Read the excerpt from "Tools of the Spymaster.
Which statement best expresses the central idea of the
excerpt?
The numbers that Major Tallmadge assigned to members of
the Culper Ring were from a secret writing system he
invented. He substituted digits for words that would be used
in messages. "Long Island, for example, was 728, "arms"
was 7, and "city" was 88. There was a number for each
month, such as 341 for "January." He made four copies of
his codes. He kept one and gave the others to Woodhull,
Townsend, and General Washington. For words that did not
have a number code, Tallmadge gave his agents a cipher. In
a cipher, each letter in a message is replaced by another
letter or a number.
Major Tallmadge developed a unique code system so that
the Americans could send secret messages
O Major Tallmadge did not trust anyone with his codes other
than Woodhull, Townsend, and General Washington.
The number codes used in secret messages were
assigned only to members of the Culper Ring.
The code system Major Tallmadge designed did not work
because some words did not have a number code.