The earthquake severed all telephone and telegraph lines, not just within the city, but also those connecting San Francisco to the outside world. The organization of virtually all relief assistance and supplies depended on the quick implementation of temporary communication lines. It was up to the Army's relief efforts to utilize a central transmission channel to effectively organize and establish order. This Signal Corps were put in charge of this job.

On the morning of Wednesday, April 18th, when the earthquake struck, the U.S. Army Signal Corps at the Presidio consisted of Captain Leonard D. Wildman, two sergeants, a corporal and several privates. Wildman, an electrical engineer, and his men faced the challenge of reestablishing the communications for both the military and the city.

Wildman and the Signal Corps began the arduous task of stringing communication cables through a burning city filled with a panicked populace and by 10 a.m., they had established a military telegraph wire between the Presidio and the firelines. Amazingly, the Signal Corps managed to keep the single line at the Postal Telegraph building open to Washington until it fell to the flames at 3 p.m.

By Wednesday afternoon, the Signal Corps ran a line from the headquarters at Fort Mason to the Ferry Building where Western Union had access to an Oakland cable. They cut down electric wires from city light poles in order to piece together a connection. By Thursday afternoon, this line was able to communicate directly from Army headquarters to the Secretary of War.

Captain Leonard D. Wildman Credit: Museum of the City of San Francisco

The Signal Corps mended lines cut during telephone and electric repair efforts. They also constantly reconnected telegraph lines knocked out by the dynamite squads. As the fire moved over Telegraph Hill, the Signal Corps immediately ran a line down the already scorched California Street. Despite the danger, it was necessary to stuff insulated wires into the still hot cable slots. Because of these daring efforts, the crucial communication channel in San Francisco was never broken for more than 30 minutes at a time.

In the following days, additional men arrived to relieve the Signal Corps, but wire and supplies remained desperately short. Nevertheless, when the city was divided into military districts on Sunday, the Signal Corps was able to connect the individual district headquarters with the Fort Mason department headquarters in just three hours. The city remained dependent solely upon military telegraph lines until May 10th.

Eventually, the Signal Corps division grew to over 170 men stringing the lines that handled nearly 2000 messages per day. From the Signal Corps headquarters, Wildman tracked the division's progress on a city map. Over 40 telegraph offices and 79 phone offices were launched, providing communication between the seven relief districts and the mayor's office, the Federal offices and transportation points.

General Greely, who had been a highly decorated member of the Signal Corps, noted "For three days, the only electrical communication in the downtown section was over the wires that Captain Wildman's men strung over the ruined walls through the heart of the burning district."

Resources

"Great Work By Signal Corps; Lines Are Run Over Ruined Walls and Through Smoking Streets During Fire," San Francisco Chronicle, 3 May 1906.

Hansen, Gladys and Emmet Condon. Denial of Disaster, (San Francisco, Cameron and Company, 1989).

Strobridge, William. "Soldiers in the Streets, 1906," The Pacific Historian, Spring 1978 (vol. 22, no. 1).

"The Signal Corps and the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire," Presidio Ranger File.