THE FIELD TELEGRAPH. 303 



the animal kingdom, and confined to the existing generation. His 

 conception of the indissolubleness of certain associations, in particu- 

 lar, preluded the elucidation of their organic character as resulting 

 from the intercourse of the mind with its environment. — West7ni'iister 

 Review, 



THE FIELD TELEGKAPH. 



By a. HILLIAED ATTEKIDGE. 



1]^ the year 1802, when Napoleon was first consul, there arrived in 

 Paris two artisans of Poitiers. One of these men, Jean Alexandre, 

 had invented a rudimentary form of the electric telegraph, and, with 

 his friend Beauvais, he had left the little country town full of high 

 hopes to submit his discovery to the great soldier who was then guid- 

 ing the destinies of France. He requested a personal interview with 

 the first consul, refusing to communicate his secret to any one else. 

 He was referred to the astronomer Delambre, whom he succeeded in 

 convincing of the value of his invention ; still, however, declining to 

 reveal the way in which the electric signals were transmitted, unless 

 to Napoleon himself. But the latter refused to grant the required in- 

 terview, saying he had no time to trouble himself with such matters ; 

 and Alexandre and Beauvais went back to Poitiers in bitter disappoint- 

 ment.' Had Napoleon listened to the proposals of Alexandre, the 

 course of history might have been changed ; for, had he been able to 

 secure the exclusive possession of the electric telegraph, it is easy to 

 imagine the efi'ect it would have had upon his campaigns, and how dif- 

 ficult it would have been for even the allied armies of all Europe to 

 contend against a great commander, who, by some secret means un- 

 known to them, could obtain accurate and instantaneous information 

 from every point of the theatre of war, and flash his orders to corj^s- 

 (Parmee divided from him and each other by miles of country, while 

 his opponents had only to trust to horses and couriers to carry their 

 orders and dispatches. 



A very little study of the wars of the French Revolution, in com- 

 parison with those of our own time, will be sufiicient to show what an 

 advantage the telegraph is to the modern commander. A striking 

 instance of the extreme difficulty of combining the operations of sepa- 

 rate corps or armies in the same theatre of war, without the aid of the 

 telegraph, is afforded by the history of the campaign of 1796, in Ger- 

 many, when Moreau and Jourdan were " acting in concert " against 

 the Austrians. The Archduke Charles left a weak retarding force in 

 front of Moreau, while he directed all his available strength against 

 Jourdan ; and the former general was actually advancing in triumph 



' Villefranche, " La Telegraphie Fran9aise, Etude Historique." 



