The following excerpt is from an article written by Eric Durr and posted at the humanevents.com website.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (Oct. 8, 2014) –A university professor who is also a former government code breaker, and a retired college financial aid director teamed up to transcribe and decode the secrets in a 150-year-old Confederate diary discovered in the collections of the New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs, New York.
The Military Museum is administered by the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs, the state agency which oversees the New York Army and Air National Guard.
Written in 1863 and 1864, by Confederate Army Lt. James Malbone, an officer in Company B, 6th Virginia Infantry, the diary records information about Soldiers in his unit, items he’s bought and sold, his African-American slaves, the faithlessness of other officers’ wives, Confederate deserters, women, and military movements.
To keep some of this private, Malbone used a code of letters and symbols.
Among that coded information is Malbone’s speculation about race of Varina Davis, the wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
