Official Records of the Rebellion

On the 13th of May general headquarters were established at Cumberland. When, soon after our arrival here, the alarm was given that the headquarters train was endangered and that the enemy’s forces were advancing, the general commanding, with his staff, started for the field in person. A detachment of five signal officers, equipped, accompanied him. The alarm was groundless.

There was some communication here by signals with the vessels in the river. A line of five signal stations was also established from this place to the advance guard under General Stoneman, then occupying White House. A few messages were sent to and fro over this line, but its principal use was for practice.

On the 16th of May headquarters camp moved to White House, on the Pamunkey River. Among the reconnaissances made by signal officers from this place was one to the Chickahominy, near Bottom’s Bridge, at, perhaps, the first time the waters of that stream were seen by any of our army.

On the ensuing day the corps commanded by General Keyes moving up to occupy a position near Bottom’s Bridge, Lieut. H. L. Johnson, acting signal officer, with a detachment of signal officers and their men, was ordered to report to and remain with him for duty. From that time until after the passage of the Chickahominy this detachment served under General Keyes, and always with the advance of the corps.

A station of observation was at once established near Bottom’s Bridge, whence the movements of the enemy whose pickets were now in sight [238]  across the river, were visible, and thence by a signal line communicated numerous reports to General Keyes’ headquarters.

On the day of the passage of the Chickahominy a part of this detachment crossed with the first troops, and opening a station on the bluff near Burnt Chimneys and close to the picket line, placed that point in communication with General Keyes’ headquarters, then at Old Tavern. This duty led to a remarkable collision. The advanced signal party was annoyed by the enemy’s picket firing from a farm-house near them. The station would soon be untenable. The signal detachment was quietly mounted, and then, on the order of its commander, furiously charged the offending pickets, as the story ran, with telescopes. The panic-flight of the enemy evinced their dread of the novel armament. The party carried, however, revolvers as well as field glasses.

From this date the detachment served with the advance of the forces on the southerly side of the Chickahominy, carrying their stations up to the front at Fair Oaks. The camp was located near the headquarters of Generals Heintzelman and Keyes.

While general headquarters were at White House the wire of the field telegraphic train was extended a distance of 3 miles, lying on the ground and hung on bushes by the sides of the road. Experiments were made in transmitting messages while the wire was in process of reeling out. They were successful, and attracted much attention by their novelty.

A line of four repeating signal stations was established from White House to General Stoneman’s advance guard, a few miles distant. This line was well worked, and was used for official messages.

On the 19th of May headquarters were moved to Tunstall’s Station, on the West Point and Richmond Railroad. As the army moved from White House the advance guard, under General Stoneman, pushed rapidly forward to Old Cold Harbor, and with its advance encountered a small force of the enemy’s cavalry at Gaines’ Mill, near New Bridge.

A detachment of signal officers accompanied this advance, joining the small party which had served with General Stoneman previously. With the column moving in the field these officers were found everywhere in the advance and perched upon the roofs of the prominent dwellings. They sometimes anticipated the march of the advance guard. The distances over which they could work, however, were, from the formation of the country, generally short, and a single message could go by courier almost as rapidly as by signals. The labor of so large a party seemed unnecessary, and the greater number was ordered by General Stoneman to discontinue, that officer retaining with his advance the three who had accompanied him from Williamsburg.

On the next day the advance guard reached the banks of the Chickahominy at New Bridge. Some scattered forces of the enemy and a few guns, very plainly exposed, were visible on the crest of the hill on the Richmond side of the Chickahominy. On the northerly side, on the first elevated ground of the river bank, were the Hogan and the Gaines mansions. These houses were about three-quarters of a mile distant from each other. From a point near the Hogan house could be had an extensive view of the bottom lands bordering the river and of the country upon the opposite bank. A station of observation was established here under the direction of Lieut. N. Daniels, acting signal officer, and was held for some days while outside of our pickets. This station afterward became one of much importance.

On May 22 headquarters were established near Cold Harbor. From general headquarters to the station in front near Hogan’s house a line [239] of six repeating stations was made. The officers were kept constantly on these stations. Messages were transmitted to and from the front over this line with reasonable rapidity and accuracy. There were no great movements of the enemy visible from the station of observation, and there was little to report. The chief value of this line, as of the other repeating lines established at Williamsburg and White House during the march of the army, was in the practice and consequent skill which work upon them gave the officers on stations.

From headquarters camp at Cold Harbor parties were sent out to reconnoiter the course of the Chickahominy from Bottom’s Bridge to New Bridge, and to select those prominent points which might serve in case of need as communicating stations. These parties were instructed to also note prominent points in view on the southerly side of the Chickahominy. The knowledge of the country gained by them showed it practicable to communicate by signals between the portions of the army occupying the northern and those at this time on the southern side of the Chickahominy. The stations would be, however, some distance to the rear of the advance on both sides of the river, and that on the south side of the Chickahominy near to the railroad, on which a line of electric telegraph was then building. It was not thought worth the while to occupy them.

From Cold Harbor the insulated wire of the field telegraph was run out a distance of two miles for one day to a point near the headquarters of the advance guard. These headquarters moving, it was reeled up on the same day.

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