Signal Towers and Trees

Signal Towers and Trees on the Petersburg and Bermuda Hundred Fronts: Stations of Observation and Communication

Although telegraphy was used extensively during the Petersburg campaign, signal trees, towers and buildings remained vital tools for each army to observe the movements of the enemy from an elevated vantage point. Information gained from such observations could then be relayed through all available means of communication, including signaling by flag or torch.

Military uses of these locations included artillery spotting, mapping, and photography. The fourth estate also climbed these posts as special artists drew the siege lines and battlefields and reported war news.

Fort Fisher Signal Complex
The Federal signal tower behind Fort Fisher on the western end of the Union lines at Petersburg is a good study of how signal stations were used in multiple ways.

Michler 1867.

The sketch below, done by topographic engineers, illustrates how Federal mappers used the signal tower and signal trees located on the parapets of Fort Welch and Fort Fisher to map the Confederate lines from a safe distance. The penciled lines represent lines of sight to various landmarks from the signal tower.

NARA RG 77.

The signal tree on the parapet of Fort Fisher can be seen on the left in the drawing below.

LC http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.22822 Appearance of the Union and Rebel lines at the "Front," from the Parapet of Fort Fisher, Mar. 28 showing the territory gained by the 2nd and 6th, Army Corps after the rebel attack on the 25th inst., with Petersburgh [sic] in the distance / 3 miles only / on the right. Inscribed below title on verso: Mem = It will be well to delinate the Pickets of both sides as seen in the middle ground/back/between the Chiver[sic]de frize or abatis[sic]works so close were they that a running conversation was ordinarily kept up between them Nestell.

Detail from drawing at left.

Peebles Farm (Fort Fisher) signal tower.

Charles Wellington Reed, Manuscript Division, LC. Inscriptions says, "Signal Tower near Patrick Sta. 160 ft. Butlers was highest tower at Bermuda Hundred".

The view was spectacular from the signal tower. The newspaper illustration below shows Fort Fisher, before the southern two bastions were constructed, and the U.S. and Confederate picket lines beyond, with the Confederate line and the city beyond that. Movement on the Boydton Plank Road and the South Side Railroad could also be observed from the tower.

Harper's Weekly, March 11, 1865, sketch by Horace Heath.

Imagine hauling a Civil War era camera and glass negative(s) to the top of the signal tower! The result is the view below, looking to the northeast of the Union line, and capturing deserted camps, picket posts and Fort Conahey. It is not known who took this photograph,which seems to have been taken after the city fell and the armies moved west.

Dec. 20th, 1864. "Hine is very friendly to me again, having got over his pet. He begins work today on a Signal Tower 140ft. high and 40 x 40 at the base. Builds of hewn timber secured with screw and bolts and braces. This is a very disagreeable task to be done at this season when cold winds are so frequent. From the top of this tower, which is to be placed upon an eminence near our camp, the Signal officer expects to overlook the whole Rebel left and all the roads leading out of Petersburg. By means of the tower, we shall be kept informed of all movements of troops on the part of the enemy." --William Watts Folwell Diary, 50th New York Engineers

LC 04090. View from the Peebles Farm signal tower looking north by northwest. Fort Conahey with its casemated guns is at the middle of the image. Surrounding camps appear to have been abandoned. Confederate lines were inside the distant tree line.

LC 04090 detail. Fort Conahey and surrounding deserted camps as viewed from the Peebles Farm signal tower.

Other signal locations

NARA. Monitor Mahopec in the Appomattox River. Crow's Nest signal tower in the background.

NARA. "Monitors in Trent's Reach, James River." This photo was likely taken in the same vicinity as the preceding one. James River or Appomattox?

NARA 3995316673_0e4e8dd97e_o with inset detail. In this undated photograph at an unknown location on the Union line, men labor to set up a mortar battery. Behind them, two observers face the Confederate line from a perch above the tree canopy.

NARA 3996076924_a135824616_o. Note the ladder up to the signal tree on the parapet to the right.

NARA 3996076924_a135824616_o. A different view of the same battery with signal tree.

LC 01829. "[Bermuda Hundred, Va. Photographer at Butler's signal tower]"

LC 01829 detail. Camera wagon and photographer or his assistant.

NARA 525042. "Lookout Tower on Petersburg Lines," companion to preceding photograph.

Signal Station Near Pont of Rocks, Fired at by the Rebels, while Gen. Butler was in the Station tearing away a portion of one of the main supports. Unnamed artist, the Becker collection, Boston College.

LC 02819 detail. Soldiers posed atop the signal tower.

LC 02006 Bermuda Hundred, Va. Officers by their quarters near the signal tower.

"Birneys Station. U.S.M.R.R. Petersburg Va.," drawing by A. R. Waud [DRWG/US - Waud, no. 441 (A size)] Located halfway between Pitkin's and Meade's Stations. Signal Tower in right rear.

(Becker)CW-EM-VA-NDb. The Crows Nest. Signal Station on the James River Opposite Dutch Gap. "The Crows Nest // Signal Station for the James River. Oppisite [sic] 'Dutch Gap' // [signed] Ed F Mullen."

