What does the Signal Corps have to do with infantry? Actually a lot. When used properly, the Signal Corps can enhance a reenactment for both the spectators and the participants.

For the spectators, the Signal Corps can provide a means to explaining how communications were carried out over long distances, prior to the telegraph or where telegraph wasn’t available. Spectators are often intrigued by the flag waving and are caught by surprise when they find out that there was no Morse code at the time. They can be brought to a modern understanding that a form of signaling is still used, particularly on ships with flags (semaphore) and at modern airports, where the flags are replaced by orange flashlights.

For the reenactor, the use of signals affords the opportunity to rely less on modern means of battle control (via radios) yet still get the message across in a timely manner. Sometimes using signals can get a message out faster than even mounted couriers can. Signals can be used either for coordinating the Union and Confederate movements in a battle, or for each side’s divisions, battalions, or companies individually.

Flagging signals is as easy as 1-2-3 if you can remember that 1= down to left side, 2 = down to right side, and 3 is down directly in front of you. An attention signal is waving the flab over your head in a large figure "8", and an error message is holding the flag up over your head and to the left side. The harder part is reading the signals when you are answered, because the sequence is some what reversed. (Mirror image)

The code is primarily based on a series of 1’s and 2’s. (For you computer geeks, this is almost like binary code!) A 3 is used to separate words, 33 separates sentence or phrases, and 333 separates ends of messages.

For example:

2/3 11/2112/3 121/1/1122/22/11/112/2/22/1122/333 translates as

I a m s i g n a l i n g .(In this case, the end of the sentence is the end of the message, therefore a 333 is used instead of 33.)