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United States. Military Telegraph Corps. Fort Monroe Telegrams, 1862 February.

Title: Fort Monroe Telegrams, 1862 February.

This collection consists of two telegrams from Fort Monroe in February 1862. The telegrams offer a unique look into Union operations in southeastern Virginia in early 1862 before the famous Battle of Hampton Roads. The first telegram, 34 lines, was most likely from General John Wool, commanding officer at Fort Monroe at the time, to General George McClellan, commander-in-chief of Union forces. McClellan had sent Wool a message on February 21, 1862 informing Wool that the Monitor would arrive at Fort Monroe shortly and asking Wool how many troops he would need to take Norfolk and Yorktown. The 34 line telegram in this collection is most likely Wool's response to McClellan's inquiry. In the telegram, Wool stated how many troops and batteries, along with horses and harnesses, he would need for such operations. He also stated that he would need the cooperation of the Navy in taking the two cities. This telegram was most likely written sometime in the period of February 21-22 and, as it appears to be a response by Wool to McClellan, it would be an outgoing telegram. The second telegram, a 7 line message written on the back of the first telegram, was also composed in February 1862 and relates to a planned prisoner exchange between General Wool and Confederate General Benjamin Huger. Wool informed Huger on February 13, 1862 that he had been authorized to confer with Confederates to formulate a plan for the exchanges. On February 20, Huger informed Wool that General Howell Cobb, brigade commander in the Department of the Peninsula, had been designated to meet with Wool to discuss the prisoner exchange. This telegram relays the same information as Huger's February 20 message to Wool. The telegram was also most likely written sometime in the period of February 21-22 and appears to be outgoing as well. The heading "Burmah" at the beginning of the second telegram is a line designation code telling the telegraph operator how many lines would be in the decoded message. This particular code word was used by Military Telegraph Corps operators in 1862 and appears in several different coded messages included in the Official Record. While the word "Andes" in message does not appear in known code lists of the two Federal cipher codes used by telegraph operators in 1862, it does appear in a private code used by William H. Heiss of the American Telegraph Company and it refers to General Wool.

ArchivalResource: 2 telegrams

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/751396257 View