The Federal Signal Corps used flag movements to send messages across miles of open ground. The system was Major Albert J. Myer's "wig-wag" — a single flag held high and waved left, right, and forward in specific combinations that spelled out letters from a code book Myer had developed before the war. A signal station was typically two or three men with the flag at a high point — a hilltop, a tree platform, an observation tower — sending and receiving messages to and from the next station along a chain. On a clear day a message could travel fifteen miles to the next station and from there fifteen more. At Gettysburg the Federal Signal Corps had observation stations on Little Round Top.

This W. Britain figure depicts a Federal Signal Corps signalman in regulation kit — dark blue Federal infantry jacket, light blue trousers, dark forage cap — holding the red signal flag with the white center square that was used against light backgrounds (the white flag with red center was used against dark backgrounds). The mustache and beard are the campaign grooming of a man who had been in the field for several seasons. The figure works as a centerpiece for any observation-station or hilltop signaling diorama. Pair this figure with Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, whose Signal Corps observation station on Little Round Top tracked Confederate movements at Gettysburg; with Brig. Gen. John Buford, whose cavalry sent and received Signal Corps messages on Day 1 of Gettysburg; or with Defending the Round Tops No.1 for a Little Round Top signal-station vignette.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31206. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure with signal flag, supplied painted and ready for display.