Encrypted Civil War Message Finally Decrypted, 147 Years Later
from the wasn't-that-hard,-actually dept
When talking about encryption, people often talk about just how long it would take a certain level of computing to crack the code, so there may be some interest in the fact that it apparently took 147 years to decipher a coded Civil War message… but it turns out that the main reason it took so long was that no one looked. The message had been stored in a bottle and was apparently delivered to Confederate General John Pemberton during the battle of Vicksburg (which the Confederacy lost) on July 4th, 1863. The bottle was given to the Museum of the Confederacy back in 1896 by a former soldier, but the museum staff never bothered to pull the message out of the bottle until a few months ago. After discovering the message was coded, the museum asked some top code breakers to see if they could decipher it, and it apparently took them a few weeks. The message? It probably wasn’t that important either, as it basically told General Pemberton he was in trouble and wasn’t getting any reinforcements:
“You can expect no help from this side of the river.”
Filed Under: ciphers, civil war, encryption
Comments on “Encrypted Civil War Message Finally Decrypted, 147 Years Later”
You might want to check the date of that battle before anyone notices. Not that there weren’t plenty of people spoiling for a rematch in 1963, of course.
Re:
Ditto! Actually had to read that a couple of times before it clicked!
yeah, that's a neat trick
It’s pretty cool that the dude turned it over to a museum 60-some years before it was delivered. I’m gonna patent that in case some one else figures out how to do it some time in the future…
This changes everything
I’m off to edit Wikipedia right now! Who knew the Civil War was going on all the trime?
This changes everything
That also explains why so many died during that war! 🙂
“top code breakers to see if they could decipher it, and it apparently took them a few weeks.”
Wow, some regular “coder” can crack WEP in a few minutes, yet this prehistoric code takes two weeks to crack?
Piling on
The longest civil war ever!
LoL
But different from others above I will point to the exact point where it is.
.
Now it is easy to find it, just by highlighting it and clicking CTRL+F(on Firefox).
Re:
Heck, even the FBI can crack WEP.
The Full message
“Gen’l Pemberton:
You can expect no help from this side of the river. Let Gen’l Johnston know, if possible, when you can attack the same point on the enemy’s lines. Inform me also and I will endeavor to make a diversion. I have sent some caps (explosive devices). I subjoin a despatch from General Johnston.”
So much text and it decodes to only this one sentence?!
yeah, that's a neat trick
It’s pretty cool that the dude turned it over to a museum 60-some years before it was delivered.
I believe the dude’s name, if I remember it correctly, was Clint Eastwood or Marty McFly, or something like that. He had a Delorian that he said needed to get up to 87 miles per hour for the flux capacitor to work. I thought he was smoking crack at the time, since my time travelling device just has a spinning lotto wheel on the back of it.
yeah, that's a neat trick
Exactly. One point twenty-one gigawatts, and then we can stop the terrorists from killing us. Or, something like that. I’m sure they’ll remake it soon so I can remember.
;)
Just like to point out that the script kiddies can crack WEP in a “few minutes” because some very smart people spent a lot of time figuring it out for them.
Using a program made by someone else, does not a “coder” make. 😀
;)
I know, I was joking.
Re:
You might want to check the date of that battle before anyone notices
Yeah… whoops. Fixed. 🙂
;)
Then you forgot the tag. Ha!
This changes everything
It also explains why us southerners hate all Yankees.
Security by obscurity? 😉
;)
I read a more detailed article about this and it looked like it took weeks because none of the code breakers took the job as a high priority. The code was a simple shift cypher that was easily cracked once someone sat down and worked on it.
The bullet was in the bottle so that it would sink if it was tossed into a river.