mail: userid at domain dot net, with "oligarchy" in the Subject line to keep the spam filter happy
WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,
Richmond, Va., June 22, 1863.
Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill, Commanding, &c.:
GENERAL: The delay is so great in transmitting and deciphering dispatches in the cipher used by the signal corps, that I shall hereafter, when necessary to employ cipher, communicate with you in the following, viz: Reverse the alphabet, taking Z for A, Y for B, X for C, &c.
I request you to use the same cipher in your dispatches to the Department.
Your obedient servant,
J. A. SEDDON,
Secretary of War.
