Next speaker. I want to make sure they have their full allotted time to deliver their talk and give a little time at the end for q a as well. And im very pleased to introduce doug to wayne hsieh, who is serving currently on the civilian faculty at the Us Naval Academy as an associate of history and hsieh is an expert in many of the military history of the civil war. His publications include the book west pointers and the civil war, which is a study of how west point as an institution shaped the us army before the civil war and during the war as well. Hes also coauthor of another book, which i often find myself recommending to people who are looking for a really insightful overview of the military history of the civil war. And that book is called a savage war military history of the civil war. So check that one out. If youre as well. Today, hes to speak to us about observation and and signals from first bull run to the Overland Campaign. Welcome to virginia tech. All all right thanks so much. Thank you, dr. Quigley. The gracious introduction and staff here for their invitation and, for their hospitality. Yeah, i think of the great things about being a civil war historian is you actually can talk to audiences that are not captive. And i know i mean, i think Naval Academy is maybe even a little bit more that. But a lot of our students, students in general are not always in your classrooms for reasons of choice. Right. And theyre kind of as is not necessarily a bad dynamic, but its sort of a different dynamic than being able to to kind of talk to interested audiences and have that opportunity. I dont think ive done Something Like this since covid, honestly. I mean, obviously, covid kind of nuked a lot of civil war roundtables, things like that. Yes, i know a hybrid option. But honestly, you know, we do so much on screens that i almost this is the first time ive used a powerpoint. And probably if i have images to show my students, i photocopy because i dont i dont like to. We have also a smaller class thats more doable here. But but it it is you know thanks for coming and you and you know its always always gratifying i think for for academic to to be able to share their their research with with you know, with people who have to do it. You know, its not part of your youre not obligated and things like that, all right, okay, so lets lets first off, nothing say here is is official in any way or doesnt represent the or the Naval Academy or the department of defense kind of obligated to do that. You know what this is on cspan and when the jag watches this, you know, these guys give me thumbs up, virtually whatever. So i just this is all just meet me as an academic historian talking. All right . Sorry. All right, so this is this is kind of a let me let me explain why. I am im starting this way. This is a talk thats going to be the context of this is and this is very much relatetohe wonderful, wonderful lecture we had yesterday. Is about technology in many ways. All right. And thats related to another question that i think is impoan notusto academic historians, but also kind of to the larger for anyone interested in the war as a whole, i t question of is a civil war matter and what exactly is the importance of technology . Doouave really new revolutionary technologies that are kind of introduced during the war that e tremendous importance or is it maybe not so new and not so revolutionary . And how and if it is new, like what is really new about like is what is actually the the true that has occurred. And so we related to that. What were going to what i hope to talk about today is, the question of surveil its the question of being able to see the battlefield or being able to see your opposing forces. Right. And also the issue of being able to communicate, inform action between widely dispersed military right. And one of the reasons that this matters, one of the reason this this this question technology is related to that is because you have military ballooning that starts during the civil war. You start to have some aerial observation. Right. And you also start to have the telegram just talk about lot. Obviously yesterday, although the context of the telegram in this talk will be more not from the strategic level. Right. Where its linking to an Army Commander or an army headquarters, even if its in the field which is able to utilize a set infrastructure. But how is communicate nation going to be done with with the units more at the kind of, you know, brigade or even lower level than that . And some of that is going to involve the use of early kind of more mobile battlefield telegraph technologies, but also wigwam signaling, which ill talk about shortly. Right. So, so is thats part of of of you know, you know, the civil war does see that. Okay. And, you know, a lot of times the reason i think americans americans, you know, in both the kind of the honestly in both the scholarly and non scholarly sort of examination of the war is one as americans, i think were interested a technology we kind of a country that pioneered a lot of this stuff, you know, with a written constitution that was kind of made that didnt necessarily organically spring from some kind of historic monarchy and things like that. But also as a country that was obviously, you know, samuel fillmore says famous thing with a telegram. You know, theres a lot of technological change thats been pioneered by the United States and thats still true. And a lot of that is involves for military things. So so some of it is, you know, some of the interest is does a civil war kind of foretell these things . So me explain this on the left that thiis the tower song, this is the movie, by the way. This is a very funny can googl the aicle. I was trying to just find the image i that theres this new york skyscraper thatoo very spooky for lack of a better term. And the residents because it looks like that tower now i remember in then rd of the rings novel by j. R. R. Olen was a world war one veteran, by the way, theres this idea that that saurohaa sinister eye. Theres a sort of this evil eye, and its able to look out. Right. D rt of the pmi of the novel is that the reason that the hobbitarable to destroy the ring, you know, its