by: Lee A. Taylor

Samuel F. B. Morse developed the Morse system of telegraphy for sending encoded messages over a single wire in the 1840s. The original code, now called American Morse, called for some letters to have "spaced dots" in them, that is, dots with a pause before sending the next dot. On landline cables, this worked fine, but caused errors when the cables went under water. To fix this problem, in 1851, countries in Europe devised a scheme that did not include the "spaced dots" in the encoding of any of the letters (or other characters). The code they devised, International Morse, is the one in common use even today by ham radio operators.

The key similarity between Morse and wigwag signaling with a single flag is that the most commonly used letters should require the least work to send, since those letters will be the ones sent the most often. For example, the letter E is sent with a single dot (".") in both American and International Morse and in the June 1861 code detailed below is a single flag wave to the left. Less common letters require a lot more work, for example, Q is ..-. in American Morse, --.- in International Morse and 2 flag waves to the left, followed by one to the right, followed by one to the left in the 1861 code (a total of 4 waves). The tables below give the complete comparison of the 2 Morse codes to the June 1861 code used by the Signal Corps of the Susquehanna for many of its demonstrations.

* - L in American Morse was one "long dash", the equivalent of a one dot-one dash in rapid succession (i.e., closer together than the .- in the letter A).

* - In the June '61 code, the 3 is used as a spacer, 33 as sentence punctuation and 333 as end of message, so the 3's for a question indicate that a Q is being sent as a sentence all by itself, indicating the last sentence was a question.

Since the wigwag signaling was designed specifically for English, it contains some codes for common English endings such as ING (2212), ED (2221) and TION (2222).

Like Morse Code, flag signaling also incorporates some shorthand codes (called preconcerted codes) for words/messages that might be sent commonly during battle. These are 1 or 2 letter codes that are sent with a 3 on each side to indicate that it is a message unto itself. For example, if you were a Confederate signaler sending the message to your comrades across the battlefield that a Union regiment is advancing on their left and they should withdraw, you might send the (rather lengthy) message

"UNION TROOPS ON YOUR LEFT WITHDRAW"

which would require 82 flag waves (don't forget the 3's for the space between words and the 333 at the end). Your buddies would be dead before you finished sending them the message. However, using the preconcerted code, this message would be

"U I L B"

which only requires 18 flag waves. So maybe they'll have a chance! The full table for the preconcerted codes used in the June 1861 code is:

A - Artillery

B - Back/Withdraw

C - Cavalry

D - Center

E - Return

F - Advance/Forward

G - Confederate

H - Halt

I - Infantry

J - Cease

K - Repeat

L - Left

M - Minutes

N - Deploy

O - Order

P - Location

Q - Question

R - Right

S - Skirmishers

T - Extend

U - Union

V - Fire

W - Where

X - Shutting Down

Y - Ready

Z - In Position

AA - Attack

BB - Begin

CC - Concentrate

DD - Wait

EE - End

FF - Flank

GG - Send

HH - Courier

II - Identify

JJ - Runner

KK - Word

LL - Low on Ammunition

MM - Medical Emergency

NN - Move

OO - Signature

PP - Prepare

QQ - Address

RR - Reinforcements

SS - Signal(s)

TT - Relay

UU - Who

VV - What

WW - When

XX - Cancel

YY - Yards

ZZ - Last