Albert Myer's Civil War Cipher Cache Mystery Cache
Albert Myer's Civil War Cipher Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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The cache is not at the posted coordinates. Those coordinates however are within 2.0 miles of the cache. The wig-wag message below will provide you with the actual cache coordinates.
Recently, while preparing a lecture on tactical communications during the Civil War for the CWRT-NH (The Civil War Round Table of New Hampshire), I came across the interesting story of Albert Myer.
Albert Myer was a surgeon and United States Army officer. He is known as the father of the U.S. Army Signal Corps and also as the father of the U.S. Weather Bureau. As the US Army's first chief signal officer he developed the system of wig-wag signaling (or aerial telegraphy). In an era without walkie-talkies or field telephones, wig-wag flag signals were the only game in town for mobile/long distance/fast tactical communications.
Myer's signaling system should not be confused with semaphore signaling. The wig-wag system used a single flag, waved back and forth in a binary code conceptually similar to Morse code. Semaphore used two flags and each letter/character corresponded to a unique pattern of holding the flags.
I've used a wig-wag code for this message that was actually used by Union forces during the war. To make the decoding job a bit simpler, I have refrained from further enciphering the message as was done for signals sent in 1863 or later. A little research and this message should be easy/fun to decrypt.
The Wig-Wag Message:
11 21 211 2 122 3 21 11 12 3 2221 1 1222 12 3 1212 2 3
11 1 11 12 3 12 1 2211 122 2 3 2222 12 211 21 33 1121
12 212 2 3 2221 1 1222 12 3 21 11 12 3 1212 2 3 12 1 2211
122 2 3 212 12 1222 12 11 3 2221 21 112 211 33 1221 22
2211 11 12 2 1 121 3 11 22 11 21 333
The cache container is a micro, so bring your own pencil or pen. As with all my puzzle caches, I encourage you all to work in teams to solve the cipher and/or to exchange hints with other cachers. Feel free to contact me with questions and/or to confirm your decrypt. Good luck!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Uvagf: Pvcure: Trareny Freivpr Pbqr.
Pnpur: Uvag va zrffntr.