that his i is it doesnt see them because theyre too small. Okay, there this that theyre concealed by their kind of by thr nd of very small size and kind of a quirky way when i mean, let me read you a you might be wondering, well, why this have to do with anything . Let me read you a quote. A ukrainian soldier. This came out, i think, in the kiev maybe a year or so ago. And this is and what hes describing here is a problem that under under, on modern in the current day battlefield, a big problem for both the russian and ukrainian troops is that there is this ubiquitous aerial surveillance. Right. Due to the fact that Drone Technology is incredibly cheap. Now. And its its basically off the shelf and you have it deployed constantly. Right. And the problem with is, is that if youre if youre are the russian ukrainian soldier, if you are spotted out in the open right wide one of the drones, you are vulnerable to either the drone dropping a grenade on top of you, which would be not fun or them calling an artillery strike or all sorts of bad things. Right. So part of the challenge is be concealed. How do you maintain that concealment and this kind of ubiquitous all these electronic eyes are searching for you and this is this quote, it locks you up. You want to take certain actions, but you cant because the eye of sarang is always watching thats actually the metaphor. Right. So its a its kind of a ukrainian thing to to analogize the russian soldiers to orcs and things like that. And this this is this this is an apple, right . What ive done on the right hand side, this is a this is this is from a while ago. Actually, this is probably true. So im sorry,01 which i picked it. This is a this is an official centm relseofficial military release. This is from the war against state. But this is this is a shot from an actual american drone feed. Right. So a lot othe technologies we pneered really by the United States, right. This is no ax, i guess, you know, seven yes d,utre more than that, actually. But d d this is a big part of the challenge of modern warfarishat if youre fighting on the modern battlefield, how do you evade surveillance . How do you avoid being seeing . How do you. Because to be seeing means that you are then vulnerable to being you know, to being killed. This first step of its sometimes called the kill chain, right. And the civil war know has obviously you dont have this kind of very quick reactions during the war. Right. But you do have a few things that become important, things like early correction of artillery, what we call indirect fire, or the ability to kind of correct shots from artillery shots. You start to that with balloons and early signaling. Its kind of its pretty primitive, right. For example, for alexanders artillery bombardment doesnt really work at gettysburg partly because the technology really i mean, fuzes are bad, too. But theres also the ability to do that on a big scale, actually pretty limited. But you start to have the beginning these things. So the question is how is you, you know, to what degree, you know, where is the war fit in this kind of larger story of technological change . Now, a few i want to highlight here is that one i want to the argument i kind of want to make is part of it that part of the the the fixation on technology . Honestly, is that its its of romanticized because theres a certain point where advanced Technology Becomes magic. Right. So in the 19th century, the whole thing with morse having to deal with with priests think that this is the tool of the devil. You know, if you read nathaniel hawthorne, the house of seven gables, theres a character whos a dragon typist, is a photographer, and people are worried that if someone takes your picture, theyre sucking your soul out. Okay, right. And so theres a certain idea. Theres a certain power thats associated with Technology One gets, which is this kind of level of of omniscience almost right. It becomes Something Like out of out of a magical kind of supernatural state. Right. And and and thats why people like to talk about it and one of the things i want to point out is what im going to talk mostly about is the limits of the technology. Right. That the technology a lot of times theres a lot of have a lot of because we live in a world thats marked by technological advances. We tend to overstate its effects. And when you see it, it works out in the real world. And the civil war, a lot of times it doesnt work out. Its not as revolutionary as we might be inclined to think right. And then ill kind of close the circle and point out how even this kind of modern technology now is is, is, is subject to the same limitations of the confusion of the battlefield, of the fact that wars involve two parties and that they can both adapt each other and that they can when one gains a technological advantage, other side will also respond they will not sit and or if they do, they get killed. And then you have you have a next player coming who is able to do that. And thats of, you know, so that a lot of our you know that it isnt actually as revolutionary as we might be. And if there is a lesson want to draw from that is that a lot of times in all spheres of life a lot of times technologists a lot of times overstay state the effects. And thats something that that i think can be seen in the case of the war. All right. All right. So here. Okay. So there is innovation. Okay. So this is albert jay meyers on the left, he is born in newburgh in 1828. Newburgh is not too far away from the west, where the United States military academy at west point, he becomes the chief signal officer and he becomes a pioneer in these weak signals, which ill talk about shortly i will come. Back to Porter Alexander, whos actually the whos the source of the quote. Thats the title of my talk. But the reason i want to link them here to is, is one im sorry. I mean, let me say, meyer is actually a doctor. Okay . So he develops this type of signaling, basically this attempt to use signal flags to transmit messages. Right. Basically, like what, you know, depending on whether its left or right, its one or two and then it later becomes a cipher. Basically, the transmission of messages basically by people sitting on a