Signal Corps Flags

[CJDaley]

I'm not sure if I've ever published these photos or not:

Here are some pics of a set of signal Corps flags in the National CW Museum in Harrisburg:

There were 4 flags in the set. Two white with a red center and two red with a white center. All were made from cotton bunting and are labeled "National Flag/1863/Depot NY"

The regs call for a total of 7 flags in various sizes and colors to be used by the signal corps. The smallest of the flags was supposed to be 48"x48", but these flags measured 43X43, 44X45, 48X47 and 49X 50. All are machine sewn and have various signs of wear.

There appears to be a hand drawn 19th Corps Badge in the center of one set of flags.

[Todd Watts]

Re: Signal Corps Flags

Nifty. Stones River Nat'l Battlefield just re-acquired a Signal Corp kit that had been for years collecting dust at Kennesaw. We are planning to train a crew for our Park this season. Nice to see originals

[CJDaley]

Re: Signal Corps Flags

Nifty. Stones River Nat'l Battlefield just re-acquired a Signal Corp kit that had been for years collecting dust at Kennesaw. We are planning to train a crew for our Park this season. Nice to see originals

I'm going to make a set or two in hopes of using them at some local battlefields.

Here are some of the communcation lines I know were set up in 1862 and 1863

South Mountain to Red Hill to Antietam
Harrisburg to Camp Hill to Gettysburg and back.
Gettysburg to Sugar Loaf Mountain to Washington City and back.

It always makes me laugh to see reenactors signaling from 50 yards away when these flags were meant to cover miles and miles of communcation lines.

[Todd Watts]

Re: Signal Corps Flags

Yep. Two years ago a nice living history group visited Stones River one weekend and set up many displays. They had a telegraph that they wired just around camp to show how it operated, and also did a signal corp demo from across the main field near the visitor center, roughly 500 yds.

I have a bit more interest in signal corps because I own a high hill on the Rutherford/Bedford Co line which served as a signal station. In the 6 month period between Stones River and the Tullahoma Campaign, the South controlled it and could see most of the "no-man's land" along with many other hill tops which could signal to one another. As the Feds moved south from Murfreesboro, the signal flags were surely waving from all hills in the region warning Bragg of Rosecrans's movements (not that it did Bragg any good). After the Tullahoma Campaign, that region remained in US hands for the most part and probably US signal corpsmen also used it for a while. I have been looking with my letal detector but so far have not found anything of 1860s age that I can tell, unless a horseshoe I found on top may have been. I keep hoping for something to prove the signal corp lore there.