WEBVTT

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GUEST: So my family is
from Radford, Virginia,
up in the mountains.
And about 30 years ago,

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when my mother was selling the
family house, all these papers
were just haphazardly thrown

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in the attic, and she didn't
know what they were, so she
boxed them up and moved them

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to her house, and there they
sat for another 30 years. And
till about five years ago, I

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wondered what was in all those
boxes, and I started opening
them and found these letters.

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APPRAISER: And they're all from
your great-grandfather or...

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GUEST: Great-great-grandfather,
he was General Gabriel
Wharton from the Confederacy.

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APPRAISER: Right.

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GUEST: And yeah, these are
all his personal letters
before, during, and after the

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war.

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APPRAISER: That's what I find
fascinating about it, because
obviously, General Wharton

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was a very important Confederate
general, and you have a
tremendous amount of material

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from the war. But also material
prior to and after that really
fleshes out his life. So

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starting over here, we
have a fabulous letter
written to General
Wharton, obviously before

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the war, by a Mr. Mason. Tell
me a little bit about the
letter from what you remember.

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GUEST: So at this point, General
Wharton was a surveyor for
the railroad on the Gadsden

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Purchase. And he had friends
who were throughout the west at
that point, so this friend, Mr.

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Mason, was in Salt Lake
City, and he was working
for the Indian Affairs
office, and he just

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writes him a letter to
tell him what's going on...

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APPRAISER: With the Mormons
in Salt Lake City. With the
Mormons in the city, yeah. Yeah,

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so it's a fascinating letter
from 1859, and he recounts
attending the Tabernacle Sunday

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events with Brigham Young,
and it's a little bit derisive
about the beautiful girls who

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make up his 64 wives.

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GUEST: Yes.

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APPRAISER: Now, when he
was in the Civil War, he
was involved in a number of

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very important campaigns,
including the Battle for Fort
Donelson. And we picked out from

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your archive just a letter,
one letter here from
General Lee, Robert E. Lee,

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dated April 21, 1862. And of
course it was just after the
Battle of Fort Donelson when

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Floyd and his troops had
lost the battle to General
Grant, and there was
calls for unconditional

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surrender. So this
very interesting war
period letter from Lee,

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instructions to gather the
troops and bring them together.
Because it's an archive that

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expands beyond the war, and he
was one of the last Confederate
generals to be in operation

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before the final surrender...

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GUEST: Yeah.

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APPRAISER: You also
have him returning after
the war to do what?

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GUEST: Well, you know,
the Confederacy lost,
and so he needed to
have a job, and he went

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back to his old profession of
surveying. And worked for the
land office, and was very lucky

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to get the job, actually.

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APPRAISER: Right.

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GUEST: So in the 1880s, he's
working for the land office
out in New Mexico and Arizona.

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APPRAISER: Right.

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GUEST: And he has a narrow
escape from Geronimo.

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APPRAISER: This is a letter
written to his wife, I
believe, from April 1886.

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GUEST: Right. Yes, yep.

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APPRAISER: And of course,
Geronimo would finally
surrender to American
troops in... later that

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year, in November of 1886.

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GUEST: Right.

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APPRAISER: He later acquired
this cabinet card. It's a
very famous cabinet card from

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C.S. Fly, who was based
in Tombstone, Arizona.

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GUEST: Okay.

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APPRAISER: So it's an incredibly
interesting archive. Have you
ever had the archive evaluated

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or appraised or looked at?

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GUEST: No.

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APPRAISER: Well, I mean, it's
very, very rich, and we only
could pull out a few things. If

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it were to come to auction at
a major auction house, it would
probably have an aggregate

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value of $30,000 to $50,000.

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GUEST: Oh, my goodness.

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APPRAISER: And that might
be conservative, given the
richness of what you have.

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GUEST: Thank you.

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APPRAISER: Thank you, I'm
so glad you were able to
bring it in. Incredible.

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GUEST: Thank you! Wow.
Who knew what was in
the attic? (chuckling)

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APPRAISER: Yeah. You know?