New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-08-27

story of raw colonel who set guard over lno
operator at Smithland, on the Cumberland kVer' W
prevent his talking" by the wire, not aware tha1
while apparently sending an authorized mesSaso
the man could :" talk" as much rs he pleased WIN
any other Office on the line and the guard would
not know 1T. A superior officer at Paducah' IN
formed of the state of affairs was about TO oruer
the teegrapher's release but General Sherman III
terfered, declaring the precaution very
proper one. Presently Sherman, anxious u
know if division under General Nelson
had passed mp the river, went 10 'no
Paducah Office. aud tho following telegraphlc oo"-
vcrsation opened with Smithland:
Has the steamer Tarascon passed YETI
I'm under arrest and can answer YOU
General Sherman wants to Know -, ., H.
al don't care if it's Ialleck himself: I'm under
arrest and can't talk about sucn Things
sherman asks. Do you know
" OF course ! know" r, -,
"Shcrman wants to know il General. Nelson has
"TrlI Sherman TO send a message, then"
DO YOU know =
"Ccrtanlv do" m
How far is the colonel headquarters I
a mile and hali.'
Here General Sherman interrupted the dialogue
by asking the PadIcah man: What kind of n
fellow is that operaoIY 81 lie seems to be good at
obeying ORDERS was the answer. Sherman revoked
wanted. While Grant was III front of Richmond
Confederate operator named CASTOR performed the
dangerous feat of tapping the line which connected
the Federal headquarters with Fortress Monroe.
Protected by a company Of scouts disguised rs
wood-outters he attached fine silk-coyered wire
to the line. brought 1t to the ground under the
bark of the pole, and carried it into the woods.
where he remained for slA weeks listening TO
General Grants kilograms to and from the War
Department. But it Is singular circumstance that
in all that time he obtained only one dispatch
which was of any value 10 the CuniederateS. That
was a message which enabled Wade Hampton to
capture 1900 head % cattle. A 'reat lumber Of
messages in cipher were taken Off by CASTOR and
sent to Richmond, but they were never translated
The putting up ana translation of cipher dis
patches an important part Of tine duties OF the
military tclerrapher, and after the service was
completely organized the cipher codes Issued by
Colonel Stager were Intrusted exclusively to the
chief operators attached to the armies and to those
specially detailed for cipher duty in tho Office OF
the Secretary Of War; General Grant, while com
handing in the West, forced his operator 60 glyea
COPY of the cipher to his aide, Lieutcndnt-C Colonel
ComstOck. Colonel Stager at once dismissed the
operator and abolished the cipher. and the Sccrc-
tary sustained him. The matter was anicahy set
tied, and the operator restored but II was clearly
understood thenccforth that the regulation as to
privacy held good against everybody, 10 matter OF
what rank Mr.. Plum devotes an mite estiu4
chapter to the " War Cryptographs." both Federal
and Confederate; and mentions the remarkable
fact that while the rebel cphers yielded to ilic in
genuity of men. in no case did the enemy sue
coed in dcciphcring Federal cryptogIauis. though
many such messages fell into their hards. The
Confederate systems, however were very imper-
fan 1..1 tlpv,V prp ed
lessness As n rule they to have been ident
cal with certain Of the easier and less Important
cphers used by Democratic politicians in the south
durlng the electoral dispute of 1S1G-nOt those EN-
ploved IN the Pclton-Weed-Ma correspondence,
but the codes adopted by local party managers IN
Florida ETC. They consisted in the substitution OF
arbitrary letters signs for the real letters. in
some cases the sgnihcation of the arbtrares was
invarable, and then the translation was simple
matter of patience in other cases the Specification
varied at every STEP and the knowledge of a key
word was required 10 determine 1t. but even tins
cipher could lie read 10y any sbrewd interpreter
who knew OF inferred the subject of the message,
since correct guess at a word or two would lead
to the discovery of the key. The Confederates.
however made discovery certain 10y committing
two blunders; first, they divided the words by
spaces commas or dots-whlch was OF no use to one
who had the key, but great help 10 the enemy
and secondly, they put only part of the message in
cipher, some words which seemed unimpOrtant
being written out plain to save trouble. cipher
letter addressed to A. Keith. Halifax, " 5, was in
terceptod III the New-Yori postoilice III 1868 and
submitted to three expert operators iii the War
Department. Messrs. Tinker, Bates ana Chandler.
Ii was written IN a combination Of five arbitrary
alphabets. composed of letters. dots. dashes,
lneroglyphics and other symbols-that is to say
ri : ,o -i.,,I
ever he pleased of five cipher equivalents; bat by
i strange oversight the words were divided by
punctuation marks and just two words, reaches
you.p were written out plain. No further clew
was required. The operators guessed correctly
that the CIPHER words preceding Breaches you"
were before this" and thus having nine letters
they were able in few hours to determine the
others by context The letter from rebel
agent in New-York to Judah p. Benjamin. 1t
disclosed arrangement for shipping supplies via
Halifax and printing Confederate bonds and paper
money and it led to important arrests and seil-
ures. Further correspondence was found in the
same cipher. In the military Geographic cipher
employed by the COniederates the letters had Il
variable Specification determined by key-word
Here again discovery was insured by dividing the
words and inserting few plain words. For ex-
ample. captured telegram from Jefferson Davis TO
Kirby Smith, at Shreveport, contained the follow
ing BY which you may effect O-TPQGEXYK-
above. that part HJ-OPG-KWMCT" tThe
translator guessed that the cipher words were ." -
crossing" OF the river and with this knowledge
1t was easy to work out the words which I'M
locked the rest of the dispatch
The Federal ciphers, arranged by Colonel Staeer
and his principal Office assistants, similar IN
principle to the Peton cphers used in the plot for
purchasing the electoral votes of South Carolina
and Florida, but they much more elaborate
and varied in the working, and us we have seen,
they deied detection. They embraced an extensive
vocabulary of arbitrary substitutes for proper
names and other important words, and system of