History rediscovered?
By DoctorDidi
@DoctorDidi (7018)
India
December 30, 2010 11:00am CST
It is reported that a six line message dated July 4, 1863 which was sent in a bottle to a Confederate General during the siege of Vicksburg in the American Civil War, has finally been deciphered after 147 years by a retired CIA code breaker. The bottle was so long kept in a museum and the message was so long treated as a random collection of letters until it was deciphered. Do you think history will be rediscovered now?
1 person likes this
9 responses
@marguicha (230350)
• Chile
31 Dec 10
History is constantly being interpreted in a diffwerent way and so is art in every sense. Even faith is being updated day by day. This letter will probably add another variable to something historians have been studiying for a long time.
@dawnald (85137)
• Shingle Springs, California
31 Dec 10
That could be pretty fascinating. Do you have a link to an article or the text of the message?
@celticeagle (189880)
• Boise, Idaho
31 Dec 10
Ghee! Since July, 4, 1863, huh? That is interesting. I doubt that this deciphered message will have anything for us besides rehashing the war more than we all really have already. I don't know what it could possibly have that would change things much. If you look back over the war it was pretty much a slam dunk at that point.
@free_man (7330)
• United States
31 Dec 10
Hi Doc. What did the message say do you know? That was a long time for no one to decode it. Wonder what it said that would be interesting to know. Thanks for sharing this. I love learning about history.
@didi13 (2926)
• Romania
1 Mar 11
Indeed, interestingly, in the post, a commander says John Pemberton as not to send aid to defend the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi: "Do not expect any help from this side of the river. " The text is dated - July 4, 1863 - the day that Vicksburg fell to the union forces. The bottle was offered to the Confederate Museum in Richmond, Virginia, a former soldier in 1896. But until earlier this year, the museum manager, Catherine Wright, decided to analyze the message in a bottle.When he noticed that the message was encrypted, Catherine Wright,the CIA enlisted the help of experts, who deciphered the code in a few weeks.
I do not know if history was rediscovered,but certainly completed an American history lesson.
@Hatley (163772)
• Garden Grove, California
31 Dec 10
hi doctordidi thats really fascinating and yes maybe history
will be rediscovered too. I would love to hear what the message
was. I wonder if it will be let out to the generqal public
as it would be so interesting to learn what the message'
really said.





@xinshunhe (132)
• China
31 Dec 10
I feel this is of course a big news and really big discouvery to scientists,maybe they would find something essential that nobody knows for now. and readd the history book.








