The incomplete train was used by the Signal Corps with satisfactory results in the campaign upon the peninsula, in Virginia. The purchase of three trains of improved construction, each bearing two instruments and five miles of insulated wire, was in consequence, ordered by the general commanding. These trains are now in the field, accompanying the march of the Army of the Potomac.

The difficulty attending the use of electric telegraphic with armies on prolonged marches and on battle-fields has been that they required skilled operators, and the electric batteries were difficult of transportation. These trains are equipped with instruments which work without batteries and can easily read and write. Such instruments were before unknown. The call for trains of this description led, through the agency of Mr. H. J. Rogers, to their invention by Mr. G. W. Beardslee, of New York.

The organization recommended for each train has been ne commissioned officer, four sergeants as operators, and twelve men. The cost of each train has been $2,500. This cost may be reduced. The use of such trains, or of the instruments when placed in the hands of soldiers, and with proper military organization, promises advantage to the Army. I recommend its further development. I recommend, also, that an appropriation of $30,000 be asked for this purpose.

THE NEED OF AN ORGANIZATION OF THE SIGNAL CORPS.

The officers of the acting signal corps serve under peculiar hardships. There is no rest for them from the first movement of an army until it returns again to permanent quarters. Their orders necessitate their watchfulness day and night.

Scattered widely over extends of country on lonely stations; hurried singly or by twos from point to point miles distant; kept near the enemy on the advance that they may watch his motions; kept near him on the retreat that they may report his advance; stationed beyond picket-lines; sent out with scouts and skirmishers to reconnoiter; placed with batteries to report their shots; obliged to hold their stations under fire in battle on penalty of disgrace; exposed by day and night, in heat and cold and rain; serving on horseback and on foot; on ship and on shore; at mastheads; in tress; on mountain tops-they see all the hardships of war with few of its pleasures. A day of successful battle, which brings some rest to others, is to them (but for the, on that day, perhaps, greater personal exposure) only an episode in the labors which precede and follow it.

The officers who have been on this duty have been, in general, laborious, zealous and faithful. Their deeds in a year's service speak for them. They were ordered on this duty for a time. It has been found expedient to keep them permanently upon it. Their places are not supplied in their regiments. They are not permitted to leave the signal service. Yet for all these young soldiers, gallant as some have shown themselves, there is no legally defined position, and no chance of legitimate and deserved promotion. It is a right of the officers and men, kept in the corps, and a right of the regiments to which they belong, that they should be given a corps organization. The interests of the United States require it.

The details of an act for this purpose with the reasons in full are too lengthy to be submitted in this paper. They will be laid before the Department.