A few years after Hamilton Fish became secretary of state in President Ulysses S. Grant's administration in 1869, Colonel Albert J. Myer's office prepared and sent a secret and innovative code to the State Department.[270] The small codebook of eighty-eight pages, measuring seven and three-quarters inches long by four inches wide, contained numerous codewords to mask State Department correspondence. For the very first time, the department had an excellent instrument that provided alternate codes for the hours of the day, the days and dates of the month, the months themselves, and the years. In addition, the book contained over 2,300 codewords spread over seventy-nine pages; however, many of the codewords did not have plaintext words written alongside them.
Another superb innovation in this code was a plan whereby one codeword represented a complete sentence or a lengthy phrase. For example, the codeword "Carbon" would mask the complete sentence "You will charge the necessary expenses on your next account." During the Civil War, Anson Stager had also developed a system whereby arbitrary words represented common expressions such as "I have ordered" and "I think it advisable."[271] This much-improved design had never before been employed by the State Department. Previously, department codes required a word-by-word encryption, and thus codebreakers had a relatively easier assignment.
The codebook contained two columns of printed words on each page plus one center column written in script. Men's names were used mainly for days of the month, river names for the months, animal names for days of the week, cities and countries for numbers, women's names for the hours of the day, and flowers for the years. Listed below are codewords and plain text from several pages of the codebook.
Printed Column | Written in Script | Printed Column |
|---|---|---|
Andrew | 7th | Amos |
Albert | 14th | Henry |
Arthur | 19th | Frank |
Adam | 25th | Howe |
Allen | 1st | George |
Abner | 11th | Jones |
Ben | 17th | James |
Brown | 24th | Lewis |
Black | 15th | Paul |
Bates | 31st | Smith |
Benton | 26th | Hume |
Buell | 2nd | Hall |
Charles | 13th | Mason |
Calvin | 23rd | More |
Clark | 4th | Grimes |
Cameron | 9th | Green |
Cole | 27th | Grant |
Chew | 3rd | Hunt |
David | 30th | Ralph |
Davis | 29th | Norton |
Printed Column | Written in Script | Printed Column |
|---|---|---|
Dawson | 5th | Fowler |
Day | 12th | Martin |
Drum | 28th | Stanton |
Dow | 22nd | Thomas |
Edward | 6th | Ross |
Evan | 18th | Scott |
Emerson | 21st | King |
Edwin | 10th | Knox |
Elgin | 20th | Sherman |
Ewing | 16th | Warren |
Elias | 8th | Newton |
Hudson | May | Thames |
***** | ||
Mohawk | October | Severn |
Santee | June | Gila |
Potomac | March | Granges |
Rapidan | January | Osage |
Platte | April | Oder |
Tiber | July | Tagus |
Danube | November | Tigris |
Nile | December | Humber |
Niger | August | Niagara |
Rhine | September | Genesee |
Seine | February | Red |
***** | ||
Cow | Saturday | Rat |
Horse | Wednesday | Fox |
Goat | Friday | Mule |
Lamb | Monday | Lion |
Hog | Tuesday | Tiger |
Dog | Thursday | Mink |
Cat | Sunday | Deer |
***** | ||
Rose | 1873 | Pink |
Aster | 1871 | Peony |
Violet | 1874 | Dahlia |
Tulip | 1872 | Marigold |
Daisy | Pansy | |
Geranium | Sunflower | |
Printed Column | Written in Script | Printed Column |
|---|---|---|
France | Sixteen | Leeds |
Genoa | Ten | Lima |
Georgia | Four | Leghorn |
Glasgow | Thirteen | Lepanto |
Grenada | One | Madras |
Ghent | Eighteen | Madras |
Geneva | Two | Mobile |
Galveston | Twenty | Memphis |
Hayti | One Thousand | Malta |
Hamburg | Fifteen | Mecca |
Hanover | Seven | Maryland |
Havanna (sic) | Fourteen | Milan |
Halifax | Five Hundred | Minden |
Honduras | Three | Montreal |
Hungary | Sixty | Moscow |
Hull | Thirty | Munster |
Indian | Six | Norfolk |
India | Ninety | Newark |
Italy | Forty | Norway |
Ireland | Five | Nashville |
Invernes | One Hundred | Nassau |
Illinois | Seventeen | Naples |
Kent | Eighty | Nantes |
Kingston | Twelve | Nubia |
Kew | Seventy | Ohio |
London | Nineteen | Oporto |
Lisbon | Eleven | Paris |
Liverpool | Nine | Pekin |
Lowell | Fifty | Peru |
Lyons | Eight | Palermo |
***** | ||
Anna | 10:30 | Ida |
Agnes | 12 | Jane |
Alice | 8 | Jenny |
Amelia | 9:30 | Kate |
Amanda | 1 | Laura |
Betsy | 12:30 | Lutinda |
Bertha | 9 | Lucy |
Clara | 3:30 | Martha |
Catharine | 11 | Maria |
Cornela | 1:30 | Mary |
Clotilda | 3 | Molly |
Delia | 11:30 | Matilda |
Printed Column | Written in Script | Printed Column |
|---|---|---|
Emily | 10 | Maggie |
Emma | 2:30 | Nancy |
Ellen | 5 | Nora |
Edith | 6:30 | Nina |
Flora | 2 | Rachael |
Fanny | 4:30 | Rosa |
Grace | 7 | Rebecca |
Gertrude | 5:30 | Susan |
Harriet | 4 | Sarah |
Hannah | 8:30 | Sally |
Hilda | 7:30 | Sarepta |
Henrietta | 6 | Sophia |
Printed | Written | Printed | Written |
|---|---|---|---|
A | D | N | V |
B | L | O | R |
C | W | P | H |
D | C | Q | X |
E | I | R | G |
F | Q | S | Z |
G | O | T | B |
H | J | U | F |
I | A | V | Y |
J | P | W | U |
K | N | X | E |
L | M | Y | T |
M | K | Z | S |
Printed Column | Written in Script |
|---|---|
Achieve | Act of Congress |
Acid | Acting Secretary |
Acorn | Assistant Secretary |
Acrid | Second Assistant Secretary |
Across | Admits } singular or |
Act | Cannot Admit} plural |
Acted | Approval of Congress |
Acting | Action |
Active | Your action is approved |
Acute | Your action is not approved |
Actor | Answer by telegraph |
Adage | Answer by telegraph in cipher |
Printed Column | Written in Script |
|---|---|
Adapt | Addressed a communication to |
Add | Authorize |
Adder | You are authorized to |
Addle | Appointment |
Address | The Senate has confirmed your appointment as |
[270] Code Book furnished the State Department by the Chief Signal Officer, U. S. Army, n.d., Hamilton Fish Papers, Container 285, Library of Congress. The document is undated; however, the codebook included flower names for four years, with 1871 as the earliest year noted.
[271] William R. Plum, The Military Telegraph During the Civil War in the United States, 1:56.