The Lost Light: The Mystery of the Missing Cape Hatteras Fresnel Lens: A Civil War History of Extinguished Southern Sentinels and Hidden Lighthouse Lenses written by Kevin Duffus is a chronicle of his search for the lens. Kevin Duffus is a North Carolina historian and author of four books. He, as a teenager, became intrigued by the mystery of the missing light. But, Duffus says that, as time went by and other opportunities took precedence, “Those words eventually became a vague and distant image, settled in the back of [his] mind (2).” Fortunately, this was not the case for long, as time and time again Duffus found himself in situations where he was reminded of the mystery. Finally, Duffus set out to find the answer to this question himself. …show more content…
Then, in Part I of the book, the reader is taken back to 1861. Duffus tells how about the lighthouses at the time and tells how the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse received its first order Fresnel lens. “When it arrived on the island of Hatteras from Paris in 1854, the Henry-Lepaute lens was considered a marvel like no other, including the steam engine (24).” He goes on to tell how the light had to be extinguished and, ultimately, removed in order to keep it from falling into the hands of the union during the Civil War. In Part II, Duffus continues the history of the Civil War and the light’s journey from 1862 to 1864. He tells of the light’s venture down the Pamlico River to Washington, North Carolina, as cities were being destroyed all around it. Duffus then follows the light as it made its journey to “a good store house in the county (96).” In Part III, 1865 to 1872, the location of the Fresnel lens becomes hazy, as the union reclaimed its authority in the south and began to construct and restore lighthouses along the coast. Part IV brings the history to the present as the lost light is found and, in the afterword, Duffus connects all of the dots and tells the status of the light, displayed in the Graveyard of the Atlantic