THE SIGNAL CORPS No other arm of the military services during
the Civil War excited a tithe of the curiosity and interest
which surrounded the Signal Corps. To the onlooker, the messages
of its waving flags, its winking lights and its rushing rockets
were always mystic in their language, while their tenor was
often fraught with thrilling import and productive of far-
reaching effects. The signal system, an American device, was
tested first in border warfare against hostile Navajos;
afterward the quick-witted soldiers of both the Federal and
Confederate armies developed portable signaling to great
advantage. The invention of a non-combatant, Surgeon A.J. Myer,
it met with indifferent reception and evoked hostility in its
early stages. When the stern actualities of war were realized,
its evolution proceeded in the Federal army in face of
corporation and departmental opposition, yet despite all adverse
attacks it ultimately demonstrated its intrinsic merits. Denied
a separate organization until the war neared its