Service During The Civil War
After arriving in Cleveland, Eckert telegraphed Assistant Secretary of War Thomas A. Scott that his services were available. Eckert was ordered to Washington D.C. and assigned to General George B. McClellan's headquarters as captain and aide-de-camp in charge of military telegraph operations, and accompanied him on the Peninsula Campaign as superintendent of the military telegraph for the Department of the Potomac. His service on the battlefield did not last long because in September 1862 he was sent to Washington D.C. to organize and administer the War Department's military telegraph (a position he held until 1866) under the rank of major. Eckert was well respected by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and President Abraham Lincoln for his organizational skills. Both Stanton and Lincoln charged him with important missions that went above Eckert's formal duties. In 1864 Eckert was brevetted lieutenant colonel and then later was granted the rank of brigadier general of volunteers in 1865. Later, Stanton went on to appoint him Assistant Secretary of War in 1866, a position Eckert held until 1867.
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