Historical Memorabilia & Americana

[CIVIL WAR]. Matching pair of signal flags. [N.p., ca. 1860s]. Two cloth signal flags, one red with a white square center, the other white with a red square center (each flag made up of smaller panels sewn together). Each flag with ties on one side. Approximately 1183 x 1030 mm. Both flags, worn and soiled, with long tears. Albert Myer (1828-1880) was a medical doctor, who later served in the U. S. Army as a general. Before his military service, he invented a method for deaf people to communicate numbers and letters by using flags (sometimes called “wigwag”). When he joined the Union army, he suggested using this method to signal messages, thus the United States Signal Corps was born. One of the earliest uses of these signals was at the Battle of Antietam; long distance battlefield communications became much faster – so much so, that the use of multiple Signal Corps soldiers with these flags, combined with telegraphs, were able to send up-to-date information to President Lincoln in Washington within 30 minutes of the origination of the messages.