The Gold Vanishes
The Confederate Treasury’s Daring Flight From Capture In The Last Days Of The Civil War
By Bruce Wetterau
History books tell us the Civil War ended with the surrender of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. That was the fatal blow, but wars and governments, like the body human, have interconnected parts that can live on for a time. So it was with the remnants of the once proud Confederate Army, the Confederate government itself, and the lifeblood of governments everywhere, its Treasury. The remnants of that Confederate Treasury fled Richmond, VA, then the Confederate capital, just ahead of the Union’s successful drive to capture the city and remained on the run from Union troops for weeks in April and May of 1865. In fact, most of the Treasury’s horde of gold and silver--it’s “hard currency” reserves--never was captured by Union soldiers. It simply disappeared.
Rumors and speculation about the fate of the Treasury money continued for years afterward, and today, over 150 years later, unanswered questions still linger. And how could it be otherwise? The glitter of gold arouses powerful emotions in us, and the disappearance of so large a sum inevitably stirs the imagination. What happened to all that money? How could hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of dollars, just disappear?
Disappear it did though, and what really happened to the Confederate Treasury reserves is quite a story. But something else was disappearing then too--the Confederacy, the cause that had
sustained the South for nearly five tumultuous years. Those two stories are inextricably bound together. So, while following the trail of the Treasury’s gold and silver, we will also learn something of the last, labored breaths of the Confederacy, as seen through the eyes of those who lived them. To say the least, these were not happy times for anyone loyal to the old South. There was no glory then, only hard choices and desperate circumstances. But it is history all the same.
The fall of Richmond on Sunday, April 2, 1865, marked the beginning of the end for the Confederacy, and the beginning of the Treasury’s odyssey. By that fateful night, Richmond had somehow withstood 10 months of strangling Union siege. Now it was in flames, lit not by the Yankees, but by the Confederates themselves--to deny arms and supplies to the enemy. That evening, Gen. Robert E. Lee led the tattered remains of his Army of Northern Virginia--something like 35,000 men--through Union lines, and marched westward toward Lynchburg. Later that night, the Confederate government began moving southwestward by the last secure railroad, the Richmond-Danville line, to a temporary capital in the small farming town of Danville, VA.
What mystery that lies at the heart of the Treasury story begins here: We don’t know exactly how much gold and other money was hurriedly loaded onto to the train, because the decision to abandon Richmond came so suddenly that Sunday morning. But sources[1] generally put the Treasury assets at no more than $500,000 in coins and bullion (worth about $10 million in 2007 dollars), $600-700 million face value of Confederate Treasury notes, millions in face value of Confederate paper money and bonds, a batch of English acceptances worth 16-18,000 pounds sterling, a chest of silver jewelry donated by Confederate women for the building of an ironclad, and floor sweepings from a Georgia mint. In addition there were government documents, and more importantly the assets of six private Richmond banks. Packed in kegs, the banks’ silver and gold coins were worth about $450,000 ($9 million in 2007 dollars), and later also played a part in the Treasury story.
The sum total of Confederate Treasury hard currency may seem small for a national treasury, and in the weeks after Lee’s surrender, the Federal government fueled wild speculation that millions were missing--possibly as much as $10 to $15 million in Treasury bullion and coins. No doubt the federal government hoped to spur efforts to recover as much Confederate Treasury hard currency as possible. But the plain fact is that the Confederacy was probably much nearer to being broke than the Federal government realized. The cost of waging war, steady losses of economic resources to Union armies, and the successful Union naval blockade had withered the Confederate economy and drained the Treasury by 1865.
While loading the Treasury train that Sunday, officials hastily assembled force of 60 armed Confederate Naval Academy midshipmen, youngsters really, aged just 14-18 years old, and dispatched them to guard the train’s precious cargo. Capt. William Parker, Superintendent of the Confederate Naval Academy, commanded the midshipmen, who until that fateful day had lived aboard the side-wheel steamer Patrick Henry, the academy’s school ship moored in the James River at Richmond.
Fortunately for the safety of the Treasury, Capt. Parker (shown at left) was a soldier’s soldier, a man endowed with both a strong will and an unshakeable sense of duty. He was a leader who commanded the respect of his midshipmen, as well as others who later joined his guard. Once Capt. Parker decided on his course of action, his determination never wavered, though events yet to come--the Confederacy collapsing around him and the threat of capture by Union troops--would surely test him.
Parker reminisced about that terrible last night in Richmond in his autobiographical Recollections of a Naval Officer (published in 1883): “At the depot, the scene I find hard to describe. [President Jefferson Davis’s] train was to precede mine, which was expected to be the last out of the city; both trains were packed not only inside, but on top, on the platforms, on the engine, everywhere, in fact, where standing-room could be found; and those who could not get that ‘hung on by their eyelids.’ I placed sentinels at the doors of the depot finally, and would not let another soul enter.
”...There was much delay with [our departure from Richmond]. Hour after hour passed and we did not move. The scenes about the depot were a harbinger of what was to come that night. The whiskey, which had been ‘started’ by the Provost guard, was running in the gutters, and men were getting drunk upon it. As is the case under such circumstances (I noticed it, too, at the evacuation of Norfolk), large numbers of ruffians suddenly sprang into existence, I suppose [they were] thieves, deserters, etc., who had been in hiding. These were the men who were now breaking into stores and searching for liquor.
