[Lemon:] Time now for what's "Trending" today. First up, we have big baby news for the entertainment world. Sir Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, are now dads. Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish- John was born Christmas Day in California via a surrogate. The baby weighed seven pounds, fifteen ounces. Again, here's his name: Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John. He was seven pounds and fifteen ounces. In a joint statement, John and Furnish had this to say, "We are overwhelmed with happiness and joy at this very moment. Zachary is healthy and doing really well, and we are very proud and happy parents." Elton John is 62 and David Furnish is 48. They have been together for 12 years and this is their first child. Also, "Trending" today, the star of the MTV reality show "Teen Mom," Amber Portwood, is behind bars for allegedly attacking ex-fiance Gary Shirley. As seen in this clip from the show, she's no stranger to violence.
[Amber Portwood:] Let me
[Unidentified Male:] Amber, Amber.
[Portwood:] No. You apologize right now.
[Unidentified Male:] Amber, let him go.
[Portwood:] You don't
[Unidentified Male:] Amber, let him go. You can get the
[Lemon:] OK. In September, Portwood expressed her concern that one day their daughter, Lea, who too who is two, would see her slapping the child's father. Portwood was arrested on Monday. She is charged with three felonies, they are one count of neglect of dependent and two counts of domestic battery. A very cool piece of American history emerged just a few days ago, and I'm about to find out if it's more significant than that. If it's more than just, gee whiz, kind of interesting. Take a look at this. It's a glass bottle. It's two inches long, a cork stopper, a tiny piece of string. This odd little artifact sat in a Civil War museum untouched for more than 100 years. Well, curiosity got the best of the woman who oversees the museum and she arranged to have the thing popped open to see what was inside of it. Well, show the next picture. There you go, this is what was in there. A rolled up piece of paper with some nonsense looking handwriting and a lead bullet. Sounds a little weird. OK, I am no historian. But Catherine Wright is and she's the lady who had to find out what was in the little bottle. She's a collections manager at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia. Catherine, thanks for joining us. What on Earth are we looking at in those pictures?
[Catherine Wright, Collections Manager, Museum Of The Confederacy:] Well, what you are looking at is a secret message that was unopened for 147 years. It was a coded message that was intended to be sent to a city under siege, and by the time the message was about to be delivered, the city had already fallen into the hands of the enemy and the message really no longer mattered.
[Lemon:] So, then some people
[Wright:] So it was brought back.
[Lemon:] some people would say, OK, what took you so long to open it?
[Wright:] Well, I think there's a lot of different museum curators who have the philosophy that you should never change any artifact which comes into your museum. And while I certainly ascribe to that, I do believe that museums and other institutions need to continue to do research on the items in their collection. And as long as they can do so without causing any physical harm or damage to the artifact, then they should certainly do whatever research they can. So I was sort of the head of a team of people at the museum who just decided that curiosity finally got the better of us.
[Lemon:] All right, so, Catherine, how did you decode the message? Was it high-tech computer software?
[Wright:] Well, you could certainly use that today, but back in the Civil War, people would either use a metal decoder ring that would bear some resemblance to the one that folks might have seen on "A Christmas Story" movie, or they could use a table that basically is a bunch of alphabets that are slightly staggered. And it is a little bit complicated, but you can sit down and figure it out with just a paper and pencil.
[Lemon:] OK, so tell me, who do you think sent this message and what does this tell you about the state of the war on that day?
[Wright:] OK. Well, if you imagine the city of Vicksburg, which is perched on the east side of the Mississippi river, is a very important stronghold in the Civil War because it basically would control who had access to to the river, which was a main route of transportation. And the person who sent a message was a Confederate general who was stationed on the opposite side of the river. So he was sending the message to the general who had basically set up a series of defenses around the city of Vicksburg, trying to hold off all of the Federals. And, of course, that fellow all of his poor soldiers were starving. And so the message, apparently, was a response to the general who was under siege in the city. And the message, as it was decoded reads, "General Pemberton, you can expect no help from this side of the river. Let General Johnston know, if possible, when you can attack the same point on the enemy's line. Inform me also and I will endeavor to make a diversion. I subjoin a dispatch from General Johnston," end quote.
[Lemon:] OK, and so, that little piece of paper, that's what that says right in there.
[Wright:] Exactly.
[Lemon:] So listen, does this change the course of history in any way? Does it change anything about the Civil War? What we've learned, what we're going to be teaching about it or should be teaching?
[Wright:] It probably doesn't revolutionize our studies of the war. I think it certainly helps to energize them. It also, it's sort of a punctuation mark to just how extremely dire the circumstances were for the Confederates at that time.
[Lemon:] I got you on that, Catherine. So listen, why the bullet?
[Wright:] The bullet was probably placed in the bottle in case that the bottle was about to be captured by the enemy so they could throw it in to the Mississippi River and have it sink and not be captured.
[Lemon:] OK. So can I call you detective or you still want to be an historian?
[Wright:] You can absolutely call me detective.
[Lemon:] Catherine Wright, thank you. Happy new year to you.
[Wright:] Thanks, same to you.
[Lemon:] All right, what are all of these people there they are what are they all fired up about? Would you believe, it has to do with gas prices? That's up next.