Stolen Civil War documents reappear at library

Two rare Civil War documents stolen from a public library exhibit last summer were anonymously returned Friday.

Shelia Bumgarner, the librarian who curated the exhibit, said they were in her mailbox and they weren't damaged.

The theft of documents on loan to the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County was unusual.

Library officials and the owner of the documents, Walt Hilderman, a retired police officer, said that the documents might have been targeted because of controversy over conscription during the Civil War.

Hilderman, a controversial figure in Confederate circles, had written a book about soldiers drafted into the Confederate Army. The two missing documents -- a handwritten furlough for a Confederate soldier and a certificate of medical examination of a slave -- were cited in his book. Hilderman lent the documents to the library for an exhibit on the Civil War.

But, Bumgarner said, that doesn't appear to have been the thief's reason.

Bumgarner said she was recently approached by someone who said he knew where the documents were and that they had been taken by someone who believed the exhibit glorified the Civil War. She said that hadn't been her intent.

Friday, Bumgarner found an envelope in her box. Inside was a copy of "Philadelphia Trumpet" magazine. A note was on the front, telling her to look through the entire magazine.

The documents were in a manila envelope between the pages.

The library had promised not to ask questions if the documents were returned. Bumgarner said she thought the person who took them is "a very religious person, and I think he's very concerned with black rights and black history and the issue of slavery."

Hilderman said he is happy to have the documents back but still thinks the theft was connected to his book, "They Went Into the Fight Cheering: Confederate Conscription in North Carolina."

He signed off on the library's promise not to ask questions if the documents were returned, he said, but "I didn't say I wouldn't press charges" if police ever found out who took the documents.