A friend sent me this today and I thought others might like to read. Here is the link for the article, http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/9342371.htm Derrell Oakley Teat State wants Civil War documents Restraining order filed to prevent letters’ auction By JOHN O’CONNOR Staff Writer The state of South Carolina has gone to court to recover more than 400 Civil War-era documents, a day before they were to be auctioned off. A Charleston court on Friday issued a temporary restraining order preventing the documents’ sale, which had been scheduled for today. Attorney General Henry McMaster also has filed a lawsuit alleging the documents belong to the state and asking they be turned over to it. But the attorney representing the anonymous seller said his client is the rightful owner. The more than 440 letters include correspondence to and from governors Francis Wilkinson Pickens and Milledge Luke Bonham between 1861 and 1863. Among the collection are three letters from Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The letters have an estimated value of $2.4 million. The letters “are clearly state documents and always have been state documents,” McMaster said. “They should be returned to the people.” The letters were written by state officials completing state duties, McMaster said. Other states, such as Virginia and North Carolina, have gone to court to recover historic items, but this is the first such suit in South Carolina, McMaster said. In a sworn statement filed with the suit, S.C. Archives and History director Rodger Stroup said the letters likely were lost when state leaders moved documents during the Civil War. With Union Gen. William Sherman moving toward Columbia — and burning everything in his path — Gov. A.G. Magrath ordered state documents put on trains and shipped away from Columbia, Stroup said. The train car with state documents eventually was stranded in Chester, where some of the documents were hidden around town. Many might not have been returned or recovered, Stroup said. McMaster said USC historian Walter Edgar has examined the letters and thought they were “very significant.” The letters belong to an anonymous Charleston seller, said attorney Kenneth Krawcheck, who represents the seller. The seller’s great-great-grandfather was a Confederate general, and the letters have been in his family since the Civil War. Krawcheck said. His client did not want to sell the letters, Krawcheck said, but needed the money they would generate. The lawsuit, he said, would be a financial hardship. The temporary restraining order gives the state 10 days to prove that an injunction, a longer term stop of the auction, is needed. The case would then head to court to decide who owns the letters. The state would need to prove his client’s family stole or acted improperly in keeping the documents, Krawcheck said. “We believe the law is on our side,” Krawcheck said. “Everybody thought back then that they were where they should be.” Krawcheck said he also was upset that the state filed suit so close to the sale and gave him no warning the lawsuit was coming. McMaster said the issue was brought to his attention a week ago. The lawsuit also has inconvenienced many out-of-town buyers who already had arrived or were on their way to Columbia for the auction, said Bill Mishoe, owner of the auction house selling the items. Buyers from Ohio, Tennessee, Florida and elsewhere were coming for the sale. “They could have told me last week,” Mishoe said. “I don’t have any way of heading them off.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Don’t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search!