Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1914-05-22
TheEvening Story
A CIPHER
DISPATCH
By WILLIAM CHANDLER

they should make a simultaneous at
tack upon us they would crush u.s.
But communication between the two
was difficult since we were In valley
with high mountains on either side,
and, realizing that we must keep our
enemies apart, we threw out line OF
pickets on either side of us extending
as far up the mountain as passage
was possible.
l was in command Of about 800 men.
My information was that the force
southwest of us consisted Of about 600.
and that on the northeast of US num-
bered about 1000 men. 1t was evil
dent that If compelled to fight one Of
these forces in our front and another
in our rear there would be nothing left
of us. If the Confederate commander
south Of us. Colonel b., had been as
enterprising as he should have been
and attacked us doubtless the force to
the north, hearing his guns. would
have joined in the fight But the colo
mel seemed to prefer a certainty and
sent one courier after another to Major
l., ordering him to attack us on
specified day and hour. Every one Of
these couriers we captured. One bore
message in writing. The others ell
Their carried no messages or. II they
did, managed to get away with them
without our knowing it.
Finally we were reduced to our last
ration-we had ONLY three days rations
to start with-and even IL not attacked
contemplating asking for terms my
pickets sent in to me a negro who had
been caught trying to steal through
the lines far up on the mountain. He
was as stupid looking a man as l ever
saw, and my surmise that he was not
shamming proved correct. Indeed, it
was probable that he had been select
ed to do the work he was tntrusted
with because he was SO stupid that he
would not likely be taken for the bear
er of an important message from one
officer to another.
l directed that he be searched and
anything found on him be brought 10
me. My orderly, who did the search
ing, brought me a pocketknife. small
piece of tobacco and a dirty piece Of
paper that proved to be receipt for
81 cents paid for chicken feed.
threw the paper down as unworthy of
attention. but took it up again and,
getting more light on 1t. noticed GER
tain marks on 1t in pencil that looked
as If a newly Matched chicken had
been walking over it. These tracks
were on two lines on the back of the
receipt. the one on the upper edge of
the paper, the other lower down. /
confess l was much puzzled by them.
| called in several of my officers and
asked If they could make anything
out of them. Lieutenant Budd sug-
gested that they might be parts Of let
| tiers. This view was soon voted cor
rect by the rest of us. But of what
| letters they were parts we did not
know and made no Roadway In discov-
ering
Budd said that IL I would let him
take the paper to his tent he would
| try to study the matter out. l gave
| him permission. and In an hour he re-
turned with the puzzle solved. The
paper had been wrapped about round
stick. probably ruler for line max
| ing, and a message had been written
where the upper edge had oyerlapped
half of each letter being on the edge
and half on the paper over which the
edge Tapped. When adjusted on a
| stick like the one on which the mes
sage had been written 1t was perfect
| ly plain. When the paper was un
rolled the upper parts Of the letters
were separated from the lower parts
The message was addressed to Major
L. and read thus:
Attack the force south OF you at dawr
on Tuesday next. When hear your gun,
will take the enemy in rear.
was delighted with the information
I had received. and 1t occurred to me
that might turn 1t to account Might
| not rub out the message and write
another one in its place? The negro
had undoubtedly been given the mes
sage and shown how 1t was to be de
ciphered, but probably he couldn't read
| 1t himself and did not know what II
was. directed Budd to test the mans
capacity to read and he reported that
he didn't know one letter from anoth
er. This decided me. I resolved t.
/ send Major L. orders of my own choos
ing in Colonel BIS name. Rolling the
message on the stick, l wrote the fol
lowing:
March on receipt Of this southeastwart
| through the pass directly In your rear ant
| join me at r.. whence our commands pro
coed to Richmond
signed the colonel's name to the
message and sent for the negro. ask
ed him a number of questions as tc
where and why he was going NORTH
and why he didn't come to me for g
pass instead Of trying to steal through
my lines. He told a pit1ful story abou,
a sick wife and starving children. and
pretending to be moved by It. hand
ed him back his knife. his tobacco and
his receipt and told Budd to see hin