Beard-O-Rama Bonus: The Beardslee Telegraph System

The Beardslee Telegraph was an innovative military telegraph system that saw use in the first half of the Civil War. Created by George W. Beardslee and adopted for military service by A. J. Myer (the first head of the U.S. Signal Corps), it operated on magneto power (a hand-cranked electrical generator internal to the machine); thus, it did not require the heavy wet acid batteries used in typical telegraphs. This made the system highly portable. Myer observed that “The fact of its operation without a battery gives it marked preeminence.” Also unusually rugged, Myer reported that the machine could even be transported by horseback.

In addition, the Beardslee did not employ Morse Code. Rather, it utilized an alphabet dial and pointer (see photo). The sending operator simply moved the pointer to each letter, causing the pointer on the machine at the receiving station similarly to move to each letter chosen. This was important because operators could be put to work quickly without having to become trained in Morse Code. In addition, it was thought that this approach allowed more accuracy. Operators were less likely to be distracted by sounds of battle, which might cause errors in carefully framing the precise dots and dashes needed for Morse Code.

First used during the Peninsular Campaign, the system especially proved its worth at the December 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg. There, it allowed Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside to maintain cross-river communications when fog and smoke had made visual signal communications impossible.

The system eventually fell out of favor due to its relatively limited range (about ten miles) and slower rate of transmission when compared to Morse Code-based telegraphs. Indeed, these flaws were exposed in dramatic fashion during Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s May 1863 Chancellorsville Campaign.

At Chancellorsville, Hooker was in the field with the bulk of Union forces located on the south side of the Rappahannock River while his chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Butterfield, liaison to the remainder of Hooker’s force, was ten miles away on the North side of the river. That distance, combined with the time required to transmit/receive key tactical messages between the two headquarters via the Beardslee system, caused a fatal system overload and effective collapse of communications, to the detriment of military operations.

As a result of the fiasco, the U.S. Military Telegraph Service, which had been a rival to the U.S. Signal Corps, was directed to take over telegraphic communications for the army. When the Signal Corps was required by the War Department in November 1863 to turn over its equipment to the Military Telegraph Service, the Beardslee system was discarded.