hilltop. Right. Hawks who are who are waving this signal. Fox right. So hes not a west pointer. Hes not a regular army officer. Hes not hes actually a doctor. Okay. And it seems that the source of some of his of these ideas actually come, from his work with with the deaf and the mute, who also need to a way of of of kind of communicate in sort of these kinds of taps, things like that. And he also has spent some time in the new york state telegraph office. So ends up having this kind of interesting, diverse background. I also want to point out that, you know, the profession of medicine is also going through kind of the civil war actually is really important for the professionalization of american medicine. The big official medical history of the war is usually seen as a big marker of the way know doctors used to be trained this very apprentice style. Then it become they go to proper schools and they case studies and it becomes less kind of, you know, whoever you you know, you just kind of do the the remedies that they gave. But hes he, you know, so hes not hes not a professional military officer, but hes part of of kind of this early world that that also includes, like engineers and railroads and the people are setting up the telegraph and telegraph telegraphy and things like that. And he becomes a surgeon in the army, and then he tries to pitch the War Department on this idea, signaling. Right. And Edward Porter alexander, who later becomes longstreets artillery. Chief, some of you may have read his memoirs. Right, a very important confederate officer, alexander, actually his assistant. Right. This is in 1859 that a lot of the stuff that set up and and and by the way i almost forgot during this kind of early tease hes trying to pitch this idea of the army and his the first proposal is actually review made by a board of officers headed by robert e lee, who writes that, quote, hes skeptical of this. Hes t he writes that, quote, such a system might be useful as an accessory to in many circumstances, not as a substitute for the means now employed to convey intelligence, an army in the field, especially on a of battle. Lee is basically concerned that you know this idea of sending signals by flags if youre depending on training depending on kind smoke and atmospheric conditions. He feels that this is kind of not really that effective, a way of transmitting information. Right. But meyer does get his chance and interestingly enough, i want to point out he actually ends up testing out his system of field signals in new mexico in 1860. Now, some of you might ask, well, why would be there be a u. S. Army officers in new mexico . Well, because the indian wars are going okay. Right and they continue. Right. So he actually able to use this in kind of this irregular warfare state and thats kind of a more technical term, but, you know, kind of fighting and its successful. Right. And Porter Alexander is actually his assistant during this. Right. And they kind of refine the system they refine the system of flags i think i have to i have right heres so im not you know its basically do you do you do you wag the flag one side or the other . And then when you do like a the front, thats like a stop. Okay. And then basically you have this code for all the letters, right . And then the and then the people, the receiver basically logs all these things now. And the idea is you can transmit them from station to station. Right. By none of this is necessarily super new. If any of you know your maritime signals and nelsons famous order, you know, trafalgar and things like that, hes trying to hes trying to innovate with this. Obviously. Now, whats interesting is, is that the reason i brought up alexander is because. So the war hits, obviously, right . Meyer then continues to try to aggressively pitch this idea, and he has some success in the union army. Right. But at first bull run, the people who auay meyer isnt able to actually use that much of his new signal system. Its rt alexander und t confederate who happened to be the assistant to meyer. Right. Because they were both in the United States army. Hes the one who actually ends up being able to this the famous signaling system. And and here basically, do i have a laser thinger i. Right. So oops. Ay so youve got evans here youve got theres the van pelt farm. Theres actually aigl station here, k and and Porter Alexander is actually at wilcox and signal wilcoxs farm, which i think its also now cle signal. I think thes actually a park there now in northern virginia. You know, this is ironically as if youve been there. Its all gigantic suburbia. Right. Butxct for the that preserve part of of. But so would be actually off th map here but porr alexander is basically stationed here on the ll theres mclain. Anfounately for the confederates, where whereve owens is posted, the confederate Brigade Commander and this is near the there is actually a signal station here. Now, in the case of this battle, it does actually matter because if we go back to the title, right. This is when alexander looks out and hes able see the glint from the artillery and the barrels, the bayonets of the union troops. Right. And hes able to send a message to shakes evans. Look to your left you are turned hes able to warn by using this signaling system that the that the the the union its basically attempting to try to its attempting this flank and evans is able to then reposition his troops basically to to basically stall the union advance. And that obviously plays a big role in the eventual confederate victory. So this this is a great example of where the signaling system is actually an advantage. You know, its its about hes about eight miles away, right . Without a signaling system. How do you got information . Well, you have to spend send a courier on a horse. Right. And hes got to ride and maybe he gets lost and maybe he doesnt or maybe or maybe he gets disabled or shot or or maybe by the time gets there, the information is out of date. Right . The information has been superseded by events and is part of the whole reason why meyer was trying to set up this stuff right now. Obviously wigwam signaling right is prone to being disrupted by bad weather and stuff like that. So