Read The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes Online
Authors: Mark Urban
59. “Sergeant Cooper of the 7th Fusiliers ⦔: his memoir,
Rough Notes of Seven Campaigns in Portugal Etc,
frequently undermines the official account.
60. “One officer of the 14th Light Dragoons ⦠”: Peter Hawker,
Journal of the Campaign of 1809.
62. “One of Colonel Le Marchant's correspondents in the peninsula ⦠”: Captain Tryon Still, letter, LMP Packet 11, Letter 13.
63. “Colonel Murray had already made clear in writing the previous summer ⦔: his letter is in the Scovell Papers, W037, dated 26 September 1808.
63. “Wellesley refused a French émigré a commission in the Corps ⦔: letter to Charles Stuart in Wellington's Dispatches, 13 March 1810.
65. “Stewart could not remove the general from their custody, although he left this account of their interview”: in his
History of the Peninsular Wars.
67. “One French general wrote, â“I shall always remember how I was afflicted with great anxieties ⦔': this was General Matthieu Dumas (father of the novelist Roland).
67. “One Frenchman conscripted in the summer of 1809 and bound for Spain ⦔: Antoine Fee,
Souvenirs de la Guerre d'Espagne,
Paris, 1856.
69. “In drawers of the foreign ministry there were still copies of the 1750 ciphering table ⦔ And indeed, there still are. An example of the 1750 type was kindly copied for me by Jerome Cras at the Centre des Archives Diplomatiques in Nantes (catalogued as Boston,
consulat, serie A, carton 1)
as was a copy of the instructions for the use of the cipher drawn up in 1750 (Rome-Saint-Siege,
ambassade, 111).
72. “Captain Moyle Sherer of the 34th Foot ⦔: Sherer,
Recollections of the Peninsula
(originally published in London in 1823 and then again by Spellmount in 1996), along with Sergeant Cooper,
Rough Notes on Seven Campaigns,
republished by Spellmount in 1996.
73. â“I am sorry to say that our officers are too much disposed to treat with contempt all foreigners'”: this statement by Wellington was in a letter of 8 October 1811, proof that Wellington judged all his people by harsh standards, not just the rank and file.
73. “He had arranged uniforms for his men: brown jackets ⦠with red collars and cuffs ⦔: this is described both in the Scovell Papers and the memorandum of 1854 in the National Army Museum.
79. â“I was particularly struck by the style of [his] order ⦔': this eloquent description comes from Captain Moyle Sherer and actually relates to the Battle of Busaco, early in 1810. I hope the reader will forgive me taking this chronological liberty.
79. “Lord Wellington later gave this account of a furious row”: this was related in John Wilson Croker's memoir of the duke of Wellington. Croker was one of several acquaintances who stepped in with their anecdotes when it became clear Wellington would never write memoirs of his own.
80. â“If there is to be any influence in the disposal of military patronage? ⦠”': this comes from Wellington's letter to Lieutenant Colonel Torrens, the military secretary at Horse Guards, a man with considerable influence in the business of promotion, of 4 August 1810.
82. “While serving as adjutant of the 4th, Scovell had gotten to know Edward and the Somerset family”: it is quite possible that there was some earlier connection between the duke of Beaufort's family and that of Scovell, whose father hailed from Cirencester, just ten miles from the Badminton estate. Nevertheless, searches through the Beaufort family archives at that stately home by Mrs. Margaret Richards (the present duke's archivist) failed to turn up any link. Scovell senior was not a tenant of the Beaufort estate, neither does he seem to have been a member of the local gentry. Perhaps he was a tradesman who did business with the duke.
84. “Contact was made with Spanish civilians willing to relay reports and generous sums were promised”: these details come from letters of 9 and 25 January 1810, in Dispatches.
85. â“it is most difficult to form any judgement from the Spanish and Portuguese accounts of the strength of any French corps ⦔': this quote from Wellington comes from a letter to Lieutenant General Hill on 20 February 1810, in Dispatches.
