I was off at my families Hunting camp in Greenwood. We are tearing down the old camp and building a New Log cabin. It should be damned nice when done. In between scraping off old shingles and running them to the dump, my Father-in-Law (It's his camp) spotted a nice wood stove for sale at a yard sale and pulled in the snag it. He was all bummed out that it had a "Sold" sticker on it. I was MORE upset to see the "Sold" sticker on a nice wooden chest. About 2'X 3' and 2.5' deep. It was REALLY stout construction. There was a broken hand forged hasp on to Very sturdy side handles and it was painted grey. The guy thought it was an old tool box. With someone's initials carved into it. the initials were "3rd NH E" twice on top and once on each side. The letters were well carved except that all the "N"s were backwards. Oh, on top one of the carvings had
"3rd NH Rgmt E" I asked if they knew what it was and they said it was an old tool box. Since the hinges were a bit fragile I didn't open it much aside to see it was open and that the top had a place that one could secure something to it. This sucker was THE Campaign document chest for the 3rd NH that would have contained all Company reports and iventories etc. I meekly asked if I could know what the person paid for it. The guy said that while no money had changed hands he had told the lady $50. He said she was gonna use it as a wood box in her shed. I HAD to act! While I'm currently broke from buying my Mexican War kit and my wife would divorce me if I bought anything else. I told these people what the thing was and that it was worth WAY more than $50 and it deserved a better future no matter what. They were REALLY happy and sad at the same time that I identified the box. I drove by later and noticed it was gone. Later in the afternoon the guy stopped by my Father-in-law's camp and thanked me for the info. He said. If he'd known the signifigance of the box he'd never have thought to sell it. He told the lady when she returned that he had changed his mind and she immediately upped her offer to $200. SHE KNEW DAMED WELL WHAT IT WAS! I assume if I didn't tell the folks what they had we'd be seeing that box on ebay at this moment.