Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-10-27
The System Adopted in Communi-
cations.
APPARENTLY ONLY A STRING OF WORDS
The interesting Method by Which
the Maze is Slaughtered Out.
THE HISTORICAL VALUE
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star.
In a little back room of an old tumbled-.
down building at the corner of 18th and F
STREETS, used for the offices of the editors
and compilers Of the WAR Records'-Uncle
Sans 20O-volume history of the rebellion
sits sharp-eyed. deft Fingered man. who
for twelve years has spent all his days,
and not few Of his nights, unravcing the
mysteries Of the cipher kilograms, by which
the War Department directed the military
operations OF the great conflict Beginning
with hardly a line to guide him. Mr.. AL
fred Shaw has gradually gathered a little
library of cipher keys. several of which he
has constructed himself, unul he now pos
sesses the solution to nearly all the puzzles
known to eIyptography, and can read the
most complicated ciphergrams as easily as
II they were written in plain English.
A slight notion Of the magnitude of this
task may be gathered from the fact that
the official reports show that the dispatches
sent over the lines of the United States
military telegraph during "a single year of
the war numbered 1,20O0eO. large por-
ton Of which were in cipher. AS these tel
egrams are in many instances the only
records of the correspondence of command
in the field, and of the departments or
iers to execute the highly important mil
ltary movements the necessity for their
accurate translation and careful preserva-
ton is apparent. The reputation and per-
manent place in history of more than one
military chieftain will depend upon the
care with which these dispatches are un-
rayeled.
The United States military telegraph was
organized in 1851 by the late Col Thomas
A. Scott. the Pennsylvania railroad mag
nate, and Andrew Carnegie, the multi-mil-
Honaire steel manufacturer, It's first
"a tel N
who had risen from a messenger boy to be
superintendent of the PIttsburg division of
the Pennsylvania railroad. The organiza-
ton of the telegraph was expanded during
the summer of 1861, and in october Arson
Stager was appointed chief of the service,
with the rank of brigade quartermaster.
The Cipher Systems.
He was the origin ator of the cipher sys-
TENS used throughout the war, and con-
strIIcted the first military cipher ever used
in telesraphic comrnuniC alton for Gov. Den
nison of Ohio. who employed it in his cor
respondence with the governors of other
states on matters concerning the war.
The first code devised for use by the War
Department was constructed by Stager, in
October, 1851, and the first key was intrust-
ed to the famous detective, Allen c. Pink
erton, for his use while employed by the
government on a dangerous secret mission
in Kentucky. During the years that fol-
IO"eu, many CnduSeS were nldue III cOueS
and keys, but the principle known to cryp-
tographers as the route and substitution
plan" was uniformly adhered to.
The military telegraph, as finally organ
lied by Col Stager, was a very cOmpre-
hensive system of lines, 1900 miles in
length, permanent between important cities
and towns but temporary between mill
tary headquarters and points in the field.
On occasion, special wires were run, in an
incredibly short space of time, from some
general rendezvous through the enemies
lines to the actual scene of battle, the line
men and operators frequently risking their
lives in the effort to provide rapid commu-
nication betU cen the officials who were
directing the movements of the troops from
a distance and the commanders under
whose eyes the maneuvers were being exc
cuted.
The military telegraph operator is cele-
brated neither in song nor story, but Mr..
Shaw's painstaking work has already
brought some recognition to the brave men
who, without hope of reward, performed as
heroic deeds as did any of the soldiers
whose an billions were fired by the desire
for promotion and lasting fame.
AS the publication of the War Records
has progressed the editors have come to
depend more upon the cipher dispatches
for accurate information regarding impor-
tant events, and the extremely small per-
centage of errors discovered in them speaks
volumes for the splendid nerve of the men
who, amid storm of shot and she'll coolly
went on with the intricate work of pre-
pairing. sending, receiving and translating
complicated ciphergramS when a single
blunder by which an order could be mis-
construed might cost hundreds of lives.
Cipher UntangIed.
Another fact of which the members of the
corps have reason to be proud is that during
the four years of the war not a single
operator betrayed the trust reposed in him
by revealing to the enemy the contents of a
cipher dispatch, nor was single one of the
many cipher keys employed found in the
enemy's hands under circumstances that
brought suspicion upon an operator
Although numerous ciphers were devised
and used during the war, Col Stager's pet
code. Number o., was most frequently en-
rloyed This was route and substitu-
ton cipher which, though simple In its
operation. depended so absolutely upon the
keys devised for ii that without those keys
no human ingenuity could have unraveled
dispatches committed to it. 1t was not I'M
til the key to this cipher was found among
the archives of the War Department that
the translator for the War Records was
able to solve the mystery of its construc-
ton. 1t may be best described by citing an
example.
On May 49, 1863, Gen. Rosecrans, who
vas at Murphreesboro. Tenn, sent the fol-
lowing dispatch over the military telegraph
Cipher Clerk,
Cincinnati, Ohio,
War pack and advance ninth the to this
Cor the money Burton Imogene train is on
Carthage thence where the cotton mules
Shen to corps road concentrate morning
moon Colonel Jaques left and for at from
TO break will signed Dayton have rabbit
and to springs Hartsuff by at for home
yesterday thence Louisville red Glasgow
Jamestown London you Bennett
II. s. THOMAS,
A. d. c.
The word war with which this mes
sage begins. is known commencement
word and by reference to the key 1t is
found on a page headed Messages of Di
Vision of Nine Lines. as follows:
Commencement Words.
skirmish Todd Volunteer
Sherman ThCater wise
sumter Thomas War
4 columns columns columns
Route, Route, Route.
Up L. up 2, Down 1. up 3, Up 3, down 2.
Up 8, up l. Down z, up 5, Up 4. down 8,
Down 4. Up l, down o.
Clever Devices.
War is found over the designation, ~
columns" which means that the dispat tel
when arranged for translation must be writ
ten out in six columns of nine lines each
accC riding to the route found under thu
commencement word. by absolute rul
of the cipher one word, called a 'blinC
word or null" Is to be dropped at tn,