“To add to the horror of the moment (I say horror, for we all had friends who had to be left behind), we now heard the explosions of the vessels and magazines, and this, with the screams and yells of the drunken demons in the streets, and the fires which were now breaking out in every direction, made it seem as though hell itself had broken loose.
“Towards midnight...our train started and crossed the bridges [of the Richmond-Danville line]; and after a short delay in Manchester we steamed away at the rate of some ten miles and hour.”
April 3-6, Danville, Va.
Capt. Parker and the Treasury train arrived at Danville the following afternoon, not long after President Davis’s train had arrived. Shunted to a siding, the Treasury train remained under Parker’s guard at Danville for three days. During this time President Davis, members of his cabinet, and others anxiously awaited news of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and clung to the hope of continuing the war. They had no way of knowing just how dire Lee’s position was, or how close to collapse the Confederacy had come.
Here at Danville we have the beginnings of one of the enduring mysteries surrounding the flight of the Treasury--the fate of 50 kegs of Mexican silver coins, worth $4,000 per keg back then. Parker states in his book that they did not unpack the assets from the treasure train, “except that taken for use by the government.” Of the actual amount he claimed to have no knowledge.
According to authors Wesley Millett and Gerald White in The Rebel and The Rose (Cumberland House, 2007), the kegs were taken off the train and hauled to the Bank of Danville, for unspecified reasons. Meanwhile the rest of the Treasury assets and private bank funds remained on the train under guard. Some Treasury money was apparently used to redeem Confederate paper money, with Treasury officials reportedly paying $1 in silver coin for $70 in paper money. There is no record of the total paid out, however.
Without Lee’s troops, defenses at Danville were pathetically weak and could not possibly hold, should Union troops attack. So concern about the safety of the Treasury mounted, and with no word on Lee’s fate, Confederate officials at Danville decided April 6 to send the Treasury on to the now unused mint at Charlotte, NC. Before leaving, Senior Teller Walter Philbrook made the first official tally of the remaining Treasury bullion and coins--a total of $327,022.90.
Here’s where the plot thickens regarding the Spanish silver. According to Millett and White, just 10 of the 50 kegs of Spanish silver were returned to the train before it left, and one other was apparently used to redeem Confederate paper money in Danville. The fate of the other 39 kegs, which would not have been included in Philbrook’s tally, is a matter of much speculation. If they actually existed, they would have been worth $156,000 then and could have been left in Danville to pay Lee’s Army, which, it was hoped, would make its way there.
Millett and White mention a theory that the silver was buried under what is now a graveyard in Danville and never recovered. Modern day treasure hunters claim to have evidence from sophisticated electronic equipment that a large quantity of metal is buried there, but Danville city officials have so far refused to allow digging.
April 7, Greensboro, NC
On the way to Charlotte, the Treasury train made one stop, at Greensboro, NC. A payroll of $39,000 was issued to Gen. Joseph Johnston and his troops. Johnston still had not surrendered (he held out until April 18th). Another $35,000 in gold sovereigns was issued to Pres. Davis. Though it remained with his baggage, he never took personal possession of it.
April 8-11, Charlotte, NC
“We reached Charlotte about the 8th,” Parker wrote, “and I deposited the money in the mint as directed...I thought I was rid of it forever.”
He would not be so fortunate, and he might have imagined why. Only he and sixty young midshipmen stood between the Treasury’s precious horde and anyone brazen enough to try taking it in the confusion of the Confederacy’s last days. That is if the Union soldiers didn’t get it first.
Parker’s first hint of things to come arose soon after arriving at Charlotte. After overseeing the laborious process of offloading the Treasury money and records from the train, he tried reporting by telegraph to his commanding officer, Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory, who was thought to be back in Danville. But the lines were down. At first Parker was unsure what to do, because he feared that federal troops had cut the lines and might soon arrive in Charlotte. Finally, on his own authority, he decided to move the Treasury farther south to Macon, Georgia.
Parker had no way of knowing that on April 10, Davis received word of Lee’s surrender and decamped southward by rail from Danville. The remnants of the Confederate government were on the move now, and soon so would the Treasury, but neither knew in what direction or toward what destination the other headed.
On April 11, with his guard unit bolstered by an additional 90 or so other Confederate navy men from Portsmouth, VA, Capt. Parker had the unwieldy Treasury cargo of money, records, and private bank assets loaded back onto the train for the journey southwest to Macon. The first stop on the way was Chester, SC.
April 12, Chester, SC
At Chester, the lack of rail connections heading southwest toward Macon forced Parker to resort to wagons and an overland trek to reach the next stop, Newberry, GA. Once they reached Newberry, secure rail lines would take them the rest of the way to Macon. Before leaving on the harrowing overland march, Parker wrote: “I here published orders regulating our march, declared martial law, and made every man carry a musket. I had about 150 fighting men under my command [now], and expected, if attacked, that we could give a good account of ourselves.... The next morning early we took up the line of march... All hands were on foot, myself included, and I gave strict orders that no man should ride, unless sick.”
April 14, Newberry, SC
“That afternoon we arrived...after a march of twelve hours duration,” Parker tells us. “We had marched rapidly, as we supposed General Stoneman to be in pursuit with his cavalry. I left rear guards at every bridge we crossed, to be ready to burn it if necessary to check a pursuit. I am not sure now whether General Stoneman ...was after us or not ; but we thought at the time he would get news of the treasure at Charlotte and follow us.
