Historical Impact
The timing of Samuel Morse's personal turning point from his passion for painting
to inventing the telegraph impacted several historical events that immediately followed.
Morse's telegraph and Morse code allowed for the laying of the Transatlantic Cable in 1858,
while both the Mexican-American War and the Civil War could have had
dramatically different outcomes without it.
to inventing the telegraph impacted several historical events that immediately followed.
Morse's telegraph and Morse code allowed for the laying of the Transatlantic Cable in 1858,
while both the Mexican-American War and the Civil War could have had
dramatically different outcomes without it.
Mexican-American War: 1846-1848"At the time of the Mexican-American War, the American telegraph system was still in its infancy. The Mexican-American War was the first U.S. conflict that employed the telegraph." -Encyclopedia of the Mexican-American War: a Political, Social & Military History "By the summer of 1846, just as American forces headed south into Mexico, the poles and wires were in place to inaugurate the first telegraphic connection between New York and Washington. An enormous region was about to come under American control - all of today's California, Nevada and Utah, most of Arizona, plus parts of three other future states." -Daniel W. Crofts, New York Times |
Civil War: 1861-1865"Indeed, if not for the telegraph, President Lincoln could have lost the war. "
-Jim Wilson, Telegraph Expert & Consultant on the movie Lincoln "At the time of the U.S. Civil War, the telegraph was only 20 years old. The invention had spread slowly across the U.S. During the war, the telegraph became Lincoln's eyes and ears and virtually placed the commander-in-chief at the battle." -R.T. Johnson, "Lincoln and the Telegraph: Messages of Lightning" “Lincoln instinctively discerned the transformational nature of the new technology and applied its dots and dashes as an essential tool for winning the Civil War.”
– Tom Wheeler, "Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails" "The telegraph electronically knitted together a nation that was simultaneously tearing itself apart, North and South, in the Civil War." -John Rogers, Associated Press |