Description:

ALBERT J. MYER
(1829 - 1880) Union brigadier general, an enthusiastic proponent of visual signaling who established the Signal Corps as a permanent entity in the Army. Fine content war-date L.S. adding rank as "Col. Sig. Off. Army", 3pp. 4to., "Office of the A.A.Q.M. Signal Corps", Memphis, Nov. 26, 1863 to J. M. McClintock, Chief Signal Officer of the 16th Army Corps. In part: "...Reports prejudicial to the Signal Corps have been seditiously furnished to the Secretary of War...General Grant is reported to have said verbally to the Secretary of War that he never knew the Signal Corps to ever render any real service. This report has done the corps much injury. it must be corrected...endeavor to procure from the Genl...a clear expression of his views as to the value of the corps...and of the conduct of its officers...one copy addressed to the Genl in Chief of the Army...and one to the Signal Office...We have worked hard in this war and we must not...lose for the want of the proper steps, all credit for duties...". Myer asks that Signal Corps officers ask their superior officers and general to write letters to Washington setting forth their satisfaction with the service the corps had rendered. Very good. Incredibly brazen content bordering on insubordination...yet Myer's devotion to the service would be rewarded. On July 28, 1866, reacting to the influence of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and President Andrew Johnson, Congress reorganized the Signal Corps and, with the permanent rank of colonel, Myer again became chief signal officer. He was particularly gratified when word of this victory came on October 30, 1866, as his old nemesis, Edwin Stanton, had to inform him of his reinstatement. Indeed, Stanton may have created the Grant quote out of whole cloth simply to anger Myer.

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December 9, 2015 10:30 AM EST
Elkton, MD, US

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