“During the march I never allowed any one to pass us on the road, and yet the coming of the treasure was known at every village we passed through. How this should be was beyond my comprehension. I leave it to metaphysicians to solve....”
The Greenville & Columbia Railroad at Newberry offered a respite from the hardships of the overland trek. Parker--still without orders--soon had the Treasury cargo loaded onto a train bound for Abbeville, SC, 45 miles to the west. As Parker steamed toward Abbeville with his entourage on April 15, he had no way of knowing a beleaguered, now ex-Gen. Robert E. Lee, had that same day returned to his home in Richmond.
Lee’s son, Robert E. Lee, Jr., later described the poignant scene as his father rode into the city on his horse Traveller: “The people there soon recognized him; men, women, and children crowded around him, cheering and waving hats and handkerchiefs. It was more like the welcome to a conqueror than to a defeated prisoner on parole. He raised his hat in response to their greetings, and rode quietly to his home on Franklin Street, where my mother and sisters were anxiously awaiting him. Thus he returned to that private family life for which he had always longed, and became what he always desired to be--a peaceful citizen in a peaceful land.”
April 16, Abbeville, SC
The war was far from over for Capt. Parker and others, however. There would be no glory, though, only difficult decisions in the face of impossible odds.
The Treasury train arrived at Abbeville by midnight on the 15th, and the next morning Parker had everything loaded back onto wagons for a 40-mile trek almost due south to Washington, GA. Along the way southward it seems likely Parker heard news of Lee’s surrender. Parker wrote: “We formed a wagon train again here and set off across the country for Washington, Georgia. The news we got at different places along the route was bad. Unmerciful disaster followed fast and followed faster. We ‘lightened ship’ as we went along--throwing away books, stationery and even, as we heard the worst news, Confederate money. One could have traced us by these marks and formed an idea of the character of the news we were in receipt of. From Abbeville to Washington is about 40 miles, and we made a two days march of it.”
April 17, Washington, Ga.
After crossing the Savannah River by means of a pontoon bridge near Vienna, SC, Parker’s wagon train reached Washington, GA, a picturesque plantation town. Treasury and bank assets were unloaded and stowed in a former Bank of Georgia building on the town square.
“At Washington we had an abundance of provisions,” Parker wrote. “Our coffee and sugar was as good as gold, and by trading it for eggs, butter, poultry and milk, we managed to keep up an excellent mess. All the men, teamsters and all, were allowed plenty of bacon, coffee and sugar, and if they were ragged, they were at all events ‘fat and saucy.’”
Unfortunately for Parker, he now received news that Federal troops had captured Macon, his original goal. Augusta became his new objective and the next day, Parker and his men loaded the Treasury and bank assets onto rail cars for transport by the Georgia RR line to Augusta.
April 18, Augusta, Ga.
Parker arrived at Augusta only to find out the city was about to fall to Union troops. He also learned of Pres. Lincoln’s assassination, and no doubt worried about the repercussions for the South, as many others did. With Lee’s surrender and Union troops closing in, the situation was now truly desperate, but Parker refused to relent in his duty, and soon decided what his next move would be.
“The simple fact is that I had made up my mind to hand the treasure over to President Davis,” Parker tells us, “if it were in the power of one man to do so. I sought no advice on that point. The money had been confided to my keeping, and I determined to hold it as long as the war lasted.
“The war was not over, as some in Augusta would have had me to believe. So long as an army remained in the field, the war to me existed. I knew that it must be soon over; but what I mean to express is, that until I knew that General Johnston, under whose command I now considered myself, had surrendered, my duty was plain to me.
“Whilst in Augusta, and afterwards, I was advised by certain persons to divide the money out, as the war was over, and it would otherwise fall into the hands of the Federal troops. I was told that we would be attacked by our own men, and might, at the very end of the war, fall by the hands of our friends. To this I made but one reply: The treasure had been put in my keeping, and I would hold it until I met President Davis; and that, if necessary, the command would be killed in the defense of it. My officers and men stood firmly by me in this, and all advances were met by a quiet reply to this effect.”
April 23-28, The Return to Washington, Ga.
Abandoning Augusta, Parker and the Treasury returned to Washington, GA, by train on the 23rd. Now set in his plan to deliver the Treasury to Pres. Davis himself, Capt. Parker still had one serious problem. He had no way of knowing where Davis and his entourage was. His best guess, however, was that Davis himself was heading south to Abbeville. So a few days after arriving at Washington, Parker ordered the Treasury assets transferred to wagons again for transit to Abbeville.
The private bank assets, which had always been kept separate from the Treasury funds, were at this time deposited in the old Bank of Georgia building, by order of Judge William Crump, the Confederate Treasury Assistant Secretary and the senior civilian traveling with Parker. That $450,000 in coins would remain there until confiscated by Federal troops in May.
Finally, on April 28, Parker’s wagon train left for Abbeville, arriving there in the afternoon the following day.
Clearly, matters were coming to a head. Parker knew his duty and had his objective now, but where was President Davis? What is more, Federal troops seemed to be on his doorstep, and there was the very real problem of protecting the Treasury from hordes of paroled Confederate soldiers. Would Parker be able to live up to his promise of delivering the Treasury to Davis himself?
