The Telegraph: The Civil War Text Machine

Welcome to the Museum of Artifacts that Made America and the story of a cutting-edge texting device essential to the Civil War. The Telegraph. Patented by U.S. inventor Samuel Morse in 1849, the Telegraph was the first technology anywhere that allowed people to communicate over long distances using code. When a key is tapped, it sends a signal along an electrical cable and comes out the other end in a sequence of dots and dashes. Which are easily translated. By the time the Civil War broke out, Telegraph lines enabled military leaders to conduct affairs from afar. They oversaw forces in the field, managed the delivery of supplies, stayed in touch with their bosses in the government, all via code. During the war, the Union Army installed 15,000 miles of Telegraph wire across the country and handled more than 6.5 million messages. Anson Stager, chief of the U.S. Military Telegraph Corps, even developed a secret code. So effective, President Lincoln was able to help direct military campaigns, personally sending almost 1,000 messages over four years. In contrast, the South's limited Telegraph network proved much less successful. When the Union Navy cut off Confederate supply lines, materials to build new Telegraphs quickly dried up. The Confederate Army even seized control of private Telegraph companies to stay in touch with their troops. Despite the Telegraph's vulnerabilities as a communication medium, it played a vital role in tactical and operational maneuvers during the Civil War and well into the 20th century. How would the war have progressed without the aid of Telegrams?