The Schroeder Books
The Telegraph Goes To War: The Diary of David Homer Bates
David Homer Bates was Lincoln’s telegraph operator during the war and one of
three expert Union code breakers who kept the Union strategically ahead of the
Confederacy throughout the war. His
diary, an extraordinary document for its detail and informative nature, has
never been published in its entirety. Bates
was in a unique position to observe the entire Civil War as it was fought in all
theaters of operation. As Lincoln’s telegraph operator, he was one of the
first to know as events unfolded. Lincoln
often came to the telegraph office, in the War Department building adjacent to
the White House, and sat with Bates and other operators reading and responding
to messages from Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and hundreds of other commanders in
the field. Through his close
association with Lincoln, Stanton and other government officials Bates was
intimately familiar with the political, diplomatic, and social machinations of
the time, and the personal lives of high governmental officials.
He was particularly shaken by the assassination of Lincoln and the
coordinated attack on Secretary of State Seward.
Following Mr. Markle’s brief, but thorough, history of the development
of the telegraph for the military, including the fundamentals of the codes used
by both the Union and the Confederacy. Bates’s
diary gives us an intimate look at life in the telegraphic center of the world
from 1863 through 1865. 6 x
9, case bound, pH neutral paper.
Copyright 2003. Reprinted by
Schroeder Publications in 2006. Price:
$27.95. ISBN-1-892059-02-9.
Editor:
Donald
E. Markle spent 34 years in the U.S. Intelligence Service of the Department of
Defense where he worked as a ctyptologist, predominantly at the National
Security Agency. His interest in
all aspects of communications in military environments is unabated in
retirement. A graduate of the University of Maryland, Markle has lectured on the
telegraph at the Smithsonian Institute and the National Archives. He now teaches in the Elderhostel Program at Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, where he resides. His
first book, Spies and Spymasters of the Civil War, was a selection of the
Military Book Club.
Reviews: “Bates’s diary is the raw material of reminiscence, companion comments on people and times in wartime Washington. Bates was part of the action, a witness to history, (and) both Bates and Lincoln in their own way contributed to the future.” ~~B. Franklin Cooling, Industrial College of the Armed Forces
 |
The Telegraph Goes To War:
The Diary of David Homer Bates
$19.95 |
Return to Schroeder Books Return Home
|
© SCHROEDER
PUBLICATIONS Email: civilwarbooks@yahoo.com |