Arizona Territory

The Territory of Arizona was a territory claimed by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War, between 1861 and 1865. It consisted of the portion of the New Mexico Territory south of the 34th parallel north, including parts of the modern states of New Mexico and Arizona. Its capital was Mesilla along the southern border. The Confederate territory overlapped, but was not identical to, the Arizona Territory created by the United States in 1863.

The territory was officially declared on August 1, 1861, following the Confederate victory at the Battle of Mesilla. Confederate hold in the area was soon broken, however, after the Battle of Glorieta Pass, the defining battle of the New Mexico Campaign. In July, 1862, the government relocated to the town of El Paso, Texas, where it remained for the duration of the war.

However, the territory continued to be represented in the Confederate Congress and Confederate troops continued to fight under the Arizona banner until the war's end.

Herbert's Battalion of Arizona Cavalry

Company A, Arizona Rangers

Arizona Guards of Pinos Altos mining camp, Arizona Territorial Militia

Minute Men of Pinos Altos mining camp, Arizona Territorial Militia

Arizona Rangers of Mesilla, Arizona Territorial Militia

The first time Signalmen were used to gather battlefield reconnaissance was at First Manassas. There, Confederate Signalmen reported on an attempt by the Federals to move on the Rebel's flank. This prompted Beauregard to send reinforcements. These reinforcements, under the command of General T. J. Jackson, held the Federal advance in check and earned Jackson the name of "Stonewall." It is interesting to note that this was also the first time Signalmen were used in combat in North America!
-- Sent in by 1st. Sergeant K. Peter Polley, Detachment 16 - Confederate Signal Service

At the start of the Civil War, telegraphy had been employed as a strategic communication but not a tactical one. While Confederates did use existing trunk line telegraphs to communicate with Richmond, on the battlefield they relied on written or verbal orders, normally delivered on horseback. The Union Army set out to change that with the introduction of a tactical telegraph, commonly called a field telegraph. Control of the field telegraphs fell upon the Signal Corps, who used it in combination with flags and flares to transmit messages around battlefields. A second group, the USMT (United States Military Telegraph) was a quasi-government group formed to provide medium to long-range trunk service. Needless to say they frequently overlapped assignments.

In November, 1863, the situation boiled over. The Signal Corps had been using Beardslee machines so its men didn't have to understand Morse code. When they decided to ditch the unreliable Beardslees, they began to offer jobs to the USMT's telegraphers. Edwin Stanton assigned the Signal Corps to handling visual signaling only and telegraphic communication was given to USMT.

The USMT had been working on the field telegraph (sometimes called the "flying telegraph") to allow communication between commanding officers. Essentially, this consisted of team of three or four men, a battery wagon that also held supplies, horses and/or mules. A mule would follow the staff wagon train to a battlefield spooling out wire as it advanced. Once a headquarters was established, the telegraph was the second piece of equipment made operational (artillery was the first). It would be near the headquarters tent (or building) and a small garrison would be assigned to protect the wagon. All that was required to hook the field telegraph up was attaching the wires to the instrument. Rudimentary batteries supplied power from the wagon and a magneto (along the same lines as a hand-crank on a telephone) stood near in case of a problem with the batteries.

At first, telegraphs were used to communicate at division level, but by the end of the war the Union Army was using them at the brigade level. It is estimated that more than 6 million messages were transmitted for the Army at a cost of roughly 40 cents per message.

Probably the most famous incident involving the telegraph came near the end of the war. Robert E. Lee withdrew from Petersburg and wired his supply depot in Lynchburg to forward supplies to the depot at Appomattox Station. Phil Sheridan intercepted the telegram then forwarded it to Lynchburg. He dispatched George Armstrong Custer to intercept the train and keep the supplies from the Army of Northern Virginia. Custer arrived minutes before the Confederates and successfully turned back Lee's small advanced force. Out of food and low on ammunition, Lee tried to retake the trains the next morning, but failed. Sheridan had been reinforced by General Edward O. C. Ord during the night.

Threadless porcelain date to the 1850's and were used during the Civil War. After the development of threaded glass in 1865, porcelain fell out of favor for telephone or telegraph due to the higher cost, and the lack of transparency. Very little porcelain was made between 1870 and 1890. Virtually all porcelain threadless are very rare.

