ATLANTA, July 17 (UPI) -- The owner of an Atlanta gallery said a U.S. Civil War letter written by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to Gen. Robert E. Lee may be sold for $500,000 at auction.
Gallery 63 owner Paul Brown said the fact that the letter has been dated April 10, 1885, and includes details of the Confederate Army's surrender makes it an invaluable historical artifact, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Tuesday.
"This may very well be the most important document to come on the market in the last 50 years," Brown said of the auction item. "It truly belongs in the National Archives."
"It was, in effect, the document that saved our great land," he added.
The newspaper said that the letter was originally written at Virginia's Appomattox Courthouse and was authenticated by Civil War historian Shelby Foote before his death in 2005.
