ABSTRACT
Nomenclators were first used in the early Renaissance period, and the original system listed the code and plain elements in a single alphabetical-numerical order. The first nomenclators to be designed in America resembled the style used in the early Renaissance. In October 1781, Washington furnished Count de Rochambeau with a copy of the Morris nomenclator, apparently not knowing Gouverneur Morris had sent one earlier, and also gave one to Major General Nathanael Greene. The American designer, Major Benjamin Tallmadge, General Washington’s director of the secret service between 1778–1783, constructed a nomenclator of 763 elements together with a transposition alphabet. Probably the most frustrated person in regard to codes among all the American diplomats during the Revolutionary period was William Carmichael. During the Revolutionary War Era, American diplomats and statesmen learned some of the European methods for processing secret communications. They also learned to intercept and inspect domestic and foreign dispatches.