April 29-May 2, Abbeville, SC
“We arrived at Abbeville,” Parker wrote, “... and here I stored the treasure in a warehouse on the public square, and placed a guard over it as before. I also kept a strong patrol in the town, which was now full of General Lee’s paroled soldiers on their way to their homes. Threats were frequently made by these men to seize the money, but they always received the same reply....”
“[One evening] a paroled officer...approached me and said he had information that the paroled men intended to attack the treasure that night....” Capt. Parker responded to the threat with his usual determination. Said he: “I thanked him and went to my quarters, where I issued orders to double the guard and patrol. Everything seeming to be in a state of quietude, I retired about midnight...About 3 o’clock in the morning, Lieutenant Peek, the officer of the guard, tapped at my window. I can hear him now: ‘Captain,’ said he in a low voice, ‘the Yankees are coming.’”
“Upon inquiry I learned that a detachment of Federal cavalry had captured two gentlemen at Anderson, about thirty miles distant the evening before. One of the gentleman had escaped and brought the news to Abbeville, and as Mr. Peek told me, ‘[he] thought the Federals would arrive about daylight.’ I immediately called all hands and packed the money in the cars, and by daybreak had everybody on the train in readiness to move. [But] I walked the platform in thought, for I had not quite decided to run. About sunrise we saw a company of cavalry winding down the hills in the distance, and I sent out two scouts, who shortly returned with the information that it was the advance guard of President Davis’s escort.” One can certainly imagine the relief that must have overcome Parker at that moment.
April 30-May 2, Davis at Abbeville
Upon arrival of Pres. Davis’ party at Abbeville, Navy Secretary Mallory formally relieved Parker of his command and disbanded the Corps of Midshipmen, ending their 30-day odyssey. Parker eventually took his parole and with his wife returned to Norfolk. But not before playing what appears to be an important role in Pres. Davis’s plans for the Confederacy.
Parker remembered that final day of his command in his autobiography: “By order of Secretary Mallory, I transferred the treasure to Capt. Micajah Clark, and by him was instructed to deliver it to the care of General Basil Duke, which I did at the railroad station. By Mr. Mallory’s order I then immediately disbanded my command...The midshipmen left in detached parties, and an hour after President Davis’s arrival, the organization was one of the things of the past.
“...And here I must pay a tribute to the midshipmen who stood by me for so many anxious days; their training and discipline showed itself conspicuously during that time, the best sentinels in the world, cool and decided in their replies, prompt in action, and brave in danger, their conduct always merited my approbation and excited my admiration. During the march across South Carolina, foot-sore and ragged as they had become by that time, no murmur escaped them, and they never faltered.... They were staunch to the last, and verified the adage that ‘blood will tell.’”
The situation was rapidly deteriorating at this point, and after Parker’s departure, those dire circumstances, which he had somehow managed to keep at bay, would soon converge on the ragged remains of the Confederacy. As Parker himself observed at Abbeville, the collapse of the Confederate government was near.
“Mr. Davis had with him four skeleton brigades of cavalry....Many of the men traveled with him, I believe, to get their rations. Some of them were throwing away or selling their arms, as they looked upon the war as over. There were many noble spirits among them who were ready, and anxious, to follow and defend the President to the death, but the force taken as an organization was demoralized.
“...In addition to the four brigades of cavalry, the President had in company more Brigadier-Generals than I thought were in the army. Many of them had ambulances and wagons, and the train must have been several miles long. It seemed to me that it was half a day coming in.
“...[At Abbeville President Davis’s] deportment was singularly quiet and dignified....he showed no signs of despondency. His air was resolute; and he looked, as he is, a born leader of men.” Parker went on to describe a private meeting with Davis, who at this point planned to remain in Abbeville for four days. Parker warned Davis that: “...his capture [was] inevitable if he prolonged his stay. [Davis] replied [to me] that he would never desert the Southern people...[and] gave me to understand that he would not take any step which might be construed into an inglorious flight. He was most impressive on this point. The mere idea that he might be looked upon as fleeing, seemed to arouse him. He got up and paced the floor, and repeated several times that he would never abandon his people.
“I stuck to my text; said I: ‘Mr. President, if you remain here you will be captured. You have about you only a few demoralized soldiers, and a train of camp followers three miles long. You will be captured, and you know how we will all feel that. It is your duty to the Southern people not to allow yourself to be made a prisoner. Leave now with a few followers and cross the Mississippi, as you express a desire to do eventually, and there again raise the standard.’”
But Davis refused Parker’s entreaties. At an afternoon session with military commanders in his camp, including Gen. Breckinridge, Davis asked for their assessment. Their consensus was that the war was lost, that continuing it west of the Mississippi as Davis hoped, was not feasible, and that Davis should leave the country as soon as possible. Upon hearing that, Davis seemed to finally accept the hopelessness of the military situation east of the Mississippi, but he appeared to remain determined to somehow reestablish the Confederacy in the west.
That evening, Secretary of State Judah Benjamin begged Parker to again talk with Pres. Davis. Parker remembered: “I found Mr. Davis alone as before...I remained some time, and saw that he had a better appreciation of the condition of affairs in Georgia than when I had seen him in the morning.
“I proposed to him that he should leave Abbeville with four naval officers, (of whom I was to be one) and escape to the east coast of Florida. The object of taking naval officers was that they might seize a vessel of some kind and get to Cuba or the Bahamas; but this he rejected.
