The Confederate Cipher Disc was created by Francis Labarre in 1861.
Labarre was a goldsmith and silversmith who fled Washington for Richmond, Virginia (capital of the Confederate States) when the American Civil War begun. He enlisted in the Confederate Army and was tasked with creating the device.
It is unknown how many of these devices were produced; they are now exceedingly rare as only 5 are known to still exist.
- One is in the Smithsonian Institute, not on view.
- Two are in the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, VA. They are marked “III” and “X” on the back.
- Two are in private collections:
- One was sold in 1978 from the Philipp D. Sang collection, then sold again on March 21, 2018, for $17,250. It is marked “XIIII”.
- The other was sold in November 2014 for $20,000.
The Confederates commonly used the Vigenere cipher (as with this device), but they only used 4 keywords throughout the war: “Manchester Bluff,” “Complete Victory”, “Come Retribution” and “In God we trust”. The Union knew the first two keywords and was able to read some messages it intercepted.