GENERAL ORDERS, 
No. 139. 
WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Adjutant General’s Office, 
Washington, May 18, 1863. 
1. The duties of Signal Officers will be performed by officers of the 
Signal Corps, or by such competent and instructed officers as may be 
specially detailed for that purpose. Any superior commander may, in 
view of probable necessities, detail a limited number of officers and 
men for instruction; but no details for service will be made until the 
officers and men to be detailed have passed a satisfactory examination 
by a Board, of which at least two Signal Officers shall be members, and 
no incompetent or inexperienced officer will be permitted, by any 
authority, to transmit signal messages. 
2. Signal officers, when on duty, will report to their immediate Com- 
mander and to the Chief Signal Officer of the army with which they 
may be serving, for the information of the General Commanding, all 
movements of the enemy, or other facts relating to the general interest 
of the service coming within their knowledge. 
3. Communications transmitted by signals are always confidential; 
they will not be revealed by officers on stations to others than those 
officially entitled to receive them. 
4. The senior officer of any command will be the chief of the signal 
parties serving in that command. Orders or instructions affecting their 
duties will be transmitted through him, and he will be held responsible 
that the officers and men under his charge aie fully instructed and 
properly perform the duties assigned them. He will have charge of 
all signal duty, and will keep himself well informed of the position of 
the army and of the enemy; and will, under the instruction of the 
General Commanding, so establish his stations that they may be most 
advantageously posted. He will take care, by inspections and timely 
requisitions, that his party is well supplied with all equipments neces- 
sary to render it effective. He will make, from time to time, the 
proper reports of his operations in the field to the General Command- 
ing, and will, with the assent of the General, forward certified copies 
of these reports to the office of the Signal Officer. He will make the 
usual returns and semi-monthly statements, and at the end of each 2 
month a report to the Signal Officer of the army as to the condition of 
his party and of such matters as pertain to its particular duties. 
5. The examining boards prescribed above may be appointed by the 
Commander of any army, army corps, or department in which signal 
parties have been or may be authorized. 
By order of the Secretary of War: 
E. D. TOWNSEND, 
Assistant Adjutant General.