Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/99

 The Signal Corps in the Confederate States Army. 93

The Signal Corps in the Confederate States Army.

"Though communicating by signal and in cipher is as old as the time of Polybius, its application to military correspondence and messages on the field of battle had been so little systematized and developed when you were put in charge of the Confederate Signal Corps, that the art might, for practical purposes, be regarded as a new one. By judicious arrangement and administration it attained a high efficiency, and to you largely belongs the credit for that result." Letter of Jefferson Davis to Colonel Wm. Norris.

The beginnings of the Signal Service in the Confederate army were about simultaneous in the Peninsular command of General John B. Magruder and in the Army of Northern Virginia under General Beauregard. Captain Norris, a member of General Magruder's staff a gentleman of scientific education and of some nautical expe- rience called the attention of the General to the advantages to be derived from a system of signals connecting his outposts and his headquarters with Norfolk. Magruder forthwith gave Captain Norris the necessary authority to establish the service, and appointed him Signal Officer to the command.

The signals used by Captain Norris were similar to the marine signals in use by all maritime nations. Poles were erected on which were displayed flags and balls, the combinations of which indicated various phrases, such as were conceived to be most in demand to express the exigencies likely to arise.

Captain Norris (hereinafter to be spoken of as Colonel* William Norris, Chief of the Signal Corps, Confederate States army,) caused to be made copper stencils, from which colored plates of the com- binations were made, and upon the same page of the book which contained the plates were written the meanings of the combinations. The plates were colored by Miss Belle Harrison, of "Brandon," and Miss Jennie Ritchie, of Richmond. The system was from time to time improved by Colonel Norris, and this was one of the beginnings of the signal service in the Confederate States army.

The other was at Beauregard's headquarters at Manassas Junction at about the same time in the summer of 1861. Captain (afterwards General) E. P. Alexander, attached to the staff of General Beaure-

higher than that of Major. EDITOR.
 * His rank in the Confederate States army appears never to have been