The Signal Corps at Gettysburg.
In the battle of Gettysburg the Confederates established their chief signal station in the cupola of the Lutheran Seminary, which commanded an extended field of operations. From here came much of Lee's information about the battle which surged and thundered to and fro until the gigantic wave of Pickett's charge was dashed to pieces against the immovable rock of Meade's defense on the third culminating day. The Union Signal Corps was equally active in gathering information and transmitting orders. Altogether, for perhaps the first time in military history, the generals-in-chief of two large armies were kept in constant communication during active operations with their corps and division commanders. It was the Union Signal Corps with its deceptive flags that enabled General Warren to hold alone the strangely neglected eminence of Little Round Top, the key to the Federal left, until troops could be sent to occupy it.
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