Famous Civil War Document Found?

I'm a bit of a Civil War buff, and this story of the find of what may turn out to be one of three original copies of the Appomattox terms of surrender is kind of interesting:

PHILADELPHIA — Officials at a small Civil War museum made an intriguing discovery while sifting through storage: A document long treated as a photo reproduction of the terms of Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender appears, upon closer inspection, to contain actual signatures and date to 1865.

Museum officials believe they have one of the three original documents signed by representatives of the Union and Confederacy in Appomattox Court House, Va., on April 10, 1865, a day after Lee's surrender.

The National Park Service historian at Appomattox said it's more likely a souvenir copy signed by the same men at that time — still a significant discovery, he said, even if it's not an official copy.

The Civil War & Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia has held the document since the early 20th century. It was pulled out of storage and re-evaluated as officials prepared for the museum's shutdown Saturday ahead of its move to a new building.

Curator Andrew Coldren said he is certain that museum officials knew what they had when the document was donated but its significance was forgotten over time because of a lack of record keeping.

In a 1967 inventory, someone wrote "Copy??" in reference to the document.

Coldren said it had been glued to a cardboard backing and varnished, an apparent attempt to preserve it.

"Old photostat copies from the '20s and '30s are shiny like that, so this is why you'd think this is not a real document," he said.

Coldren said museum officials examining the document recently noticed that the indentation of pens into the paper was visible. He said they also noticed that the ink on the document was darker and lighter in places, as would be expected with the pens used at the time. The lines on a photostat would be of consistent darkness.

"You can see where they're dipping the pen in to get more ink," he said.

Details of the terms and conditions of the surrender were worked out by six men the day after Lee and Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant agreed on the broad terms of the surrender.

Three copies were made, according to the memoir of Union Gen. John Gibbon, whom Grant put in charge of working out the details of the surrender.

Gibbon kept one copy, according to his memoir and a letter he wrote to the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore when he donated his to the society. Another copy was sent to Grant's headquarters and is now in the National Archives.

By process of elimination, museum officials believe they have the Confederate copy.

For Civil War buffs looking for some good reading, Newt Gingrich wrote a three volume alternate history of the Civil War which you can find in these three books which are now available pretty cheap on Amazon:

I've just started rereading the series and it's very well done. I won't give away the secrets, but the books start with the premise that everything that happened during the war from the beginning through the first day at Gettysburg remained the same, but starting with the 2nd day of what would have been the Battle of Gettysburg Gen. Robert E. Lee makes some different decisions and the rest of the three volumes develops from there. You'll be surprised how it turns out.