In a move reminiscent of those of its sister state, representatives of South Carolina marched into a local auction gallery and laid claim to more than 400 Civil War letters by slapping a restraining order on the auctioneer. The letters, offered at Bill Mishoe’s, were scheduled to sell the next day, Friday, August 6.

The state also filed an injunction and lawsuit at the same time against the auctioneer and Kenneth Krawcheck, the attorney representing the consignor of the documents.

“Our view is that these documents belong to the people of South Carolina,” State Attorney General Henry McMaster told Charleston’s The Post and Courier. “We don’t believe there is a statute of limitations on something involving title. Common Law says documents generated by government or to the government are official state documents.”

Many of the letters were either from or written to the office of South Carolina’s two Civil War governors. “The state is telling us that because [the letters] emanated from the governor’s office, that they are therefore historical documents and belong to the state,” said the auctioneer.

Other important letters seized included three documents penned by General Robert E. Lee that discussed in detail the state of the Confederate troops and the war effort.

“This is the first time South Carolina has ever done anything like this,” stated an agitated Mishoe. North Carolina recently successfully laid claim to a copy of The Bill of Rights that it asserted had been stolen from the state more than 130 years ago.

The collection of 444 letters had been appraised at $2.4 million, according to Krawcheck. “The most significant were the three from Robert E. Lee,” stated Mishoe. “They pertained to the military situation while he was in Charleston. Then 26 from General Beauregard, and then two long-hand accounts of the battle of Manassas by a colonel and a sergeant major who were in the battle. There were letters from just about everybody that had to do with the war from the South Carolina perspective.”

Mishoe said he was contacted on July 27 by Rodger Stroup, director of the South Carolina Archives and History Center. Stroup told him that they “were being encouraged to gain possession of the letters.” However, the archivist stated he was “not really interested in having the letters. What we would really like is to have a micro-film copy of them before they are disseminated.” Mishoe and Krawcheck agreed and Stroup was allowed to copy all of the documents.

“Three days after he came out, {Stroup] wrote to the attorney general’s office and asked if they thought there was a claim to the materials, and, if so, to get involved,” said Mishoe. The attorney general decided they “did have a claim and were going to stop the auction, but they decided they didn’t want to do it until they had gotten their copies.”

“That archivist told me they were not interested in acquiring the letters. He even told my clients who contacted him that it was safe to come on up that they were not going to block the sale.” The auctioneer was particularly upset that the state waited until the last minute before halting the auction.

Mishoe had people en-route from all around the country, some of whom he was able to contact before they departed, some he was not. “I had one guy fly in from Ohio, others drove in from Florida, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina,” said Mishoe. “One New Yorker had to cancel plane reservations the morning of the auction.

“He [Stroup] came out yesterday to try and explain to me what had gone on, and said the attorney general did not tell him until Thursday what they were planning to do,” said Mishoe. “And I said, ‘You know, that does not matter to me one bit because you are the one that got all this started, you are the one who upset my little wagon.'”

The auction has been indefinitely postponed until the court rules on the matter.

“Collectors are going absolutely crazy here,” stated Mishoe, “they are asking the question, ‘What does this mean if I collect Civil War uniforms, rifles, swords or whatever?’ I asked the attorney [Krawcheck], and he said in the case of uniforms and weapons, the state would have a far greater claim to them than they would these documents.” Krawcheck reportedly stated that “because [uniforms, rifles and swords] were all military issue that were never returned, [the state] can go after them if anyone wants to claim them.”