The August 1st Centre Daily Times reports that the Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum in Philadelphia has made quite a discovery as it prepares to shut down for its move to the former First Bank of the United States, which functioned as the central financial institution of the young republic until the early 1800s.
The museum is going through its collection and re-evaluating what it wants to keep and discard. It is believed that they have discovered one of three original documents of Lee's surrender that was originally considered to be a photocopy.
The day after the surrender on April 9, 1865, Union and Confederate officers met to work out the terms of the surrender and three documents were made. Union General John Gibbon was in charge of it and kept one which he later donated to the Maryland Historical Society. Another copy was sent to Grant's headquarters and is now in the National Archives. What the museum thinks it has is the long lost Confederate copy.
OR, IS IT?
The National Park Service, however,thinks it might be a souvenir copy made at the same time. However, the museum's copy, upon closer examination, clearly shows pen marks.
The problem that led the museum to believe it was a photocopy was that someone back in the early 1900s had tried to preserve it and their efforts made it look like the document dated from the 1920s or 30s.
It was originally donated by one of the museum's founders, Bruce Ford, in the early 1900s. How he came into possession of it is not known.
Civil War collectors consider this as the Holy Grail and it is
I found out from another source that you can see the head of Old Baldy, General Meade's horse on display at the museum. But you'd better hurry as the museum shuts down soon.
A Real Sleuth Story. --Old B-Runner
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
