps
The Myer system, by which motion
of the flag to the right means one, to
the left two, and in front three, is
simple; but to become familiar with
the code, which gives a meaning to
the dips of the flag, is a matter of a
month or two. Once it is learned,
however, the student needs only to
practice it few hours to become an
expert with the heliograph. The we'll
fitted signal man is a student of topog-
raphy and draughting, photographer,
an electrician, telegraph operator
and handy man at carrying the sur
veyol's chain, digging pole holes or
climbing the poles after they are set
The art of handling balloon and of
operating it are also taught him. If
he has come to the Signal Corps from
the infantry he learns, besides all
other things, to ride horse, and in
practice usually has assigned to him
the toughest kind of horse, in order
that he may in the end become proof
against the ordinary injuries incident
to the widest sort of riding, over all
sorts of countries, under circum-
stances which would render any other
uniformed man hors de combat then
and there.
He works that others may fight with
| the best results, and even when there
is fighting his work goes on, within
the lines if necessity demands it, no
matter how thick the bullets fly. AS
an officer expressed it: "The Signal
Corps is the nervous system of the
army-its eyes and ears and tongue. "
With wagons and horses the corps
starts out in advance of an invading
army, trailing wire behind it, aud at
almost every instant it reports to the
commanding officer all that is heard
and seen. As the wire unwinds from
the reel small detachment fastens it
to the trunks of trees, if there are any
within reach, or sets it up on poles
carried along for the purpose if the
country be bare. Another detach-
ment with field glasses and photo
graph instruments rides ahead, taking
shap shots and sending back by
couriers information as to the country
and the Photographic plates. In
wagons fitted with draughting boards
and dark rooms are men who develop
the plates by rapid process, and as
hastily as possible make from them
blue prints. The man at the board
notes the observations of the scouts,
and with point and scale hastily draws
a Typographical map of the country.
This is no rough guess work, for with
the scouts goes the skilled surveyor
with his instruments. His glass and
Compass tell him directions and planes,
but for distances he depends upon an
other glass which, by the system upon
which the artilleryman' rangefinder
operates, tells him the miles.
Thus he learns how far range of
mountains is away from him, and how
high it is. If q river crosses the in
tended route, it takes him but mo-
ment to find how far away it may be,
and over the wire back to camp goes
the word that the engineer corps must
be hurried forward to build a bridge
for the passage of the army. The
courier who takes the maps to the
camp also carries the blue prints, and
the commander is thus enabled to
formulate his plans upon certain
knowledge.
Should the camp be moved a de-
tachment of the corps follows in the
rear, taking up the lines which have
been laid. If the advance of an enemy
from the rear is expected the corps
stays behind as an outpost. If the
country through which the army is
moving be infested by the enemy a
guard must stay behind to protect the
telegraph wire.
Distance hampers this method OF
communication, but by means of relay
stations if the country happens to be
hilly one, at intervals of fifteen
miles as the greatest distance by the
cipher code, and the one, two, three
system the observations with instru-
ments can go on without Interrupt
ton, while the map-making is done in
camp. The disadvantages of bare,