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.
Which best describes the central idea of this excerpt?
Major Tallmadge created a code that substituted
numbers for words during the Revolutionary War.
Major Tallmadge created a code in which "city" was
"88" during the Revolutionary War.
O During the Revolutionary War, Major Tallmadge gave
General Washington the key to his codes.
During the Revolutionary War, Major Tallmadge gave
soldiers a cipher for words not included in the code.
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