The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-21

darkness as would be dispatched during
the day. These torch signals can be seen
as far as ten and fifteen miles. Rockets
are also valuable at night though som
times being obscured by clouds Colored
fires are also used the colors red. white
and green being employed, and burned n
holders shaped like an ordinary pistol. If
the signalst is provided with only the
free colors, red white and green. he can
indicate nine messages by burning one tr
two cartridges of these cOlored lights; by
lighting three or less than three at one
time he can forward twenty-seven dis
patches; by burning four signals at once
as high rs eighty-one messages can be
sent. fourth color is secured by a tint
known as ''red-white" and by combina-
lions Of this as high as 255 dispatches can
be forwarded. The colors, red, white and
green, indicate certain numbers by which
symbols meaning a phrase are denoted.
The heads of the signal corps expect to
use the balloon IN locating the enemy and
communicating with the army. These
balloons win be carried by the corps on
wagons arranged with pipes so that an in
fiation by means of hydrogen gas can be
made at any time. The basket of the
balloon will be used by several signal men
who viii be fully equipped with every in
strunent for detecting the foe, while from
the car to the ground viii run a line of
telegraph wire which pays out by means
of a reel in the basket The balloon Will
be held captive as a rule, and with the
aid of a telescope can be sent up near
enough to discern the movements of an
enemy, but so far off as to be out of reach
of a shot Experiments with balloons
have of late years been carried out in the
posts of the West, and by means with
which the telephone can be utilized, its
use has been greatly enhanced. With the
phone wire at hand, the signal man hiSh
up in the air can watch every movement
of the adversary through a glass, viii be
/ safe from danger and talk at the same
time to the general in command of the
| army in the field below.
! The services of the signal corps were
utilized by the generals of the late wal
| and by their means almost every Important
movement and battle was guided. All OF
| the old war horses used the code for send
| ing information. while the Confederates al
so employed a system of signals and CODE
| of their own When Sheridan was cam
paigning in the valley Early found tha
Howard, Sheridan's signal other, was
reading the Confederate signals sent. -
he had a decoy dispatch forwarded t'
himself, intending that Howard should IN
tercept it. 1t read;
Lieut. Gen. Early Fishers Hi: B'
ready to advance on Sheridan as soon a
my forces set up, and We can crush mn
before he finds out 1 have joined you.
- Longsreet"
When sheridan was told Of this dispatcl
he at once wired Il to Washington, ana j
was also telegraphed to Grant. IL wa
some time before Sheridan found out tina
Iongstreet was not in that part OF Tn
country and the whole thing clever ruse
The idea Of the signal corps as 1t is use'
TODAY in this and other countries origi
mated in the brain Of Gen. Albert j. Myer
a native of New York. and an expert te
Ieerapher In 1851 his attention was calie
10 the clumsy and complex method of mill
tary signaling as then employed, and
was when serving in New Mexico that b
| observed the Comancne InNAans making
s;gnals from The hills by the waving u
their lances. hence was induced to reduc
the army signals to a simple code whic
would put all parts OF the army in com
munication. by constant attention fror
Myer. the thing grew from an unmportan
branch to what Is now regarded a. one O
the most useful means OF watching tn
enemy ana the work once done 10y cavalr
is performed more rapidly and more effec
lively by the corps of to-day. Instead d
a solitary scout we have now hundreds q
men with teegraphs ana telephones, flag.
photographs. and balloons, SO that the enc
, my can be discovered for miles in the dis
? lance. and the general can talk, eve
when on the march, 20 all parts of hi
, forces.