South Carolina Attorney Lawyer

Thomas Willcox months tooled around in his Sport Utility Vehicle Manilla of 11 folders of documents, plumée by his parents’ office space with its shotguns and other disorders.

It was not his wife, went to the beach for a day about six years, and he was annoyed by waste paper, and then it became clear that three of them were Konföderierten Gen. Robert E. Lee.

“I said:” This is something which “recalls Willcox, 69, a former real estate developer.” I said: “It is not just run-of-the-mill stuff.”

And thus began a journey culminated that Willcox and its civil war of 440 characters in an era of court battle for the state and on bankruptcy and an auction house, where experts say that they can make Willcox over $ 2 million, that the documents are sold one after the other Saturday.

The collection details life in South Carolina between 1861 and 1863. Many letters are correspondence between the generals and the Konföderierten government and Govs. Francis Wilkinson Pickens Milledgeville and Luke Bonham.

“The strength of the opponent, as far as I am able to appreciate the strength we have within the state,” writes Lee Pickens on December 27, 1861. “There can be thrown with great speed against a point, and far outnumbers any force can we do in this area. ”

Other letters are asking residents to help in defending their communities or for the return of slaves from today to help fortifications. Some of documenting the details of the terrible war.

“But I must tell you now on the battlefield?” Sgt Maj. William S. Mullins, 8 Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers wrote in an August 6, 1861, Letter of the first battle of Manassas. “Among the dead in horrific ghastly of all forms of death: from the head, arms, protruding abdomens, any form of injury, low moans, cries net … desperately as the torment of the souls of flight lasted. It is unnecessary to write. I know something by the power of words to paint, and I tell you, a man must see to understand all this. ”

If historical records are sold, with content, age and condition to determine their value, “said Patrick Scott, director of rare books and special collections at the University of South Carolina’s Thomas Cooper Library.

“Only one in possession of original documents an important figure in the civil war, especially South collectibles, I would be very, very triumphant when they would be able to buy what they want in a sale of Articles, “said Scott, regularly buys rare manuscripts from the University of the collection.

Most, any letter that Lee has never been sold for $ 630000 in 2002, said Scott. Two letters of general Konföderierten were sold last year for $ 5000 and $ 1900, he said.

Willcox’s letters were allegedly in the year 2004 at auction. But the state and more and more and said they were considered as part of official and public enterprises were owned by South Carolina. A federal judge decided that last year, Willcox in possession of the collection in his family beyond generations, before he discovered in his family home, having died.

The legal status led Knatsch Willcox bankruptcy, but he hopes now he is finally rewarded.

“It is like a culmination of seven or eight years, ask me if ever happen,” said Willcox.

Cal-Packard, a private purchaser of Mansfield, Ohio, said he expected a bid of more than 100 characters.

“My interest in it began five years ago,” said Friday that the Packard letters. “I see how these documents at any time, but at a concentration, as it is rare.”

A company that will not be tempted to documents of the State. Officials from several agencies have said, The Associated Press, South Carolina, are no offers - in part because they were on micro-film.

“Governments movements of money in something, what we believe already heard that the State contrary to principle,” said Charles Lesser, chief archivist of the section “Archives and History.

The prior decision surprised auction owner Bill Mishoe. “They went on to obtain a quantity of anger, so that now it is something I can not understand,” he said.