Editing Union army (section)

===Signal Corps===
{{main|Signal Corps in the American Civil War}}
The creation of a [[Signal Corps (United States Army)|Signal Corps]] for the US Army was the result of [[Albert James Myer]], an army surgeon who had developed a system of [[military signals]] based on [[sign language]] known as [[Wigwag (flag signals)|wigwag]].  Myer was appointed to the rank of major and to lead the Signal Corps (albeit as its only officer) effective June 27, 1860.  During the early years of the Civil War the Signal Corps did not have any personnel other than Myer appointed to it.  Instead, officers and enlisted men were sent from other units to [[Fort Monroe]] to learn his system and in turn teach others.  Myer continued to campaign for a more formal and permanent Signal Corps, which was finally granted by Congress on March 3, 1863.  However, a dispute between the Signal Corps and the [[U.S. Military Telegraph Corps]] over who controlled [[electrical telegraph]]y led Secretary Stanton to replace Myer with Maj. William Nicodemus in November of that year.  After an inadvertent release of confidential information, Nicodemus was in turn replaced by Colonel Bejamin Fisher, who would remain the Corps' commander until the end of the war.  The Signal Corps proved instrumental in coordinating the actions of the Union army during the Civil War and afterwards Congress appointed Myers to once again lead it in 1866.<ref name="Newell303">Newell & Shrader, pages 292–303</ref>