The Signal Corps of the United States Army and its rival the Military Telegraph did not monopolize the field of Civil War communications. The Confederate Army had a signal corps of its own, thanks to the knowledge possessed by Edward P Alexander, Myer's able assistant in his early testing of wigwag. Alexander was a native of Georgia and ranked third in his class of 1857 at West Point. When the Civil War broke out, he resigned his commission in the United States Army and accepted one in the Confederate Army as a captain of engineers. Because Jefferson Davis was aware of Alexander's work with Myer, he sent the talented captain to Manassas, Virginia, to set up a system of signals for the forces under the command of Brig. Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard.¹⁰⁰

Alexander selected four locations in the vicinity of Bull Run as signal stations. With men detailed to him for signal instruction and duty, Alexander prepared for the clash that would come when Union forces attempted to dislodge the rebel threat to Washington. Serving as signal officer on Beauregard's staff during the battle on 21 July, Alexander successfully used Myer's system to warn of a federal attempt to turn the Confederate left.¹⁰¹ In his report of the victory, Beauregard cited the "seasonable and material assistance" rendered by Alexander and his signals.¹⁰² Shortly afterward, however, Alexander was named chief of ordnance of the Army of Northern Virginia. Although he retained his position as signal officer, his other duties took precedence.

In April 1862 the Confederate Congress authorized the establishment of a signal corps-a year before the US Congress passed such legislation. Alexander apparently declined an offer to lead the new organization, and Capt. William Norris, a Yale-educated lawyer from Maryland, took command.¹⁰³ Norris had previously served as a volunteer civilian aide on Brig. Gen. John B. Magruder's staff. Norris had impressed Magruder by setting up a signaling system on the Peninsula employing flags and balls set on poles, similar to marine signals. Attached to the Adjutant and Inspector General's Department, the Confederate Signal Corps initially comprised ten officers not exceeding the rank of captain and ten sergeants. A subsequent augmentation elevated Norris to the rank of major and added ten first and ten second lieutenants as well as twenty sergeants, for a total strength of sixty-one officers and men. Additional personnel could be detailed for service as required. A signal officer was authorized for the staff of each corps and division commander.¹⁰⁴ The Confederate Signal Corps remained considerably smaller than that of the Union. All told, approximately 1,500 men served the Confederate Army as signal soldiers.¹⁰⁵

In general, the Confederate Signal Corps performed communication duties similar to those of its Union counterpart. Its use of electric telegraphy, however, remained confined to strategic communications because the Confederacy lacked both supplies of telegraph wire and a pool of experienced telegraphers.¹⁰⁶ An important distinction between the two organizations was the Confederate Signal Corps' additional role as its government's secret service. While signaling and intelligence are closely connected functions, and the Union Army's Signal Corps can be said to have provided certain intelligence related services, such as reconnaissance, the Confederate Signal Corps also worked in the realm of espionage. In its capacity as a secret service bureau, the corps administered the covert operations of the Secret Line, an information network that ran between Richmond and the North and extended into Canada. Norris himself may have served as an agent, since he was often absent from Richmond on trips of an undetermined nature.¹⁰⁷

As for equipment and methods, the Confederate Signal Corps closely paralleled those of the Union. Both organizations used flags that were similar in design and size.¹⁰⁸ Alexander apparently made some minor modifications in Myer's alphabet code, and he may also have reversed the flag motions. Alexander's brother, Capt. James H. Alexander, prepared a classified manual of instruction that preceded Myer's publication by two years. Despite the use of various cipher systems, however, the Confederates could not keep the Union from reading their messages.¹⁰⁹

Because of its clandestine nature, much of the work of the Confederate Signal Corps is shrouded in secrecy. Moreover, most of the documentary record of its activities has been lost. The Confederate government burned its records upon the fall of Richmond, and a subsequent fire at Norris' home destroyed most of his personal papers.¹¹

Crossed flags" have been used by the Signal Corps since 1864, when they were prescribed for wear on the uniform coat by enlisted men of the Signal Corps. In 1884, a burning torch was added to the insignia and the present design adopted on 1 July of that year. The flags and torch are symbolic of signaling or communication. Two signal flags crossed, dexter flag (the flag on the right), red with white center; the sinister flag (on the left), white with red center, staffs of gold, with a flaming torch of gold color upright at center of crossed flags. Branch colors: Orange trimmings and facings were approved for the Signal Service in 1872. The white piping was added in 1902, to conform to the custom which prevailed of having piping of a different color for all except the line branches.

During the Civil War a number of secret operations sprang up, some at the direction of the government, some with its tacit approval, and some that were under only the most tenuous control, or even under no control whatsoever. Many of these operations involved acts that were considered, by the Union, to go beyond the normal conduct of "civilized" warfare. From the Confederacy's point of view, these were desperate measures necessary to compensate for the fact that, in terms of conventional warfare, they were out-manned, out-supplied, and out-gunned. By 1864, the Confederate government was attempting to gain control over the various operations that had sprung up since the beginning of the War, but often with little success. In April 1865, most of the official papers of the Secret Service were burned by Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin just before the Confederate government evacuated Richmond, so the full story of Confederate secret operations may never be known.

In 1864, secret legislation was put before the Confederate Congress to create an official Special and Secret Bureau of the War Department. The legislation was not enacted until March 1865 and was never implemented, so no one really knows what an official "Confederate Secret Service" would have looked like. However, all these various bits and pieces have been referred to at one time or another as having been part of the Confederate Secret Service.