89. “Before the first light ⦔: the details of the cavalry battle of 5 May are drawn from Brotherton's memorandum in Hamilton's
Historical Record of the 14th (King's) Hussars;
Cocks's journal, edited and reproduced by Julia Page as
Intelligence Officer in the Peninsula; Letters and Diaries of Major The Hon Edward Charles Cocks;
Tomkinson, who was another officer of the 16th Light Dragoons and who bequeathed us
Diary of a Cavalry Officer 1809â1815;
and Scovell's account in his journal.
The attentive reader will notice that I have skipped Scovell's story throughout 1810 and early 1811 in order to move forward to Fuentes de Oñoro to see Scovell's brush with death, and even later in 1811, until the introduction of the first French ciphers in the campaign. I apologize to any reader who feels hard done by, but would stress that I am not setting out to write a biography of Scovell per se. The principal military event that I have left out was the Battle of Busaco on 27 September 1810. During this fight Marshal Masséna threw his troops against Wellington, who occupied a steep fronted ridge. The French came badly unstuck and the British continued falling back to the lines of Torres Vedras, having shaken the invaders' confidence badly. Late on the night before the battle Colonel Murray, the QMG (with Scovell) in company, detected a weak point in the British deployment and ordered some battalions to plug it. This stands as a rare example of one of Wellington's officers changing his orders without his master's approval and not being condemned for it. Murray had the satisfaction of being proved right on the day of the battle, when a French corps struck the British line precisely where he had predicted, and Wellington doubtless respected him for his initiative.
91. â“the only instance I ever met with of two bodies of cavalry coming in opposition, and both standing ⦠Tomkinson.
92. “A cry of âNo quarter!' was going around the British cavalry ⦔: this telling detail emerges in one of Cocks's letters, reproduced by Page.
92. â“There was a general, I might say, flight, but the disorder was really terrible'”: Somerset's letter to his brother, the duke of Beaufort, 8 May 1811, BP FmM 4/1/6.
92. “Don Julian Sanchez's guerrillas were attached to Scovell's Corps of Guides ⦔: this is a little-known but highly significant fact given the subsequent role of Sanchez's men in intercepting the mail that Scovell would decipher. The arrangement had been in effect since 25 August 1810, according to a letter from FitzRoy Somerset to Scovell dated 27 July 1811 and copied into the military secretary's letter book, reference WP 9/2/1/1.
95. “Masséna's headquarters found three soldiers who were willing to run the risks of trying to penetrate ⦠and get the message to Brenier”: the main source for this story is Baron de Marbot's memoirs. He was on Masséna's staff. Curiously, British sources make no reference to the execution of the two captured men, alleged by Marbot, or indeed of the discovery of any ciphered messages being found on them. Marbot is regarded as a charlatan by many British historians, but the French
evacuation made clear that a messenger got through. Personally, I find the idea that these brave men carried coded messages somewhat doubtful. Why not just memorize the message?
97. “the Anglo-Portuguese force operating to the south near Badajoz ⦠had picked up a most interesting dispatch”:
D'Urban's Peninsular Journal 1807â1817,
originally published in 1930 and then reissued by Greenhill Books in 1988.
98. “He and D'Urban discovered the meaning of the captured message on the same day they received it”: that at least is the clear impression left by D'Urban's journal, which makes reference to the contents of the letter.
99. “On the twenty-first, Wellington left Elvas ⦔: Scovell's journal.
100. “Among the staff officers milling about outside headquarters in Elvas the affair of the sixteenth generated much gossip”: good sources for this are Tomkinson, Warre and D'Urban.
100. “Wellington's aristocratic young military secretary, FitzRoy Somerset, wrote home ⦔: his letter of 23rd May 1811 is in BP, 4/1/6.
102. “Wellington had seen Scovell's Corps of Guides at work and had been impressed”: this is actually a quote from a letter to Lord Bathurst in February 1813 and contained in Wellington's Dispatches.
102. “Later that summer, Scovell and the Guides were given the task of establishing a daily post between the two halves of the Anglo-Portuguese force”: this post was formally established by Wellington's General Order of 14 August 1811, although in practice it had been running for some weeks beforehand.
102. “Scovell later said, with evident pride, âThere was no instance of any of these orderlies betraying his trust'”: this comment appears in the interview with Scovell about the Guides conducted in 1854 by an anonymous staff officer who was putting together a similar unit for service in the Crimea, and is contained in his notebook held at the National Army Museum.