I left the President at 9 o’clock, and as I went out, he sent one of his aid[e]s to call the Cabinet together. I went to my quarters, and not long after received a note from Mr. Mallory saying they would leave that night... About 11 o’clock, the President and his escort left Abbeville for Washington, Ga.” Capt. Parker was not among them. His duty now done, he joined the multitude of former Confederates now returning to their homes, eventually making his way back to Norfolk, VA.
May 2-3, The Near Mutiny
On his watch, Capt. Parker heard and rebuffed repeated threats from paroled officers against the Treasury assets, but never from within his ranks. His successor would not be so fortunate.
The job of safeguarding the Treasury now fell to Secy. of War Gen. John Breckinridge and some 4,000 cavalrymen, a force at last appropriate to the task of guarding the remains of the Treasury. Gen. Breckinridge ordered the Treasury taken off the train and loaded onto wagons for transit to Washington.
After crossing the Savannah River by pontoon bridge on May 3, the wagon train encamped at the Mrs. J.D. Moss house in Georgia. That night, matters came to a head. A near mutiny erupted over the Treasury assets, with the cavalrymen arguing that they were owed back pay and that they wouldn’t receive any of it, if Federal troops captured the Treasury. Breckinridge had no choice. He agreed to pay the cavalrymen about $26 each, a total of about $108,322, even though he didn’t have the authority to do so.
That authority would be granted later, after the fact. Meanwhile, the payout left the Treasury with something less than $145,000.
Unbeknownst to Gen. Breckinridge or any other Confederate for that matter, payments were unwittingly made to the 20 Union cavalrymen posing as Confederates in President Davis’ escort. The 20 had been detached from the First Ohio Cavalry to track Davis’ movements. They later received part of the reward for Davis’ capture.
May 3-4, Final Disbursals at Washington, Ga.
Pres. Davis meanwhile arrived in Washington, GA, on the third. Acknowledging the inevitable, he held a rump cabinet meeting in the old Bank of Georgia building, at which he oversaw the last two official acts of his doomed government, and then officially dissolved the Confederate States of America. In the first of the two acts, Major Raphael Moses was ordered to distribute $40,000 of Treasury funds to returning soldiers at Augusta, GA. Then Capt. Micajah Clark was appointed Acting Treasurer to take care of what remained of the Confederate assets.
Davis departed Washington on May 4, riding almost due south toward the Florida border with a small escort. Capt. Micajah Clark took charge of wagons loaded with Davis’s baggage and the $35,000 in gold sovereigns. He was to catch up with Davis after making final payouts of the Treasury at Washington.
Later on May 4, Breckinridge’s cavalry arrived outside Washington with the remaining Treasury assets (minus the chest of silver jewelry donated for the building of an ironclad; that had been left at the Moss house and was later confiscated by federal troops). Now in the Confederate encampment outside Washington, Acting Treasurer Capt. Clark paid out $56,116 to cabinet members, officers, soldiers, and others gathered there. Another $2,600 went to unreported miscellaneous expenses.
The remaining $86,000 in gold was issued in the hope the Confederacy might live on in the west. To that end, Clark turned over the gold coins and bullion to Navy Paymaster, Lt. Cdr. James A. Semple. Semple, accompanied by Navy Chief Clerk Edward Tidball, was ordered to hide the $86,000 in the false bottom of a carriage and take it to Charleston or Savannah. From there he was to ship the gold to Bermuda or Nassau, and thence to Liverpool, England, for deposit in an account for the Confederacy.
Meanwhile, the Washington town square that evening became the scene of an eerie bonfire. Major Moses, with Gen. Breckinridge and Acting Secy. of the Treasury John Reagan looking on, set fire to the $600-$700 million of Confederate Treasury notes, as well as all the remaining paper money and Treasury documents. Reagan took the English acceptances (worth 16-18,000 pounds) with him when he left Washington to catch up with Davis.
Capt. Clark remembered those last hours in Washington: “An impression has prevailed with some that on that last day great demoralization, confusion and panic existed. Such was not so. The soldiers were orderly, and though the town was filled with men under no command, there was no rioting or violence...it seemed to me as if a gloomy pall hung in the atmosphere repressing active expression. [People]...realized that a government which had been strong and loved, the exponent of all their hopes and wishes, was, perhaps, dying the death before their eyes...an agony too great for words, with the bitterness of an almost despair filling all hearts, I rode into the darkness that night, as if from a death-bed.”
So, it would seem we’ve arrived at the end of the road--the Confederacy is officially dissolved, President Davis is now in a desperate attempt to escape capture by Union troops, the Treasury reserves are nearly gone, and but little hope for reviving the Confederacy remains. Still, there were plans afoot, and sums of money large and small were still to be had, should anyone decide to seize the opportunity.
On May 4, not long after dispersing the Treasury funds at Washington, Ga., Capt. Micajah Clark caught up with President Davis at Sandersville, GA. While at Sandersville, Davis decided to divide his much reduced entourage again. He continued almost due south, but sent Clark and the slower-moving wagons containing his baggage on a more southwesterly course toward Madison, FL, where both parties were to reunite.
Before departing, Clark paid out $9,840 for expenses of those in the president’s party from gold he had with him and the $35,000 in gold sovereigns in the president’s van. He also gave $3,500 to Secretary Reagan to carry in his saddlebags. Clark, now with just over $25,000 of Treasury money, headed for Madison.
