Apache Campaigns - Fort Huachuca - U.S. Army

Roll Call: Signal Sergeant Will Barnes
The Signal Corps played an important role in Arizona’s development, operating thousands
of miles of telegraph lines, providing a national weather service, and, in 1886, establishing an
unique heliograph network. Notable among these signalmen was Sgt. Will C. Barnes. Later a
prominent Arizonan, cattleman, and author, he first came to Fort Apache in 1879 as a private.
During the Indian uprisings in 1881, he risked his life to climb an outlying mesa and signal the
undermanned fort of the return of the main body. Time and again he alone ventured into enemyinfested
areas to repair cut telegraph lines and carry dispatches. For his conspicuous gallantry, he
was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Twenty-one-year-old Will Croft Barnes was selling sheet music in San Francisco in 1879
when he joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps. It was not easy to get into the Signal Corps at that
time since it had recently become a branch and the chance for quick promotion to the noncommissioned
ranks were good. A recruit could become a sergeant in as little as six months, and two
lieutenants were commissioned each year from the pool of NCOs. Barnes asked for and received
the aid of his congressman in getting into the Army’s Signal Corps. In 1880 he was assigned to
Fort Apache, Arizona, where he succeeded Surgeon Walter Reed as weather observer. By 1881
he was a sergeant.
Barnes told his mother in a letter home that the Apaches called the signalmen the “iron
paper men,” a reference to their use of the telegraph which was on occasion demonstrated to the
Indians. 59 In his Reminescences, Barnes recalled some of his duties.
It was no uncommon matter for a message of a thousand words to be filed by the Commanding
Officer for transmission to District Headquarters at Whipple Barracks, Prescott.
Almost every day some Arizona post reported an Indian scare, with frequent killings by raids
of Victorio’s band.... These raids kept the troops of nearly all southern Arizona and New
Mexico posts in constant field service. Every raid was reported to each post commander in
order that they might all be fully conversant with Indian activities. It was a busy wire.... An
unusually bold raid would bring a general order from the Department Commander keeping
every operator at his key constantly until the situation was relieved. Several times I put in
thirty-six hours straight time at the key—not working, of course, but ready at any moment to
answer a call. 60
Weather reporting was now an important part of the signalman’s duties and Barnes had to
make daily reports to Washington to coincide with the capital’s time zone. This meant getting up
early in the morning to get off the report to Chief Signal Officer Myer, called “Old Probabilities”
for his attention to weather prognostication.
There could be no fudging on this business. The instruments had to be read at 3:39
[a.m.], the report made out and put into code all ready for the call signals which came over
the wire from El Paso, Texas, at exactly 4 a.m. If you weren’t there to answer, you had a
painful few moments of wire conference with the Chief Operator, ...a commissioned officer.
Yuma was the most westerly station we had, and it sent the first report. Then, each man,
listening to his fellows, picked up the report in his turn, ticked off his ten or fifteen cipher
words, signed his initials, got the “O.K.” from El Paso, and went back to bed.
This happened four times every blasted day, rain or shine, peace or war, Indians or no
Indians, unless the line was down; which it often was. Even then, we had to record the
A MAGAZINE OF THE FORT HUACHUCA MUSEUM
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