G, and Bruce of K, both of whom had been captured with the regiment, but had escaped.

On the 12th of March, Surgeon Fish, having been detailed for the preparation and care of the new division, No. 18, of Foster General Hospital at New Berne, succeeded in taking with him the thirty men then present with the regiment, as patients, to be employed as attendants in the hospital. This "Division 18" was located on the old Fair Grounds, occupying the barracks and a large number of hospital tents. At times our labors were very severe, having at one time thirteen hundred different patients in our division, while at other times there were few in hospital, and we had very little to do. Here we remained until the close of the war.

THE SIGNAL CORPS.

While in camp at Annapolis, Md., December, 1861, there were detailed from each regiment comprising the Burnside Expedition, two lieutenants and four enlisted men as a signal corps for the expedition. Those detailed from the TwentySeventh Mass. Regt. were Lieuts. William F. Barrett, Greenfield, Company C, and Luther T. Bradley, Lee, Company E; also Privates S. Parkman Janes, Westhampton, Company A; Alonzo Murdock, Northfield, Company B; Henry J. Bardwell, Amherst, Company D; and George H. Rossiter, Great Barrington, Company E. After such drill as the limited time previous to the sailing of the expedition allowed, the signal corps was assigned by squads to the headquarters of the command, including brigades and gunboats. They rendered efficient service at Roanoke and New Berne; and especially at the capture of Fort Macon, where from their stations they directed the fire of our guns or corrected their range when unsatisfactory.

In July, 1862, when Gen'l Burnside was ordered to Virginia, he was accompanied by most of the signal corps.

EQUIPMENT AND WORK OF THE SIGNAL CORPS. 517

The detail from the Twenty-Seventh Regt. was fortunate in being retained with Gen'l Burnside during his connection with the army of the Potomac and also during the famous twenty days siege of Knoxville, Tenn, with its privations and sanguinary strife. While at that place, Lieut. Barrett was complimented by Gen'l Burnside for the promptness with which he opened communication with Colonel Long of Gen'l Sherman's army, who was hastening to the relief of Knoxville.

The inventor of this system of signalling was Gen'l Albert J. Myer, later known as "Old Probabilities." He was born at Newburg, N. Y., 1828; graduated at Hobart College 1847, and at Buffalo Medical College in 1851. He entered the army as an assistant surgeon in 1854, and while on duty in New Mexico under the exigencies of service, devised and put into practice this system of communication. In 1860, upon his forcible presentation of the merits of his system, the position of "Signal Officer of the Army" was created, and Surgeon Myer appointed to fill the office. Upon the opening of hostilities, Major Alexander, educated to this service, joined the Confederate cause, necessitating a change in the code of signals, as well as enforcing watchfulness on the part of the Union signal force to discover their stations and interpret their messages. Until 1863 the signal corps was composed of officers and men detailed from volunteer organizations, but at that time Congress made it a branch of the regular army, with the grade of engineers, and its members were commissioned and mustered into this corps with discharge from their original regiments. Each army corps was furnished with one captain as chief signal officer, and eight lieutenants, seven sergeants, twenty first-class and thirty-four second-class privafes, mounted and equipped as cavalry. A “signal kit” consisted of staff, flags, torchcase and torches, half-gallon can of turpentine, and a haversack of wicks, matches and shears. The flags were made of muslin or linen, white with black centre for dark backgrounds,—as woods or dark buildings,black with white centre, for sky or light buildings, and red with white centre for use at sea or mixed background. Three sizes were used, six, four, and two feet square, the four being known as the service flag. The signal staff consisted of four joints, each four feet long, and the length used was governed by the distance to be signalled; usually three joints were sufficient. The flags could be read from five to twenty miles, as the atmosphere favored, a cloudy but otherwise clear day best answering the service. On such a day a message was signalled ten miles with a handkerchief on a twelve-foot pole. The torches for night work were eighteen inches long by one and a half inches in diameter, and

