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[363]

War service over-military telegraph operators in Richmond, June, 1865 ‘The cipher operators with the various armies were men of rare skill, unswerving integrity, and unfailing loyalty,’ General Greeley pronounces from personal knowledge. Caldwell, as chief operator, accompanied the Army of the Potomac on every march and in every siege, contributing also to the efficiency of the field telegraphers. Beckwith remained Grant's cipher operator to the end of the war. He it was who tapped a wire and reported the hiding-place of Wilkes Booth. The youngest boy operator, O'Brien, began by refusing a princely bribe to forge a telegraphic reprieve, and later won distinction with Butler on the James and with Schofield in North Carolina. W. R. Plum, who wrote a ‘History of the Military Telegraph in the Civil War,’ also rendered efficient service as chief operator to Thomas, and at Atlanta. The members of the group are, from left to right: 1, Dennis Doren, Superintendent of Construction; 2, L. D. McCandless; 3, Charles Bart; 4, Thomas Morrison; 5, James B. Norris; 6, James Caldwell; 7, A. Harper Caldwell, chief cipher operator, and in charge; 8, Maynard A. Huyck; 9, Dennis Palmer; 10, J. H. Emerick; 11, James H. Nichols. Those surviving in June, 1911, were Morrison, Norris, and Nichols.

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