Among the possessions of Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was purportedly found a cypher wheel or decoding device used to send and receive secret messages. Conspiracy theorists point to Gen. Grant's alledged possession of such a device to prove a link between the War Department and the President's murder. How these men, one a Presidential assassin, and the other a future president, came into possession of such devices is the subject of the following essay.
Battle Creek Press has recently published a book by Ray Post entitled _Cereal In The Civil War_. This book takes a detailed look at this important dietary supplement and it's profound effect on the war. The book details the efforts of Chief Commissary Officer General Mills to have Wheaties issued as the mainstay rations of the Union army. A complete account of the Union Oatmeal vs. Confederate Grits controversy is ably recreated and the Appendix contains a complete list of breakfast cereals issued during the war. Chapter 6, titled _Good Morning, General!_ contains the following interesting anecdote:
"Col. Kellogg of Grant's staff recalls that during the final days of the Petersburg seige, Gen. Grant became obsessed with collecting the prizes found in many of the breakfast cereal containers. At this time he embarked on episodes of binge eating, often emptying a 20 oz. box of cereal in one sitting.
Grant was at first obsessed with finding a Secret Decoder Ring which were said to be found in boxes of Lucky Charms. Alas, the ring was not to be had since members of the Irish Brigade had consummed all available stores of Lucky Charms between City Point and the Petersburg front lines. Grant, determined to claim his prize, then switched to Cap'n Crunch (named after the commander of the USS Granola) which offered a genuine Decoder Cypher Wheel as a prize. On the morning of the Confederate attack on Ft. Stedman, Grant was finally rewarded with the prize of one shiny, fully functional, Cypher Wheel which he discovered only after inhaling a large spoonful of Cap'n Crunch.
Upon deciphering his first message, which was printed on the back of the box and is said to have been "You will be healthy, wealthy and wise"; Grant acted on this obvious omen and ordered the final, full-scale attack on the Petersburg defenses. The Cypher Wheel served him well, and it is said that he carried it with him until his dying day. In fact, in later years he used it to decipher a message which is still inscribed on his tomb to this day, the now famous "Let Us Have Peace".
Grant however, was not the only famous Civil War personage to own a Cypher Wheel. Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth stopped in the wee hours of the night at the farmhouse of Dr. Samual Mudd in order to have his shattered leg treated.
While Dr. Mudd was tending to Booth's broken leg, he offered Booth and his companion some breakfast. Upon searching the cupboard a chagrined Mudd returned with only a half-eaten box of Cap'n Crunch and a pitcher of fresh milk. Booth poured the cereal into a bowl only to discover a genuine Cypher Wheel protruding from the golden cereal. Booth quickly claimed his prize and soon after rode away, studiously turning the Cypher Wheel back and forth as if he had no other cares in the world.
While resting in a nearby barn, Booth deciphered part of an eerily prophetic message. At the time the words made no sense to him as he frantically turned the Wheel back and forth in an effort to determine the rest of the message. In the end the only words he was able to decode were "Useless, Useless".
It was at this time that the barn was surrounded by troops and Lincoln's murderer was shot dead with a carbine in one hand and a genuine Cypher Wheel in the other."
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