July 13, 2001 Virginia records thought lost in Civil War show up on eBay News-Journal wire services MANASSAS, Va. -- When Union troops raided the Prince William County courthouse in 1863, they stole batches of court papers from the Revolutionary War era, including some signed by the father of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The vital records -- oaths of soldiers, certificates of birth and death and deeds of property and business ownership -- tore a hole in the county's history and were considered lost forever. But many of the papers were recovered after a researcher for the state archives spotted pages for sale on eBay, the Internet auction house. The Library of Virginia in Richmond contacted the dealer, Charles Barger, of Mansfield, Ohio, and paid him $8,000 for a 200-page record book covering 1778 to 1784. When researchers received the book late last year, 46 pages were missing. Prince William County police tracked down one more page from the same dealer in April. "It's just a wealth of historical information," said Don Wilson, chief historic librarian for Prince William. "Without this kind of a record, we're at a loss to fill in the details of local history." Like other Southern states, Virginia's local governments lost many records to fire or theft during the Civil War. In the last couple of years, eBay has been added to the more traditional auction catalogs where workers in the state archivist's office routinely search for missing records and other historical documents. "We're constantly on the lookout. Virginia has lost so much public records, especially because of what happened during the Civil War," said Conley Edwards, the state archivist. About a dozen Virginia counties lost records in the war, most of them in the Tidewater region, Edwards said. Some local records were sent to Richmond for safekeeping during the war but were destroyed when the Confederate's capital city burned as the war ended, he said. The recovered book is a record of court minutes kept in the courthouse at Brentsville, the Prince William County seat from 1822 to 1890. Listing lawsuits, land transactions, business licenses and militia oaths, it is among at least dozens of deed books, surveyors plat books and marriage documents stolen by Union soldiers as they dismantled the courthouse in 1863 for bricks to set up camp nearby. Some pages are signed by Robert E. Lee's father, Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, who was a justice in the Prince William court before he became governor of Virginia. Police are still looking for the missing 45 pages, but county Police Chief Charlie T. Deane said the dealer won't be charged with a crime. Barger told police he bought the book at a local antique show. There was no answer at his home Thursday. "It's much better to work with someone than to try and strong-arm them," Edwards said Thursday. "Our fear is that in situations like this documents will go underground and we'll never see them." "The other 45 pages are out there somewhere," he said. "I hope that they're together somewhere." Copyright 2001 News-Journal Corporation