Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/190

* SIGISMXJND. 152 SIGNAL COKPS. became affianced to Mary, heiress of Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland, and in 1387 succeeded to the Hungarian crown. In 1396 he undertook a crusade against the Turks supported by a large force of French and German knights, but at jSicopolis, September 28th, he suf- fered an ovenvhelming defeat at the hands of Bajazet I. In 1401 a formidable uprising drove him from the throne, but he was restored w itli the aid of hired troops and seems henceforth to have ruled with wisdom and moderation in internal affairs. He waged a long succession of wars in order to extend the power of Hungary over Bos- nia, Dalmatia, and Servia, but, although success at first attended his efJ'orts, the Hungarian arms were kept in check by the Venetians and Turks. He was elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1411 and was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1414. He now appears in his most celebrated role as the au- thor and protector of the Council of Constance and the guiding spirit in its deliberations. He brought about the deposition of Pope John XXIII., and showed himself zealous in the course of thorough ecclesiastical reform. Much obloquy, however, has attached to him for his desertion of John Huss (q.v.). whom he granted a safe conduct for the purpose of attending the council and then allowed to be burnt at the stake. In 1419, on the death of his brother Yenceslas, the succession to the crown of Bohemia, fell to Sigis- mund. But the Hussites (q.v.) were already in arms, and the country became the theatre of a long and bloody conflict, in which the forces of Sigisnumd and the crusading armies of Germany met with terrible defeats. It was not vuitil 143(3 that Sigismund was recognized as King of Bo- hemia. He visited Italy "in 1431 and 1433, re- ceiving the Lombard crown at ililan and the Im- perial cro^^^l at Rome. He died at Znaim, De- cember 9. 1437, the last of the House of Luxem- burg. Ciifted in mind and body, kindly in action, and sincerely concerned for the welfare of the Empire, Sigismund encountered repeated failure on account of the very defects of an amiable and pleasure-loving disposition. Consult : Aschbach, Oeschichte Knher 8iegmunds (Hamburg, 1838- 45) : Creighton, History of the Papacy (Lon- don. 1S94)". SIGISMUND I. (1467-1548). King of Poland from 1506 to 1.548. called the Great. He was the youngest son of Casimir IV. and succeeded his brother Alexander as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. In 1508 Sigismund gained a brilliant victory over the Russians at Orsha, on the Dnieper. Bogdan, voivode of iNIol- davia, was reduced to submission and the Tatars were severely punished. The Russians were de- cisively defeated a second time by Ostrogski in 1514. Subsequent invasions of the Muscovites were repelled as before, and a rebellion of the Wallachs was punished by numerous defeats. A war with the Teutonic Knights was terminated in 1525 by the Treaty of Cracow, in which the Grand blaster Albert, Sigismimd's nephew-, was ' recognized as Duke of Prussia, which was to be held as a fief of Poland. In 1526 Sigismund aided Hungary against Solyman the Magnificent, and a numerous force of Polish cavaliers fought bravely on the fatal field of MohScs. An impor- tant event of Sigismund's reign was the introduc- tion and extension of Lutheranism in Poland. Sigismund died at Cracow, April 1, 1548, and was succeeded by his son Sigisuund II. Augus- tus (1548-72), who continued the tolerant policy of his father and eUVcted the formal pernuuient union of Lithuania and Poland at the Diet of Lublin (1569). He was the last of the male line of the Jagellons. See Poland. SIGISMUNDA, se'jes-miin'da. The heroine of one of tlic most widely known tales in Boc- caccio's Decamerone, whose father, Tancred of Salerno, punishes her secret love for the page Guiseardo by sending the latter's heart to the Princess in a golden cup. The story was para- phrased by Dryden. SICKMAKINGEN. A line of the elder or Swabian branch of the House of HohenzoUern (q.v.). SIGMOID FLEXURE. See Intestine ; Rec- tum. SIGNAL CORPS, U. S. Army. That branch of the army to which is assigned the duty of maintaining communication between headquarters and all liranches of the military service. In the United States Army this duty is assigned to a special corps, who are expert in the use of flag, heliograph, pyrotechnic, telephone, and tele- graph signals, the building of telegraph lines and ocean cables, the management of carrier pigeons, the deciphering of secret ciphers, and the devising of new systems of cipher, the use of balloons, and in fact every method of communi- cation that can be or has been devised. See Signaling and Telegraphing, Military. The Signal Corps of the United States Army dates officially from the appointment of Major Albert J. Myer in 1860 as chief signal officer. His system of military signals by means of flags was an improvement upon the semaphore tele- graph, which had been used since 1790 in Europe and to a slight extent in America. The Signal Corps received a separate and systematic organ- ization by act of March 3, 1863, and its members served with great efficiency on all fields of battle and even on naval vessels. At the close of the war it was again reorganized by the act of July 28, 1866. but in a very unsatisfactory manner, and a school of instruction was established at Fort Whipple, now Fort Myer. near Washington, D. C. By act of Congress, February 9. 1870^ the Secretary of War was authorized to provide for the taking of meteorological observations throughout the country and for the prediction of storms; he assigned this duty to the chief signal officer of the army. Eventually it became ap- parent that the meteorological work was more important than the military work and that it could be quite as well done by civilian organiza- tion. Therefore, on .July 1, 1891, an act of Con- gress took effect by virtue of which a Weather Bureau (q.v.) proper was organized in the De- partment of Agriculture and all the men and the duties relating thereto were transferred to it from the War Department. On the other hand, the Signal Corps of the United States Army was at the same time reorganized so as to contain ten commissioned officers and 50 en- listed men as sergeants. Organization. The Signal Corps, LTnited States Army, consists of a chief signal officer with the rank of brigadier -general, 1 colonel, 1 lieutenant-colonel, 4 majors, 14 captains, 14 first lieutenants, 80 first-class sergeants, 120 ser-