The original hand-written letter dated 25 August 1814 on the previous pages was delivered to my office at Centurion Solutions Group [CSG] on Monday, 2 January 2018. The document, sealed in a plastic bag, was carefully wrapped in a USPS shipping box with a postmark and tracking number indicating it had been mailed on 30 December 2017 from Morgantown, WV. It had no return address. We ran it through our screening device to confirm it contained no explosives. The inner wrapping was accompanied by an undated, unsigned note: “General Newman: This is important. Please investigate.”

My company, CSG, does sensitive work for the U.S. government so it took less than three days for the FBI Lab at Quantico to provide the following information in a 5 January 2018 email:

“The only fingerprints and DNA on the USPS packaging and contents appear to be yours and that of CSG Operations Director, Daniel Gabbard.

“The computer-generated cover note—‘General Newman: This is important. Please investigate . . .’—was created on a Hewlett Packard laser-jet printer on commonly available bond paper, manufactured in 2018 by Georgia Pacific.

“A forensic analysis of the stationery used for the six-page letter dated 25 August 1814 and signed ‘Nathanael Newman’ indicates compatibility with that in use in the United States during the early 1800s. Each sheet bears a watermark: ‘RUSE & TURNERS 1813,’ indicating the paper was manufactured that year in Kent, England.

“Since this document appears to be genuine, we did no chemical, DNA, or fingerprint testing of the aging ink or paper.

“However, non-invasive, spectrographic analysis of the text indicates the ink is most likely ‘Iron Gall’—a composition of ­Gallic acid [aka, trihydroxybenzoic acid], iron sulfate, gum Arabic, and water—a readily available, indelible medium commonly used for correspondence in the 18th and 19th centuries. Given the brown hue of the text, typical for Iron Gall ink as it ages, it appears the ink was likely applied to the paper in a time frame compatible with the date on the letter.

“Finally, microscopic examination of the script indicates a left-handed person writing with a sharpened goose quill likely prepared the document. If other documents, known to have been prepared by the person whose signature appears on the letter dated 25 August 1814 exist, our handwriting analysts will be pleased to quickly confirm authenticity.”

On Monday morning, 8 January 2018, it was 18°F in the Blue Ridge Mountains when Master Gunnery Sergeant Dan Gabbard, USMC (Ret.) accompanied me to Bears Den hostel along the Appalachian Trail. Using climbing lines, we rappelled down the west face of the overlook and found the “cairn” referred to in Lieutenant Colonel Nathanael Newman’s missive of 25 August 1814.

In less than an hour of digging in the frozen rocks we discovered the lead-covered chest described in Lieutenant Colonel ­Newman’s letter. The container, apparently intact, and the document dated 25 August 1814, were delivered to Dr. Scot Marsh, Curator of the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, VA.