The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1914-05-15
A CIPHER
DISPATCH
By WILLIAM

We were hemmed In between two
different Confederate forces, and II
they should make a simultaneous at
tack upon US they would crush us.
But communication between the two
was difficult since VI were in, a valley
with high mountains on either side.
and, realizing that we must keep our
enemies apart, we threw out a line Of
packets ON either side of us extending
40 far up the mountain a. a passage
was possible.
! vas in command Of about 800 men.
Ny 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 II compelled to fight n Of
these forces in our front and another
In our rear there would be nothing left
Of us. IL the Confederate commander
enterprising rs 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 q certainty and
sent one courier after another to Major
L., ordering him to attack us on a
specified day and hour. Every one of
these couriers We captured. One bore
q message in writing. The others ell
ther carried no messages or. if they
did, managed to get away with them
without our know ing 1t.
Finally we were reduced to our last
ration-we had onl. three days rations
70 start with-and even If not attacked
We must soon surrender. When l was
contemplating asking for terms my
p1ckets 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 o
shamming proved correct. Indeed. it
was probable that he had been select
ed to do the work he was intrusted
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.
I directed that he be searched and
anything found on him be brought to
me. My orderly. who did the search
ing, brought me a pocketknife, q small
piece Of tobacco and a dirty piece Of
paper that proved to be a receipt for
n cents paid for chicken feed. l
threw the paper down as unworthy Of
attention. but took it up again and.
getting more light on it noticed GER
tain marks on 1T in pencil that looked
as II a newly Matched chicken had
been walking over 1t. These tracks
YER on two lines on the back of the
receipt, the one on the upper edge Of
the paper. the other lower down. l
confess I was much puzzled by them.
I called in several of my officers and
asked II 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 as. But Of what
letters they were parts we did not
know and made nc Roadway In discov-
ering.
Budd said that II l would let him
tAke the paper to his tent he would
~ 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 a round
stick. probably . ruler for line max
1ng. and. Q message had been written
where the upper edge had oveflapped,
half Of each letter being on the edge
and half on the paper yer which the
e1ge hppsd. When adjusted on 4
stick Ike the one on which tie mes.
Mse bod been written # was psffect'
e