when signalling with them a second torch was placed at the feet as an axis. The duties of the corps when in motion or adjacent to the enemy were to watch and report their movements from some commanding point to the central station, or, when the forces were encamped, to form a chain of observation and repeating stations. These stations were often at a distance of fifty miles from army headquarters, as when McClellan was at Pleasant Valley. In the movement of detachments, in co-operation, the service was invaluable by reporting the advance, position, and experiences of each column. A notable instance of its value was when Gen'l Sherman signalled from Vining's Station to Kennesaw, from Kennesaw to Allatoona over the heads of Hood's army, instructing Gen'l Corse at Rome to hasten back to the assistance of the Allatoona garrison, and "hold the fort for I am coming." Corse fulfilled the order, and somewhat profanely signalled, after the battle, to Gen'l Sherman, "I am short a cheek-bone and an ear, but am able to whip all hell yet!" It was from Gen'l Sherman's message to Gen'l Corse the stirring religious refrain was composed by P. P. Bliss

"Hold the fort, for I am coming."

Doubtless, the perfection of service in ". repeating" stations was reached during McClellan's masterly inactivity, in the line from Washington along the Potomac to Harper's Ferry. Upon this line was the famous "tree station," partially represented in the heliotype, built in the top of a chestnut tree sixty feet from the ground. This station was operated by Capts. F. R. Shattuck of Boston and W. W. Rowley of Hartford, who, as a summary of the day's proceedings, improvised the familiar message, “All quiet on the Potomac." Stations wishing to communicate with another would raise their flag (if at night, a torch), the signal officer with field-glass watching the station called, while the flag, or torch, was swung from right to left until the station called responded with two dips to the left. The officer called off the message, while the men signalled it; one or more dips to the right or left, or a combination of both motions, indicated a letter of the alphabet or an abbreviation or contraction of a word or sentence, and each of those motions was designated by a number. For instance-A was " 22," two dips to the left and up to the centre; B, 2112," one dip to the left, over to the right, up to centre, down to right, over to left and up to centre; C, "121," one to right, over to left, back to right and up to centre. Ends of words, sentences or messages were indicated by one, two or three dips to the front. The force became so expert in sending and reading, that a closely written page of foolscap could be signalled in from twenty to thirty minutes. In the presence of the enemy, all important messages were signalled in cipher by the disc code," which consisted of two card-board wheels, one smaller than the other, revolving on a common centre. On the circumference of the smaller was the alphabet, arranged in irregular sequence, and on the larger the signal numbers indicating the letters. By moving the small

CHANGES IN THE SYSTEM.

519

disc, only, a number might indicate any letter, to interpret which, it was necessary that an understanding existed between the officers as to the key letter and number used. At some stations and fields, where difficult to find suitable elevations for flag service, telegraph lines were maintained by the signal corps; the wire being insulated with rubber covering, and magnetic instruments with ten miles of wire carried on wagons. The wire could be run out rapidly, and was strung on limbs of trees, or on light poles carried for the purpose, or, if in haste, laid upon the ground, and as easily reeled up for removal. Many improvements, suggested by the experiences of the war, have been made in the signal service, including the adoption of the telephone; so that at the time of his death in 1880 Gen'l Myer was better than ever prepared, in the event of war, to render efficient aid to the government with this branch of the army.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE TWENTY-SEVENTH MASS. REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION.

NOVEMBER 2, 1872, the surviving members of the regiment met at the town hall at Northampton, and organized the Twenty-Seventh Mass. Regimental Association, in which any honorably discharged member of the regiment may unite, its object being "to sustain the relations cultivated amidst scenes of mutual sufferings and dangers, to keep alive the memory of the fallen, as well as to record in some tangible form the history and services of the regiment."

Under this organization, reunions have been held each year, and efforts have been made to revive and collect its records. For years Rev. C. L. Woodworth, its former chaplain, was elected its historian- a gentleman every way fitted for the work by education, experience and sympathy - and it is sincerely to be regretted that he reported in 1879: " My time and attention is so fully occupied I have no reason to think I shall be able to serve you in this capacity." Comrade Lafayette Clapp succeeded him, and unfortunately for us, he, too, was unable to accomplish the work. As a last resort the work was assumed by the writer, with no idea of special fitness, but with the feeling that a regiment which holds the palm in marks of service and suffering over any other regiment which left our State, was entitled to that record. This record is offered to our readers, not in a spirit of invidious comparison with other regiments, but simply in that of the proverb, "Honor to