103. “the Portuguese had maintained links of signaling stations up to Elvas and Almeida on the frontier”: details of the telegraphic system come from
Les Renseignements, La Reconnaissance et Les Transmissions Militaires du Temps du Napoleon, L'exemple de la troisième invasion du Portugal 1810,
by Charles-Alphonse Raeuber. I am grateful to Rene Chartrand for providing me with a photocopy of his copy of this text.
103. “Once he became superintendent of military communications he was given extra pay of £50 per annum, which was soon increased to £80”: the subject of pay and allowances in Wellington's army is labyrinthine. This increase was announced in a letter from George Murray to Scovell, copied in Somerset's letter book, WP 9/2/1/1. Further details of the extra pay and financial arrangements of the Guides can be found in the PRO, under AO 1/171/488.
103. “Scovell was handed a small notebook containing a handwritten copy of a most unusual text:
Cryptograpbia
⦠”: thankfully this precious little tome survives as W037/9.
104. “Among diplomats and royal princes ciphers had been growing in size and complexity ⦔: see for example,
The Art of Decyphering
by John Davis, a very rare public offering on this subject published in London in 1737.
105. “His replacement was Marshal Auguste Frederic Marmont, duke of Ragusa”: details of Marmont's career from his own
Memoires
and Girod de L'Ain's book on Foy,
Vie Militaire.
105. “Marmont had one advantage over the others. He had used ciphers in the Balkans ⦔: an example of his 1807 cipher is included in
Le Chiffre sous le Premier Empire
by Lieutenant Colonel J. Volcoq,
Revue Historique de L'Armée
No. 4, 1969.
106. “Before his own departure from Paris, Marmont had already discussed ⦠with Marshal Berthier ⦔: this seems clear from a letter Berthier wrote to Marmont on 10 July 1811 contained in Napoleon's
Correspondance.
106. “he got his staff to prepare a new code table for use between himself and the Army of Portugal's six divisional commanders⦔: details of the Army of Portugal cipher are drawn from Scovell's Papers, W037.
107. “One Army of Portugal staff officer recorded ⦔: this quote comes from de Marbot's memoirs.
110. “Joseph complained he had no authority ⦔: details of Joseph's complaints are compiled from various letters of this period contained in Du Casse's
Correspondance du Roi Joseph.
111. “he carried a note dated 17 May summarizing what had been agreed in the military sphere”: the memorandum is reproduced in Du Casse.
113. “The arrival of Berthier's missive caused consternation at Joseph's palace”: Joseph's response to Berthier's letter emerges from his letters reproduced in Du Casse.
114. “â[We] greatly pity the poor King Joseph ⦠FitzRoy Somerset's letter to his brother of 18 July 1811, BP, FmM 4/1/6.
114. “Marmont's generals began cloaking their orders in the Army of Portugal cipher”: its first appearance would seem to have been in a letter from Marmont to Dorsenne on 29 August. Since, however, I have been unable to find this in ciphered form, I cannot be completely sure.
115. “In the summer of 1810 his men surprised a company of about one hundred French dragoons”: this annecdote (and the British officer's quote) are contained in the journal of John Fox Burgoyne, a Royal Engineer officer who was nearby, dated 30 June 1810.
115. “Sanchez had served as a noncommissioned officer ⦔: details of his career from
Hazanas de unos Lanceros, Diarios de Julian Sanchez “El Charro”
by Emilio Becerra de Becerra, a collection of documents about the guerrilla leader published by the local authorities in Salamanca in 1999.
116. “one British officer drew this memorable pen portrait”: Captain William Bragge, in the collection of his letters,
Peninsular Portrait 1811â14.
116. “Sanchez had been brought under British pay in October 1810 ⦔: this fact is contained in Cocks's journal. D'Urban suggests it may have been earlier than this, August 1810.
116, “one of the messages sent by Marmont's principal aides-de-camp ⦔: this is a letter dated 6 March 1812 from Colonel Jardet to his chief. It is found in W037/1. While I would have liked to find an early example of the Army of Portugal cipher (i.e., from August 1811), I did not succeed. Jardet's message is very longâ much more than 711 charactersâbut I considered this sufficiently long a portion of it to analyze the cipher.