Detail from drawing by Charles Wellington Reed, Reed papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. Caption on drawing is "Signal officer Strap't to a tree in case of getting shot".

Joseph Becker, Becker collection, Boston College Library. September? 1864. Our pickets repulsing rebel pickets. They frequently tried to capture the signal station where I drew this picture.

“On the edge of the lines, not far from the headquarters of General Warren, stood a tall tree. It had been stripped of its boughs, and where the topmost limbs branched a crow’s nest of planks had been built for observatory purposes. The Confederate sharpshooters used this as a target. It was ninety feet from the ground, and its little telescope gave an admirable view of Petersburg and its defenses. The ascent was most uncertain. Rude cleats had been nailed on by a single spike, and these slipped and slanted most distressingly under the feet. In a moment of friskiness, soon regretted, I asked the signal officer in charge of this observatory if I might climb to the top and make a bird’s-eye sketch. He said I might if my courage held out. This was insulting, but turned out to be prophetic. He went up ahead and reached the top a dozen cleats ahead of me. He took one look, and then yelled: “Look out! They’re going to make a charge!” Sure enough they were. The rifles in the breastworks that protected the signal station began to crack. I craned my neck around the tree and saw a straggling lot of rebel skirmishers scampering across the fields toward the tree. Bullets whizzed by. The rickety cleats were gone in places, and others were so loose that they turned unless both feet met on them at once. The agony of that descent was indescribable. With the lieutenant treading on my fingers from above, the chance of being shot in midair or captured at the bottom of the ladder filled me with nervous terror. At last I sank exhausted into a rifle pit near the foot of the tree, completely unnerved. I was quite ill for three days as the result of this adventure. The Confederates were driven back. On the second day they renewed the attack and captured the tree. On the third day it was retaken. This struck me as useless trouble. They could have kept if for all I cared. I did not want it.”

--Joseph Becker, The American Magazine, vol. 37 (1894): 746-748.

LC 22507. William Waud. View from Weitzels lookout & sig[nal] tower; Bermuda hundred looking south Inscribed after title: shewing [sic] the Pontoon Bridge, Spring Hill Fort, the course of the Appomattox River & position of Gun Boats, Fort Clifton (rebel), Petersburg in the distance being shelled from out lines. Inscribed above image from left to right: City Point; B- Point of Rocks landing; Point of Rocks; C The Chamberlain. Gen Graham's Flag Boat; D The Putnam; Woods on Fire; Broadway Landing; Woods on Fire; Troops moving; Dust - Troops moving; Spring Hill Fort; obstructions in the river made of piles of sunken boats &c to prevent the union boats ascending; The Clifton Rebel Battery; Troops moving; Petersburg, shelling along the lines; A - The Commodore Perry Gun Boat picketing the river. Published in: Harper's Weekly, July 23, 1864, pp. 472-473.

NARA. Cobb's Hill signal tower.

LC 01566 Petersburg, Va. Signal tower at 14th New York Heavy Artillery headquarters.

Frances W. Knowles Papers, East Carolina University Library. Detail of a schematic map showing Union troop locations at the Battle of the Crater. Signal tree is located south of Baxter Road and north of the Avery house.

LC cw0607000. Detail of schematic map by Andrew McCallum depicting Federal regimental locations on April 2, 1865. Note the signal station near Fort Friend.

LC 3c36820. A.R. Waud. In front of Petersburg. Inscribed upper left: enemies first line of earthworks our lines below and in front. Inscribed above image: Smoke of locomotive on Petersburg and Richmond RR. Inscribed lower left: This sketch was made at the request of Genl. Meade, for his use, from a tree used by the signal officers. It took over an hour and a half rebel sharpshooters kept up a fire at me the whole time. Inscribed upper right: Smou[ldering? ...]

LC 23180. William Waud. Night signalling. Signalling by torches across the James River, October 1864.

LC 21700. William Waud. View of Fort Clifton Rebel from the Mills House looking across the Appomattox. The end as it should be; The Water Battery made two years ago; Rebel signal house; Clifton House; (Sketch 2); A Clifton Battery bearing down the Appomattox; B new Battery lately erected.

LC 21767. "Fort Clifton within the Appomattox sketched from the Signal Tower," drawing by William Waud.

Signal/Observation tree in front of Fort Davis. Detail from a Charles Wellington Reed drawing of Fatiigue Duty at Fort Davis. Libarary of Congress Manuscript Division, Charles Wellington Reed papers.

Drawing of winter quarters of 9th New York Heavy Artillery at Petersburg- with signal tree in the background. Drawn by private Benjamin L. Avery. Thanks to Edward Alexander for sharing this drawing! The Ninth New York Heavy Artillery, a History of its Organization.... Alfred Seelye Roe, 1899: after page 216.

Detail of Parke's Station from NARA "Map of the City Point & Army Line." Signal Tower in upper right corner.

Signal Towers. Miller, Photographic History, vol. 8: 331

LC 1s02750. "Signal tower on the line before Petersburg, Va., 1864, showing a group of men standing near the signal tower on a hill outside of the fortifications in the vicinity of Point of Rocks, Virginia."

NARA. Point of Rocks signal tower.