Davis and his small escort made it only as far as Irwinville, GA. Shortly after dawn on May 10, Federal troops overran his camp, looted valuables, and arrested Davis and all but one member of Davis’s party (who managed to escape). Reagan was relieved of the $3,500 in Treasury gold, as well as another $2,000 of his own money, and the 16-18,000 pounds worth of English acceptances.
Meanwhile, Clark and his party continued south. By May 22 they passed west of Gainesville, FL, arriving that day at the plantation of a friend of President Davis’s. Learning of Davis’s capture, they decided their cause was lost. The men then agreed to split up the remaining Treasury funds in Clark’s possession. Each received $1,995, and after subtracting some additional miscellaneous expenses, $6,790 was set aside for Davis’s wife and her family.
Clark, returning from the aborted Florida escapade, had this to say: “The soldiers jingling their silver dollars on every road told the tale of the disbursement of the little Treasury, and I found on my return [from Florida, in June 1865] the wildest rumors through the country as to the amount it had contained. Five million dollars was the smallest amount mentioned....Federal detectives [were] swarming along the route we had traveled, hunting papers, the Treasury, and ‘the last man who had it in charge,’ for [they believed] an immense amount must have been secreted somewhere; $5 million to $15 million could not vanish in the air in a day.”
But, Clark argued, “...The old Confederates brought nothing out of the war, save honor, for God’s sake!, and the precious memory of the dead; let us preserve that untarnished, and defend it from slanderous insinuations.”
May 24, Temptation Will Out
As we’ve seen, the Confederate Treasury previously had been subjected to threats of robbery, only to be legitimately disbursed or otherwise spirited away. But there remained that other pot of gold and silver, the $450,000 in coins belonging to the private Richmond banks. It soon proved an entirely too enticing prize.
On May 5, a day after Davis had left Washington, federal troops took control of the town and seized all public assets, including the $40,000 Maj. Moses had for the care of returning soldiers. What is more important, they also confiscated the private bank assets, that $450,000. After determined entreaties, Federal officials at Richmond did finally agree that the bank assets should be returned to the Richmond banks. So, on May 24, five wagons left for Abbeville with the bank assets and four Richmond bank officials aboard.
Guarding the wagons was a small contingent of Fourth Iowa Cavalry, including, according to sources, a federal spy. The spy reportedly passed word of the route to some returning Confederate soldiers. They then trailed the wagon train until it encamped at Chennault, GA, that evening.
What is known for certain, is that about midnight, a gang of twenty robbers on horseback swept into the encampment, roused the sleeping escort, and put it to flight in the nearby woods. The robbers broke open the kegs of silver and gold coin, stuffing the booty into everything available--including their pant legs--before riding off into the night. They initially made off with just over $251,000 (about $5 million). Something like $40,000 in coins, which the robbers spilled on the ground, was recovered soon after. The remaining $160,000 on the wagon train eventually made its way to Richmond.
Meantime, however, ex-Confederate Gen. Edward Porter Alexander organized a posse of ex-Confederate soldiers and local men to recover the stolen bank funds. They arrested some of the thieves, until that is, the locals realized their neighbors were among them. Both sides drew guns as the situation became ugly, forcing Gen. Alexander to relent. He released the thieves, taking them at their word they would return the money the next day.
Gen. Alexander did recover some $70,000 from robbers and local citizens (including former
slaves), which he deposited in the old Bank of Georgia building at Washington, along with the $40,000 picked up from the ground. While $111,000 was thus recovered, the thieves had made off with about $179,000. No one knows what happened to that money, and speculation, never proved, has the thieves stashing it in various ways--under fence posts, in creeks, and in the woods--to be retrieved later.
July 1865, The Wild Man
The war might officially be over, but the bitterness aroused on both sides by the bloody conflict would linger. As the Confederacy collapsed around them, Southerners had good reason to worry that the victorious Northerners might treat the South harshly during Reconstruction. Then after President Lincoln’s assassination by a Confederate sympathizer, that possibility became all but a certainty. For a small group of Southerners, Union Gen. Edward Wild would prove to be a harbinger of hard times to come.
For his part, Brig. Gen. Wild was an ardent abolitionist who had lost an arm fighting the Confederates and probably had no great love for the South. He traveled to Washington, GA in July, 1865, as an agent for the Federal Freeman’s Bureau. Not long after arriving, he confiscated the $111,000 in private bank funds left at Washington for use by the Freedmen’s Bureau. Then, learning of the robbery at Chennault, he and Lt. William Seaton organized a search party of 12 African-American soldiers to recover the stolen $179,000.
The soldiers and local vigilantes soon ran amuck though, and took to looting of homes of local citizens, especially those of former slaves. They also seized the chest of silver jewelry--part of the Confederate Treasury assets--from the home of Mrs. J. D. Moss, where it had been left for safekeeping.
Next they raided the John Chennault house, site of the robbery. Suspecting the men of the Chennault family took part in the robbery, Wild and his raiders rounded them up, along with a male servant. Then, to force them talk, he reportedly had them strung up with their hands tied behind their backs. Adding to those outrages, the Chennault women were said to have been strip searched by a maid, while Lt. Seaton watched.
