During the Civil War, the first telegraphs were being strung throughout the country.
The telegraph revolutionizes the delivery of war news and other affairs.
California telegraph operators, for instance, were able to talk directly with Chicago operators.
Abraham Lincoln was the first president who was able to communicate on the spot with his officers on the battlefield.
The White House telegraph office enabled Lincoln to monitor battlefield reports, lead real-time strategy meetings and deliver orders to the troops, according to the History Channel.
The Confederate army lacked technological and industrial ability to conduct a large-scale communication campaign such as the Union army was able to do.
In 1861, the Union Army established the U.S. Military Telegraph Corps, led by Andrew Carnegie.
The next year, the corps trained 1,200 operators, strung 4,000 miles of telegraph wire and sent more than 1 million messages to and from the battlefield.
For more information about the telegraph’s role in the battle, visit http://www.history.com/topics/civil-war-technology.