The first volume of W.F.P. Napier's four-volume set, History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France, was returned to the shelves of Washington and Lee University's library, after an absence of 52,858 days.

A Union soldier named C.S. Gates took the book from Washington College, as it was then called, on June 11, 1864, when General David Hunter and his army of West Virginia raided the area and looted the college's buildings.

Gates, however, thought he was exacting revenge on Washington College's next-door neighbor, the Virginia Military Institute, which was set on fire by the raiding party.

A note signed by Gates and inscribed in the book reads: "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."

The book was returned by Mike Dau, of Lake Forest, IL, who inherited it from the Lake Forest couple, Myron and Isabel Gates, ancestors of the aforementioned soldier.

If Washington and Lee would have hired Detective Bookman, this never would have been an issue.