Even though Wild’s tactics produced no information about the robbery, he nevertheless seized the Chennaults’ valuables, and held them under arrest at the Washington courthouse for ten days. News of Wild’s rampage finally reached Maj. Gen. John Steedman, USA, at Augusta. On July 31, he arrested Wild and released the Chennaults. The Chennaults reclaimed their property, but the chest of jewelry remained in Federal custody, and disappeared shortly thereafter, never to be heard of again.
The fate of the $111,000 of recovered private bank funds didn’t end there either. Bank officials initially won permission to recover it, but first Pres. Andrew Johnson, and then Congress itself blocked the return in March 1867. A suit to recover the money languished in the U.S. Court of Claims until 1893. The Court finally decided to divide the $111,000 between the claimants and the federal government, because a part of the money was subject to confiscation by the federal government. It turned out that in March 1865, the private banks had taken part in a $300,000 loan to the state of Virginia, intended to supply Gen. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The federal government got $78,276.49; the claimants a paltry $16,987.88--28 years after the robbery.
1865-67, The Semple Solution
We return now to 1865 and the fate of the $86,000 entrusted to Lt. Cdr. Semple. In war, as in peace, passions die hard. Semple’s mission as originally planned was a last, desperate attempt to provide funds for a revived Confederacy, should that come to pass. Will Semple and his compatriot succeed in spiriting this gold to foreign shores? Or will they be caught and arrested by Union troops now swarming across the South? In fact, the fate of this horde of Treasury money will not be so simple, and is still something of a mystery today. What we know now authors Millett and White largely pieced together from later correspondence and recounted in The Rebel and The Rose.
According to Millett and White, Semple and Tidball succeeded in getting their hidden cargo of gold only as far as Augusta. There they met with Varina Davis’ brother, William Howell. Howell had worked under Semple as a civilian purchasing agent for the Navy. Perhaps it was the hopeless state of the Confederacy, the thought that the federal government would eventually claim the money, or just the temptation of all that gold, but Semple decided to ignore his orders and split up the horde. Tidball got $27,000 in gold coins, Howell $25,000 in gold bullion, and Semple $34,000 in gold coins. Then they went their separate ways.
Tidball managed to get his gold safely to Winchester, VA, and in 1867 bought land and built a farm there--most likely with the Confederate gold. Semple split up his share and left it in the care of trusted friends in Savannah, while he travelled incognito for some months to avoid arrest. Howell, meanwhile, decamped from Augusta for Montreal, Canada, taking with him his mother and Varina Davis’s children. Howell apparently used the gold to support his family and begin a new business in Montreal, though Semple may have retrieved part that horde.
Semple eventually used his gold to pursue a desperate plan to help the South, that of drawing the United States into a war with Britain. In a war, Semple believed, the North would need the South, and therefore be forced to lift the harsh terms of the Reconstruction. So, for the next couple of years, Semple worked with the Fenian Movement, a secret group of Irish immigrants in America and Canada. The Fenians hoped to raise an army to drive the British out of Ireland. The British government, of course, was none too pleased that the U.S. government was doing little to impede the Fenians. This, along with other issues raised tensions between the two countries to a point where, for a while, war seemed a possibility.
According to authors Millet and White, Semple travelled the country on behalf of the Fenians, perhaps as a courier, and apparently spent what was probably a large part of his Confederate gold. Another part, according to Millett and White, he gave to his friend and lover, Julia Gardiner Tyler--former Pres. John Tyler’s widow. After two years or so, Semple reportedly became ill and discouraged with the Fenian plot. With most or all his gold spent, he thereafter settled into relative obscurity in Virginia, until his death in 1883.
Lingering Mystery
Accounting for that $86,000 in gold closes the final chapter in the story of the Confederate Treasury’s last days. Virtually all of the known Treasury funds have been accounted for in one way or another with at least a reasonable degree of certainty, the greater part having been expended for what would be considered legitimate expenditures at the close of the war. Indeed, only a small part of that Treasury horde was ever recovered by the Federal Government. But the whereabouts of two big caches remain in question: the 39 kegs of Spanish reales--worth something like $16 million today, if in fact they ever existed; and the $179,000 in stolen private bank funds--traveling companions, but not legitimately part of the Treasury. And then there is that missing chest of donated jewelry that disappeared while in Federal hands. We may never know the fate of these riches, but then that's what keeps the lore of lost Civil War treasure alive for treasurer hunters--and for writers like me.
--------------
Bruce Wetterau is the author of Lost Treasure, A Clay Cantrell Mystery Adventure, a novel about the hunt for a horde of Confederate gold and the story of how it came to be lost in a cavern in the Allegheny Mountains. Wetterau is also the author of a second novel and eleven reference books, including World History, A Dictionary of People, Places & Events . Visit his website, www.brucewetterau.com
[1] Most, but not all monetary amounts, and modern equivalents are based on those presented in two very good monographs by Marshall P. Waters, PhD: Confederate Treasury--Final Disposition; The Missing Confederate Gold, Raid at Chennault, Georgia, May 24, 1865. Both were published by The Surrat Courier, a newsletter published by the Maryland Surrat Society.
