OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 828 Today's Topics: #1 Fw: Bio History -- Know your Ohio- ["Maggie Stewart" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <067d01bf3ec1$3d0dfb80$0300a8c0@local.net> Subject: Fw: Bio History -- Know your Ohio-- Ohio in the Civil War-- Pt 13 B Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: kathi kelley To: Sent: Sunday, November 28, 1999 2:11 AM Subject: Bio History -- Know your Ohio-- Ohio in the Civil War-- Pt 13 B *********************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio From the diaries of S. L. Kelley Know your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley *********************************************** Ohio in the Civil War -- part 13 B. The Military Telegraph Service -- Especially important was the technical work of Bates, Chandler, and Tinker enciphering and deciphering important messages to and from the great contending armies, which was done by code. Stager devised the first cipher, which was so improved by the cipher operators that it remained untranslatable by the Confederates to the end of the war. An example of the method in gneral use, given by Plum in his " History Of the Military Telegraph " is Lincoln' dispatch to ex-secretary Cameron when with Meade. south of Gettysburg. Brilliant and conspicuous service was rendered by the cipher operators of the War Department in translating Confederate cipher messages which fell into Union hands. A notable incident in the field was the translation of General Joseph E.Johnson's cipher message to Pemberton, captured by Grant before Vicksburg and forwarded to Washington. More important were the two ciper dispatches from the Secretary of War at Richmond, in December. 1863, which led to a cabinet meeting and culminated in the arrest of Confederate conspirators in New York City, and to the capture of contraband shipments of arms and ammunition. Other intercepted and translated ciphers revealed plans of Confederate agents for raiding Northern towns near the border. Most important of all were the cipher disclosing the plot for the wholesale incendiarism of leading hotels in New York, which barely failed of success on November 25, 1864. Beneficial and desireable as were the civil cooperation and management of the telegraph service in Washington, its forced extention to armies in the field was a mistaken policy. Patterson, in the Valley of Virginia, was five days without word fron the War Department, and when he was sent a dispatch, July 20th that Johnson had started to reinforce Beauregard with 35,200 men, this vital message was not sent to McDowell with whom touch was kept by a service half- telegraphic and half-courier. The necessity of efficient field-telegraphs at once impressed military commanders. In the west, Freemont immediately acted, and in August 1861, ordered the formation of a telegraph battalion of three companies along lines in accord with modern military practice. Major Myer had already made similar suggestions in Washington, without success While the commercial companies placed their personnel and material freely at the Government's disposal,they viewed with marked disfavor any military organization, and their recommendations were potent with Secretary of War Cameron. Fremont was ordered to disband his battalion, and a purely civil bureau was substituted, though legal authority and funds were lacking. Efforts to transfer quartermaster's funds and properly to this bureau were successfully resisted, owing to the manifest illegality of such action. Indirect methods were then adopted, and Stager was commissioned as a Captain in the Quartermaster's Department and his operators given the status of employees. He was appointed general manager of the United States telegraph lines, November 25,1861, and six days later, through some unknown influence, the Secretary of War reported ( incorrectly, be it known ), " that under an appropriation for that purpose at the last session of Congress, a telegraph bureau was established." Stager was later made a colonel, Eckert a major, and a few others captains, and so eligible for pensions, but the men in lesser positions remained employees, non-pensionable and subject to draft. Repeated efforts by petitions and recommendations for giving a military status were made by the men in the field later in the war. The Secretary of War disapproved, saying that such a course would place them under the orders of Superior officers, which he was most anxious to avoid. With corporation influence and corps rivalries so rampant in Washington, there exsisted a spirit of patriotic solidarity in the face of the foe, in the field that ensured hearty cooperation and efficient service. While the operators began the sence of individual independance that caused them often to resent any control by commanding officers, from which they were free under the Secretary's orders, yet their common sense speedily led them to comply with every request from commanders that was not absolutely incompatible with loyalty to their chief. Especially in the public eye was the work connected with the operations in the armies which covered Washington and attacked Richmond, where McClellan first used the telegraph for tactical purposs. Illustrative of the courage and resourcefulness of operators was the action of Jesse Bunnell, attached to General Porter's headquarters. Finding himself on the fighting line, with the Federal troops hard pressed, Bunnell, without orders, cut the wire and opened communication with McClellan's headquarters. Superior Confederate forces