WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, 
GENERAL ORDERS, ) 
No. 40. i 
Richmond, May 29, 1862. 
I. The following Act of Congress and Regulations in reference thereto, 
are published for the information of the Army, viz : 
An Act to organize a Signal Corps. 
Sec. 1. The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the 
President be and is hereby authorized, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, to appoint ten officers in the Provisional Army, of a grade not exceeding 
that of Captains, and with the pay of corresponding grades of infantry, who shall 
perform the duties of signal officers of the army. And the President is hereby au- 
thorized to appoint ten Sergeants of Infantry in the Provisional Army, and to assign 
them to duty as Signal Sergeants. The signal corps above authorized may be organ- 
ized as a separate corps, or may be attached to the department of the Adjutant and 
Inspector General, or to the Engineer Corps, as the Secretary of War shall direct. 
{Approved April 19, 1862.] 
11. The Signal Corps authorized by this act will be attached to the 
Adjutant and Inspector Generals department; and officers of that de- 
partment may be instructed in and assigned to signal duty. 
111. A signal officer will be attached to the staff of each General or 
Major General in command of a corps, and of each Major General in 
command of a division. These signal officers will each be assisted by as 
many Signal Sergeants, and instructed non-commissioned officers and 
privates, selected from the ranks for their intelligence and reliability, as 
circumstances may require; and as many Lance Sergeants as are re- 
quired may be appointed. Such non-commissioned officers and privates 
may be detailed for this duty by the Generals in whose command they 
are serving. Before being instructed, they will each be required by the 
signal officer to take an oath not to divulge, directly or indirectly, the 
system of signals, the alphabet, or any official message sent or received 
thereby. Non-commissioned officers, while on signal duty, and privates 
on this duty, will receive 40 cents per day extra pay. 
IY.' Commissioned officers of the Signal Corps, or officers serving on 
signal duty, will be entitled to the forage and allowance of officers of 2 
similar rank in the cavalry. Non-commissioned officers and privates on 
signal duty will be mounted by tbe Quartermaster, on the order of the 
Commanding General. 
V. Requisitions for flags, torches, glasses, and all the material required, 
will be made on the Quartermaster’s department, or they may be pur- 
chased by the Quartermaster of any division, on the order of the Major 
General commanding. 
YI. On the order of the General commanding a corps, other officers, 
non-commissioned officers or privates than those regularly on signal 
duty, may be instructed in the system of signals, after having taken the- 
oath prescribed above. Wherever it is practicable, it is specially recom- 
mended to all general officers to have their Assistant Adjutant Generals 
and Aid de Camps instructed. 
VII. Whatever is prescribed herein for a division, or for a Major 
General, will be observed in the case of each brigade which constitutes 
a separate command. 
VIII. All officers and non-commissioned officers accepting appoint- 
ments to the Signal Corps, will forward with their acceptances the oath 
prescribed above, sworn to before a magistrate, notary public, or com- 
missioned officer of the corps. 
IX. Quarterly returns of signal property will be made by all officers 
having it in charge, to the Quartermaster’s department, and the senior 
signal officer of each separate army in the field will report quarterly to 
the Adjutant and Inspector General the number and organization of the 
Signal Corps of the Army, and its general operations during the previous 
quarter. 
X. It will be the duty of the signal officer of every division in the field 
to instruct the Adjutant of each regiment in the division in the system of 
signals in use in the army. 
command of the Secretary of War. 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General.