Library Gets Back Stolen Book After 145 years

Washington and Lee University in Lexington got back a book on its shelves which may be the second longest overdue library book in the nation's history.

Washington and Lee University got back a book believed to be stolen. The story made the news because the book was overdue by 145 years. It was apparently stolen by a Union soldier during the Civil War. The book, W.F.P. Napier's four-volume set, ‘History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France’ was removed from the library by a Union soldier named C.S. Gates on June 11, 1864, when the institution, then known as Washington College, was sacked by the Union Army of West Virginia led by Gen. David Hunter. The book is an account of the early stages of the war between Spain and its allies against France over control over the Iberian Peninsula. The soldier mistook the library for the adjoining Virginia Military Institute. The error comes to light from a note written by Gates in the book –

"This book was taken from the Military Institute at Lexington Virginia in June 1864 when General Hunter was on his Lynchburg raid. The Institution was burned by the order of Gen. Hunter. The remains of Gen. Stonewall Jackson rest in the cemetery at this place."

Over the years, the book was passed down the generations of C.S. Gates’ family. It eventually ended up with Mike Dau who had inherited it amongst the possessions from the estate of Myron and Isabel Gates, a couple he befriended during college. He said -

"I had been meaning to take it back for years. I got tired of talking about it and decided it belonged in the hands of the rightful owner."

Dau himself was unclear about the exact bloodline between C.S. Gates and Myron and Isabel Gates. Dau and his wife made a journey to Lexington in February to return the book. The library got back its book in fine condition and to Dau’s good fortune waived the late fine. End Note: The record for the longest overdue book probably rests with volume three of Bishop White Kennett's ‘Complete History of England’ published in 1706. It was one of 80 books borrowed out when fire destroyed the 5,000 volume library of Harvard College library in Cambridge, Mass. on Jan. 24, 1764. The missing book was discovered in a Cambridge bookstore by a history professor in 1997 and then returned to Harvard.