John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[206] involved the necessity of intrusting the codes in use to clerks, or operators, one at each end of the line, and hence with the greatest care was not always entirely safe. Dana, as can well be understood, became a great expert at framing and deciphering code messages, and later became familiar with many other systems, but never came across one which he regarded as safer, simpler, or more satisfactory in every way than the one which he used from the first to last with the War Department.¹

In connection with the subject of cipher messages, it may not be out of place to remark that Dana, after the manner of editors, wrote a running hand which, although quite regular, was at times difficult to read, and this occasionally gave additional trouble in the correct transmission of his reports. During a raid in south Virginia, a year later, my own baggage-wagon fell into the hands of the enemy, and along with it a note from Dana, which the captors undertook to publish in a Richmond newspaper, but they were evidently unable to make out either its correct purport or the writer's signature, and hence, fortunately enough, it was so badly bungled in printing that it was both unintelligible and harmless. We laughed about it afterwards, but I had no occasion to think that the incident in any way improved either his writing or his signature.

Perceiving that the information he was forwarding from Memphis was not of sufficient importance to justify the time and effort expended on it, he reported that fact to the secretary and asked permission to join Grant. This seems to justify the inference that the secretary had directed him to give special attention to Memphis; but be this as it may, the secretary on receipt of his suggestion ordered him to go to the army in the field, or to such other