were then threatening defeat to the invaders, but this battle-office enabled McClellan to keep in touch with the situation and ensure Porter's position by sending the commands of French, Meagher, and Slocum to his relief. Operator Nichols opened an emergency office at Savage's Station on Stimner's request, maintaining it under fire as long as it was needed. One of the great feats of the war was the transfer, under the supervision of Thomas A. Scott. of two Federal army corps from Virginia to Tennessee, consequent on the Chickamauga disaster to the Union arms. By this phenomental transfer, which would seem impossible without the military telegraph, twenty-three thousand soldiers, with provisions and baggage, were transported a distance of 1,233 miles in eleven and a half days,from Brstoe Station Virginia to Chattanooga,Tennessee. The troops had completed half their journey before the news of the proposed movement reached Richmond. While most valuable elsewhere, the military telegraph was absolutely essential to successful operations in the valley's of the Cumberland and of the Tennessee, where very long lines of communication obtained, with consequent great distances between the separate armies. Apart from train-dispatching, which was absolutely essential to transporting army supplies for hundreds of thousands of men over a single track railway of several hundred of miles in length, an enormous number of messages for the control and cooperation of separate armies and detached commands were sent over the wires. Skill and patience were necessary for efficient telegraph work, especially when lines were frequently destroyed by Confederate incursions or through hostile inhabitants of the country. Of great importance and of intense interest are many of the cipher dispatches sent over these lines. Few, however, exceeded the ringing messages of October 19, 1863, when Grant, from Louisville, Kentucky, bid Thomas " to hold Chattanooga at all hazards," and received the laconic reply in a few hours, " I will hold the town till we starve," Here, as elsewhere, appeared the anomaious conditions of the service. ********************************************** to be continued in part 13-C ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 20:38:14 -0500 From: "Maggie Stewart" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <068301bf3ec1$65c85020$0300a8c0@local.net> Subject: Fw: Bio History--Know your Ohio -- Ohio in the Civil War-- Pt 13C Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: kathi kelley To: Sent: Sunday, November 28, 1999 3:49 PM Subject: Bio History--Know your Ohio -- Ohio in the Civil War-- Pt 13C Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley. Nov 29, 1999 *********************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio From the diaries of S.L. Kelley Know your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley *********************************************** Ohio in the Civil War-- Pt 13 C The Military Telegraph Service-- While telegraph duties were performed with efficiency, troubles were often precipitated by divided authority. When Superintendent Stager ordered a civilian, who was engaged in building lines, out of Halleck's department, the General ordered him back, saying " There must be one good head of telegraph lines in my department, not two,and that head must be under me." Though Stager protested to Secretary of War Stanton, the latter thought it best to yield in that case. When General Grant found it expedient to appoint an aide as general manager of lines in his army, the civilian chief, J.C. Van Duzer, reported it to Stager, who had Grant called to account by the War Department. Grant promptly put Van Duzer under close confinement in the guardhouse, and later sent him out of the department, under guard. As a outcome, the operators planned a strike, which Grant quelled by telegraphic orders to confine closely every man resigning or guilty of confumacious conduct. Stager's efforts to dominate Grant failed through Stanton's fear that pressure would cause Grant to ask for relief from his command. Stager's administration culminated in an order by his assistant, dated Cleveland, November 4, 1862; strictly requiring the operators to retain " the orginal copy of every telegram sent by any military or other Government officer----and mailed to the War Department." Grant answered, " Colonel Stager has no authority to demand the orginal of military dispatches, and cannot have them." The order was never enforced, at least with Grant. If simular exeriences did not change the policy in Washington, it produced better conditions in the field and ensured harmonious cooperation. Of Van Duzer, it was said that he later returned to the army and performed conspicuous service. At the Battle of Chattanoga, he installed and operated lines on or near the firing-line during two fateful days, November 24-25, 1863, often under heavy fire. Always sharing the dangers of his men, Van Duzer, through his coolness and activity under fire, has been mentioned as the only fighting of officer of the Federal telegraph service. Other then telegraphic espionage, the most dangerous service was the repair of lines. which often was done under fire and more frequently in a guerilla-infested country. Many men were captured or shot from ambush while thus engaged. Two of Clowry's men in Arkansas were not only murdered, but were frightfully mutilated. In Tennessee, conditions were sometimes so bad that no linemen would venture out save under heavy escort. Three repairmen were killed on Fort Donelson line alone. About