User:Seth Listhartke/sandbox

Article Evaluation
Electrical telegraph


 * Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
 * Everything in this article is relevant.
 * Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Article looks neutral, however I haven't read entire article in depth, so I may have missed something.
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * I think that there could be more discussion on how the telegraph system changed warfare (ie. How did quick communication change how wars/battles were fought?). Might be a discussion for another article (specifically warfare), but it would be interesting to see how warfare changed telegraphs.
 * Most of the discussions talk about American improvements. It mentions some international inventors.
 * Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article? Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
 * Citations seem to work, and of the ones I've looked at, they are reliable.


 * Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added? Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * Talk page hasn't been touched in a few years. The lasted post was approximately 2 years ago.


 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * The article is rated as a C class, High-Importance. It is a part of WikiProjects
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
 * We haven't talked about this specific topic yet in class, and I'm unsure if we will

Article Sources
Electrical telegraph

Looking at adding a section in the telegraph article that would include how the telegraph changed warfare and made it more "modern"


 * https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.mst.edu/docview/128162330?pq-origsite=summon&accountid=14594 (citaiton1)
 * https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.mst.edu/lib/umr-ebooks/reader.action?docID=3318662&query= (citation2)
 * https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.mst.edu/lib/umr-ebooks/reader.action?docID=5316955&ppg=44 (citation3)

Article Facts
(From Telegraph in America 1832-1920)
 * Over four years (Civil War), Telegraph corps (USMT) handled approximately 6.5 million messages (for about $2.6 million)
 * USMT laid more than 15,000 miles of cable
 * 8,000 for military
 * 5,000 for commercial
 * Allowed commanders to talk to subordinates but also allowed political leaders to maintain control over population.
 * Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, said "[telegraph is my right arm]"
 * Assistant Secretary of War, Thomas Scott, wanted a provision to allow military to take control of telegraphs is necessity required it. By October of 1861, Lincoln agreed.
 * Allowed McClellan to communicate with his front, but also the front some 600 miles away in Kanawaha Valley.
 * On February 16, 1862, McClellan engaged in three way, real-time conversation with Henry Halleck, and Doc Carlos Buell to discuss plans for advancing to Nashville.
 * Ulysses S. Grant recalled he "held frequent conversations over the wires" and talking strategies with Stanton during 1863, sometimes conversations lasted hours.
 * In 1864, Grant communicated almost daily with Sherman in Georgia some 1,500 miles away.
 * During the Battle of Antietam, September 1862, McClellan used telegraph to resupply troops with bulls and shells (Reword this to avoid plagiarism).
 * Assistant Secretary of War, Charles A. Dana, praised telegraph when he accompanied Union forces during the Battle of Chickamauga in Northern Georgia, September 19, 1862.
 * Said "It was one of the most useful accessories of our army","Constant information on the way the battle was going"
 * Dana was able to update with Stanton on the progress of the battle, about 11 telegrams
 * General Meade was able to reinforce General Scott, using the telegraph to communicate, during the Battle of Spotsylvania, May 1864, after Hancock's troops came under a heavy Confederate counterattack.
 * During the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg, July 30, 1864, Meade sent/received more than 100 telegrams during the 5 hour battle.
 * During the War, USMT was still a civilian agency, not Governmental, and most operators were hired first by the telegraph companies, and then contracted out to the government. War telegraphs mainly used commercial lines, and had privilege over civilian traffic

Facts that need to be added to "End of the Telegraph Era"
 * 1909 AT&T acquired a majority of Western Union. Proof of telephone surpassing telegraph.
 * 1913 Western Union was released from AT&T
 * November 1879 National Bell signed a non-competition agreement with Western Union signaling the begin of the fall of the telegraph pg138
 * Around 1880 telephone was considered a useful addition to the telegraph. ~pg139

Article Outline
Before Civil War (1861) During Civil War (1861-1865)
 * Information about telegraph before the start of the Civil War
 * Telegraph in the North
 * Telegraph in the South

Original telegraph Edits
Making a new section called

American Civil War Telegraphy
Before the Civil War, the telegraph systems were primarily used in the commercial sector. The Government buildings weren't connect to each other via telegraph lines, but instead relied on runners to carry messages back and forth between buildings and offices. Before the War the Government saw no need to connect lines within city limits, however, they did see the use in connections between cities. With the Washington D.C. being the hub of the American Government, it had the most connections, but it only had a few lines running north and south out of the city. It wasn't until the Civil War broke out that the Government saw the true potential of the telegraph system. Soon after the shelling of Fort Sumter, the South cut telegraph lines running into D.C. This put the city in a state of panic for they feared an immediate southern invasion.

It has been argued that because the North had such a vast telegraph system, it gave them an advantage over the South who didn't have as robust of a telegraph system. Within 6 months of the war breaking out, the Telegraph Corps, USMT, had laid approximately 300 miles of line. By war's end they laid approximately 15,000 miles of cable, 8,000 for military and 5,000 for commercial, and had handled approximately 6.5 million messages. The telegraph was not only important for communication within the armed forces, but also in the civilian sector, helping political leaders to maintain control over their districts.

