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4 unusual facts about George Scovell


George Scovell

In 1813 Scovell was given the task of raising, then commanding, the Staff Corps of Cavalry, also known as the Staff Dragoons.

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By December 1812, when a letter from Joseph Bonaparte to Napoleon was intercepted, Scovell could decipher enough of it to read Joseph's explicit account of French operations and plans.

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It was based on 1400 numbers and derived from a mid-eighteenth century diplomatic code (Grande Chiffre) which added meaningless figures to the end of letters.

Mark Urban

His study of George Scovell, in The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes: The Story of George Scovell, established him as a narrative historian who could effectively weave together first-hand accounts of the war without losing grip on the over-all story.



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