Communications
Communications.From the Revolutionary War to the present, the American military has used communications in order to command and control its forces and other assets, but the technology has changed dramatically. Methods employed during the nation's war for independence (messengers, signal lights, and voice commands) differed little from those used by ancient armies.
During the Civil War, visual signaling remained the primary communications method. The utility of the electric telegraph (invented 1837) had been amply demonstrated by European armies since the 1850s; but Albert J. Myer gave it little attention when designing the nation's first military communications organization, the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Established by an act of Congress on 21 June 1860, the Signal Corps employed Myer's “wigwag” system. Using an adaptation of the Bain telegraph code, movements of flags (and at...
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