Hobbyist Uses AI to Crack Napoleon III's Unpublished 1859 Telegraph Cipher
apples_jimmy · x · 2026-10-05
A researcher used Astra and Claude Opus 5.5 to break the private telegraph cipher Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie used in June 1859 around the Battle of Solferino (BnF NAF 11355). The coded telegrams have sat in the Bibliothèque nationale since 1916 with no published key and, as far as the author can find, were never published decoded. Decoded contents include the Empress's account of entering Milan (crowds ecstatic but "we are having trouble finding bread"), General de Cotte's sudden death on June 23, an order to publish Magenta battle reports, and the Emperor's private line that "everything said about Piedmont is false" — discontented peoples rise once force withdraws. The author also published the cipher reconstruction.
Related event: AI Cracks Napoleon III's 166-Year-Old Encrypted Letters(2 posts)→
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