New Kent Charles City Chronicle

News for New Kent County and Charles City County, Virginia | March 28, 2024

Historical Charles City document, stolen during Civil War, returns to Virginia

By Andre Jones | August 15, 2016 12:09 pm

An exhibit of the returned historical document, stolen from the Charles City Courthouse during the Civil War, was displayed for attendees at the celebration.

Andre' Jones photo

The discovery of a historic court record book taken from Charles City during the Civil War has lifted the spirits of historians and the locality.

More than 100 people braved the Aug. 15 early morning heat for the celebration of the document in front of Charles City’s Historic Courthouse, the place where the item was removed from by Union Soldiers. The celebration coincided with the exact date the incident took place 154 years ago.

“We are delighted that we now have this document back home,” said Victoria Cox-Washington, Charles City Circuit Court Clerk.

Librarian of Virginia and State Archivist Sandra Treadway spoke about the discovery of the 298-page document and how it was returned to the commonwealth.

“The document was found by Paul Urbania in a box in his attic,” Treadway said. “The document was handed down for multiple generations and his father would often look at it because of his interest in history.

“They took the document to Nathan Raab, who is a well-known international manuscript dealer,” she continued. “That is when it was determined that they had a public document.”

Unselfishly, Urbania and Rabb contacted Treadway about the discovery. After receiving photos of the document, she traveled to Pennsylvania to see the document.

“The document was taken from the Charles City Courthouse,” Treadway added. “But the most important thing about the discovery is that it matches 22 pages of a similar document that was returned to us in the late 1960s.”

Urbania donated the record book to the state library, where it will be housed and restored thanks to a donation from the Jamestown Settlement Foundation. And while the complete volume has not been recovered, local historian Judith Ledbetter commented on the importance of the recovery.

“Prior to the raiding of the courthouse, the clerk removed all the circuit court documents that were deemed necessary to run the operations,” she said. “Other important records were left behind and were plundered.

“We hope the discovery of this document is spread through news reports to reach other,” Ledbetter continued. “We hope this will lead to the discovery of other records of our history and may inspire someone to search their attic.”

The document contained information as far back as the 1690s, including early renderings from court hearings. American Civil War Historian John Coski added comments on the events that occurred on Aug. 15, 1862 according to his research.

“The Army of the Potomac spent 45 days in Charles City and for most of that time, it was peaceful,” Coski said. “But on Aug. 15, they rampaged through the historic old Charles City courthouse.

“Through the recounts of letters and diaries of soldiers, they took several items while scattering papers everywhere,” he added. “But as you can see, it’s never too late to recover these items and to restore the records.”

Attendees spent the remainder of the program exploring the historic courthouse where the documents were taken from, as well as seeing a display that included an enhanced scan of a few of the pages that were discovered and returned to Virginia.

Charles City's Historic Courthouse, where the recovered document was confiscated from, continues to stand today.

Charles City’s Historic Courthouse, where the recovered document was confiscated from, continues to stand today.