Even before the war, the American Telegraph Company censored suspect messages informally to block aid to the secession movement.

During the war, Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, and later Edwin Stanton, wanted control over the telegraph lines to maintain the flow of information. Early in the war, one of Stanton's first acts of Secretary of War, was to move telegraph lines from ending at McClellan's headquarters to ending at the War Department. Even Stanton himself said "[telegraph] is my right arm". Many Northern victories were found due to the use of the telegraph. Victories include the Battle of Antietam (1862), the Battle of Chickamauga (1863), the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg (1864), as well as Sherman's March (1865).

The telegraph system wasn't without its flaws. The USMT, while the main source of telegraphers and cable, was still a civilian agency. Most operators were first hired by the telegraph companies and then contracted out to the War Department. This created tension between Generals and their operators. One source of irritation was that USMT operators didn't have to follow military authority, they usually performed without hesitation, but they didn't have to. To remedy this problem Albert Myer created a U.S. Army Signal Corps in February 1863. As the new head of the Signal Corps, Myer tried to push all telegraph and flag signaling under his command, and therefore subject to military disipline. After creating the Signal Corps, Myer pushed to further develop new telegraph systems. While the USMT relied primarily on civilian lines and operators, the Signal Corp's new field telegraph could be deployed and dismantled faster than USMT's system.

End of the Telegraph Era
In America, the end of the telegraph era can be associated with the fall of the Western Union Telegraph Company. Western Union was the leading telegraph provider for America and was seen as the best competition for the National Bell Telephone Company. Western Union and Bell were both invested in telegraphy and telephone technology. Western Union's decision to allow Bell to gain the advantage in telephone technology was the result of Western Union's upper management's failure to foresee the surpassing of the telephone over the, at the time, dominant telegraph system. Western Union soon lost the legal battle for the rights to their telephone copyrights. This led to Western Union agreeing to a lesser position in the telephone competition, which in turn led to the lessening of the telegraph.

While the telegraph was not the focus of the legal battles that occurred around 1878, the companies that were affected by the effects of the battle were the main powers of telegraphy at the time. Western Union thought that the agreement of 1878 would solidify telegraphs as the long-range communication of choice. However, due to the underestimates of telegraph's future and poor contracts, Western Union found itself declining. This led to the majority acquisition of Western Union by AT&T in 1909.

In the United States, the Western Union discontinued all telegram and commercial messaging services on 27 January 2006,[48] although it still offered its electronic money transfer services. India's state-owned telecom company, BSNL, ended its telegraph service on 14 July 2013. It was reportedly the world's last existing true electric telegraph system.[49][50]

Peer Review by Bh7pb (talk) 17:54, 16 March 2018 (UTC)
The addition of all this information about how the telegraph affected the Civil War looks to be really good for this article. The title of the section should be "American Civil War Telegraphy" to differentiate it from other civil wars. Every sentence has a lot of information and is presented neutrally. I think you should add the last paragraph in the "Civil War Telegraphy" section to help present multiple viewpoints on the telegraph. In the "End of the Telegraph Era" section, the first paragraph presents information in a way that treats Western Union and Bell as if they were in a battle and that doesn't seem to be in the best tone for an encyclopedia article. The fourth sentence in that first paragraph is the main part I'm talking about. The first sentence of the second paragraph is hard to follow, maybe take out "were not about telegraphy itself" and change "were affected by the effects of the battle" to "were affected by the battle". The information that's being presented is important for the article and helps create a better idea of the history of the telegraph. Bh7pb (talk) 17:54, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Response to peer reviews CLMnator (talk) 16:19, 23 March 2018 (UTC)
Thanks for the feedback. I have made a few changes to help the tone of the paragraph, and readablitlity. I will be adding citations soon.

Peer Review by SeanLoreaux (talk) 21:01, 18 March 2018 (UTC)
Overall, the article provides good information, and in the expected Wikipedia writing style. The different sections are clearly distinct from one another, and all sections hold relevant information. A lot of these (citation)'s should be formally fleshed out into linked citations, but I assume you two will take care of the before submitting the article section to the live page. Some grammatical issues I had while reading were many short, fragmented sentences that could be strewn together to better form the thought. I believe this would increase the readability of this article. One specific suggestion is to change "Victories include, but aren't limited to, the Battle of Antietam (1862), ..." to "Victories include the Battle of Antietam (1862), ..." As the word include does not imply a complete listing. One section that could use some expanding is the use of the telegraph before the civil war, and its understood usefulness before and after the war.This is a lot of important and relevant information on the telegraph's involvement in the American Civil War. SeanLoreaux (talk) 21:01, 18 March 2018 (UTC)

Response to peer reviews Seth Listhartke (talk) 16:16, 23 March 2018 (UTC)
Overall I liked the comments given, and I have made the changes you have requested. I have included the last paragraph (the one I wasn't sure about adding), and I have even found more information on before the Civil War as requested. I have also made some minor grammatical changes as requested, however, I have not changed the citations yet, but I will be doing that soon.