SakshiWeather
He also talks about the weather in the city. As a soldier who had spent a large fraction of his time outside doors under the sky knew more about the weather than a normal person. Howe was somewhat sure that the letters were authentic yet he decided to call in an expert for confirmation. His next step took this investigation to the next level. He decided to ask Jenny Lynch a historian of United States Postal Service for her piece of knowledge on it.
Expert Intervention
Lynch was all the way in Washington DC, so Howe took some pictures of the letters and sent them in an email to her. But even Lynch needed help, and that’s when America’s premier historical museum got involved, as Lynch contacted the Smithsonian.
Scanning
Smithsonian National Postal Museum’s curator took a look at the letters and its content. He scanned the handwriting and also the type of ink used in it. The man had his expertise in postage stamps. That is why he focused more on the different ink stamps on the envelope. After all the scanning, he confirmed that the letter was authentic. But still, one thing was not clear as to who had sent this letter to postmaster. Still, there was no explanation for this question.
Doing Whatever It Takes
The curiosity of USPS had aroused to a higher level. They were ready to go to every possible extent to gather more knowledge about these letters. But they knew very well that they would not be able to pull it off on their own so they decided to take help of a Civil War history expert and holds the skills of narrowing down the search to one soldier in question out of over three million.
Man In Need
They called in Steve Kochersperger for help. The man had a close and old link with the Civil War. It was because one of his forefathers was involved in the Battle of Gettysburg and spearheaded the unit in the Battle of the Wilderness as a Lieutenant Colonel. Along with that, Kochersperger was a sleuth too. The moment he heard about the mystery, he decided to pursue and solve it.
Basic Details
So, he began with the basic details. The soldier who had sent this letter was Nelson Shepherd. There was no other clue about the soldier in letter except for his name. He tried to dig out more information about the man but unfortunately, got nothing in hand. “There were no descendants looking for Nelson Shepherd, rather, it felt like Nelson Shepherd was looking for us to tell his story.”