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Rh of the army. During the remainder of this year and until May, 1861, he was ordered to New Mexico and the Rocky Mountains by Secretary Floyd, for the purpose of giving his corps an opportunity to have actual practice in the field. On the breaking out of the war. Major Myer identified himself with the Union army. One of his lieutenants went over to the other side and succeeded in creating no little confusion, for with him he took a knowledge of the signal-service system, and it was not long before each army was able to read the signals of the other, so that constant changes in the key became necessary. He next served on General Butler's staff, at Fortress Monroe, and was General McClellan's chief signal-officer during the entire Peninsular campaign. In November, 1862, he took charge of the Signal-Office at Washington, Here he performed service which compelled recognition and remuneration at the hands of the Government, however unwillingly tendered, and he was brevetted as lieutenant-colonel for services at Hanover Court-House, colonel for services at Malvern Hill, and brigadier-general for "distinguished services in organizing, instructing, and commanding the Signal Corps of the army, and for its especial service October 5, 1864," when, by timely signals, were saved the post and garrison of Allatoona, Georgia.

It is said that General Myer was a strict disciplinarian, and exacting to the degree of intolerance. He had indomitable firmness, and it is possible that these traits of character may have been the causes why the overbearing Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton, took a dislike to him. But, whatever the causes, the Secretary's hatred took a violent form. When Myer was with Farragut before Mobile, he received an order, signed by Stanton, informing him that he was dropped out of the army on the ground that his appointment to the colonelcy had not been confirmed. Myer then came on to Washington, took a house, appealed to the Senators and Congressmen, and fought the matter out till he was reestablished. At the close of the war Colonel Myer began to turn his attention in the direction of meteorology, and to connect that science with the art of army signaling. The Smithsonian Institution had entered upon a system of taking weather observations in different parts of the country, and Colonel Myer began to work upon this basis, and more completely to elaborate a method of forecasting meteorological probabilities.

"In 1868 General Meyer published a 'Manual of Signals for the United States Army and Navy,' and about this time it was that his field of labor began to broaden and tend upward. By virtue of an act of Congress, approved February 9, 1870, he was charged with the special duties of observing and giving notice by telegraph and signals of the approach and force of storms on the Northern lakes and the seacoast, at military posts in the interior, and other points in the States and Territories. He reorganized the meteorological division of the Signal-Office in June, 1871. By an act approved March 3, 1873, he