one in every twelve of the operators engaged in the service of repair were killed, wounded, captured, or died in the service from exposure, as was stated in the " Military Telegraph Papers" by W.R. Plum. Telegraphic duties at military headquarters yielded little in brillancy and interest compared to those of desperate daring associated with tapping the opponet's wires. At times, offices were seized so quickly as to prevent telegraphic warnings. General Mitchel captured two large Confederate railway trains by sending false messages from Huntsville, Alabama office, and General Seymour similarly seized a train near Jacksonville, Florida. While scouting, Operator William Foster, obtained valuable dispatches by tapping the line along the Charleston-Savannah railway, two days. Discovered, he was pursued by bloodhounds into a swamp, where he was captured up to his armpits in mire. Later, the telegrapher died in prison. In 1863, General Rosecrans deemed it most important to learn whether Bragg was detaching troops to reinforce the garrison at Vicksburg or for other purposes. The only certain method seemed to be by tapping the wires along the Chattanoga railroad, near Knoxville, Tennessee. For this most dangerous duty, two daring members of the telegraph service volunteered-- S.F. Van Valkenbergh and Patrick Mullarkev. The latter afterward was captured by Morgan, in Ohio. With four Tennesseans, they entered the hostile country and, selecting a wooded place, tapped the line, fifteen miles from Knoxville, and for a week listened to all passing dspatches. Twice escaping detection, they heard a message going over the wire which ordered the scouring of the district to capture Union spies. They at once decamped, barely in time to escape the patrol. Hunted by cavalry, attacked by guerillas, approached by Confederate spies, they found aid from Union mountaineers, to whom they owed their safety. Struggling on, with capture and death in daily prospect, they finally fell in with Union pickets--beng then half starved, clothed in rags, and with naked, bleeding feet. They had been thirty-three days within the Confederate lines, and their stirring adventures make a story rarely equaled in thrilling interest. Confederate wires were often tapped during Sherman's march to the sea, a warning of General Wheeler's coming raid being thus obtained. Operator Loneergan copied important dispatches from Hardee, in Savannah, giving Bragg's movements in the rear of Sherman, with reports on cavalry and rations. Wiretapping was also practiced by the Confederates, who usually worked in, a sympathetic community. Despite their daring skill the net results were often small, owing to the Union system of enciphering all important messages. their most audiacious and persistant telegraphic scout was Ellsworth. Morgan's operator, whose skill, courage, and resourcefullness contributed largely to the success of his daring commander. Ellsworth was an expert in obtaining dispatches, and especially in disseminating misleading information by bogus messages. The ciper- operators with the various armies were men of rare skill. unswerving integrity, unfailing loyalty. Caldwell, as chief operator, accompanied the Army of the Potomac on every march and seige, contributing also to the efficiency of field-telegraphs. Beckwith was Grant's cipher operator to the end of the war, and was the man who tapped a wire and reported the hiding place of Wilkes Booth. It is regretable that such men were denied the glory and benifits of a military service, which they actually, though not officially. gave. During siege operations at Petersburg, a system of lines connected the various headquarters, depots, entrenchments, and even some picket lnes. Cannonading and sharpshooting were so insistant and operators were often driven to bombproof offices--epecially during artillery duels and impending assualts. Nerve racking were the sounds and uncomfortably dangerous situations, yet the operators held their posts. Under terrible conditions of an night assault, the last despairing attempt to break through the encircling Federal forces at Petersburg, hurried orders and urgent appeals were sent. At dawn of March 25,1865, General Gordon carried Fort Stedman with desperate gallantry, and cut the wire to City Point. The Federals speedily sent the message of disaster. Assuming command, General Parke ordered a counter attack and recaptured the Fort. Promptly the wire was restored, and Meade, controlling the whole army by telegraph. made a combined attack by several corps, capturing the entrenched picket line of the Confederates. First of all the great commanders, Grant used the military telegaph both for grand tactics and for strategy in its broadest sense. From his headquarters with Meade's army in Virginia, May, 1864, he daily gave orders and received reports regarding the operations of Meade in Virginia, Sherman in Georgia, Sigel in West Virginia, and Butler on the James River. Later he kept under direct control military forces exceeding half a million of soldiers, operating over a territory of eight hundred thousand square miles in area. Through concerted action and timely movements, Grant prevented the reinforcement of Lee's Army and so shortened the war. Sherman said, " The value of the telegraph cannot be exaggerated, as illustrated by the perfect accord of action of the armies of Virginia and Georgia," ********************************************** civil war in Ohio to be continued-- -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #828 *******************************************