The Confederate Treasury’s Daring Flight From Capture In The Last Days Of The Civil War
By Bruce Wetterau
History books tell us the Civil War ended with the surrender of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. That was the fatal blow, but wars and governments, like the body human, have interconnected parts that can live on for a time. So it was with the remnants of the once proud Confederate Army, the Confederate government itself, and the lifeblood of governments everywhere, its Treasury. The remnants of that Confederate Treasury fled Richmond, VA, then the Confederate capital, just ahead of the Union’s successful drive to capture the city and remained on the run from Union troops for weeks in April and May of 1865. In fact, most of the Treasury’s horde of gold and silver--it’s “hard currency” reserves--never was captured by Union soldiers. It simply disappeared.
Rumors and speculation about the fate of the Treasury money continued for years afterward, and today, over 150 years later, unanswered questions still linger. And how could it be otherwise? The glitter of gold arouses powerful emotions in us, and the disappearance of so large a sum inevitably stirs the imagination. What happened to all that money? How could hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of dollars, just disappear?
Disappear it did though, and what really happened to the Confederate Treasury reserves is quite a story. But something else was disappearing then too--the Confederacy, the cause that had
sustained the South for nearly five tumultuous years. Those two stories are inextricably bound together. So, while following the trail of the Treasury’s gold and silver, we will also learn something of the last, labored breaths of the Confederacy, as seen through the eyes of those who lived them. To say the least, these were not happy times for anyone loyal to the old South. There was no glory then, only hard choices and desperate circumstances. But it is history all the same.
The fall of Richmond on Sunday, April 2, 1865, marked the beginning of the end for the Confederacy, and the beginning of the Treasury’s odyssey. By that fateful night, Richmond had somehow withstood 10 months of strangling Union siege. Now it was in flames, lit not by the Yankees, but by the Confederates themselves--to deny arms and supplies to the enemy. That evening, Gen. Robert E. Lee led the tattered remains of his Army of Northern Virginia--something like 35,000 men--through Union lines, and marched westward toward Lynchburg. Later that night, the Confederate government began moving southwestward by the last secure railroad, the Richmond-Danville line, to a temporary capital in the small farming town of Danville, VA.
What mystery that lies at the heart of the Treasury story begins here: We don’t know exactly how much gold and other money was hurriedly loaded onto to the train, because the decision to abandon Richmond came so suddenly that Sunday morning. But sources[1] generally put the Treasury assets at no more than $500,000 in coins and bullion (worth about $10 million in 2007 dollars), $600-700 million face value of Confederate Treasury notes, millions in face value of Confederate paper money and bonds, a batch of English acceptances worth 16-18,000 pounds sterling, a chest of silver jewelry donated by Confederate women for the building of an ironclad, and floor sweepings from a Georgia mint. In addition there were government documents, and more importantly the assets of six private Richmond banks. Packed in kegs, the banks’ silver and gold coins were worth about $450,000 ($9 million in 2007 dollars), and later also played a part in the Treasury story.
The sum total of Confederate Treasury hard currency may seem small for a national treasury, and in the weeks after Lee’s surrender, the Federal government fueled wild speculation that millions were missing--possibly as much as $10 to $15 million in Treasury bullion and coins. No doubt the federal government hoped to spur efforts to recover as much Confederate Treasury hard currency as possible. But the plain fact is that the Confederacy was probably much nearer to being broke than the Federal government realized. The cost of waging war, steady losses of economic resources to Union armies, and the successful Union naval blockade had withered the Confederate economy and drained the Treasury by 1865.
While loading the Treasury train that Sunday, officials hastily assembled force of 60 armed Confederate Naval Academy midshipmen, youngsters really, aged just 14-18 years old, and dispatched them to guard the train’s precious cargo. Capt. William Parker, Superintendent of the Confederate Naval Academy, commanded the midshipmen, who until that fateful day had lived aboard the side-wheel steamer Patrick Henry, the academy’s school ship moored in the James River at Richmond.
Fortunately for the safety of the Treasury, Capt. Parker (shown at left) was a soldier’s soldier, a man endowed with both a strong will and an unshakeable sense of duty. He was a leader who commanded the respect of his midshipmen, as well as others who later joined his guard. Once Capt. Parker decided on his course of action, his determination never wavered, though events yet to come--the Confederacy collapsing around him and the threat of capture by Union troops--would surely test him.
Parker reminisced about that terrible last night in Richmond in his autobiographical Recollections of a Naval Officer (published in 1883): “At the depot, the scene I find hard to describe. [President Jefferson Davis’s] train was to precede mine, which was expected to be the last out of the city; both trains were packed not only inside, but on top, on the platforms, on the engine, everywhere, in fact, where standing-room could be found; and those who could not get that ‘hung on by their eyelids.’ I placed sentinels at the doors of the depot finally, and would not let another soul enter.
”...There was much delay with [our departure from Richmond]. Hour after hour passed and we did not move. The scenes about the depot were a harbinger of what was to come that night. The whiskey, which had been ‘started’ by the Provost guard, was running in the gutters, and men were getting drunk upon it. As is the case under such circumstances (I noticed it, too, at the evacuation of Norfolk), large numbers of ruffians suddenly sprang into existence, I suppose [they were] thieves, deserters, etc., who had been in hiding. These were the men who were now breaking into stores and searching for liquor.
“To add to the horror of the moment (I say horror, for we all had friends who had to be left behind), we now heard the explosions of the vessels and magazines, and this, with the screams and yells of the drunken demons in the streets, and the fires which were now breaking out in every direction, made it seem as though hell itself had broken loose.
“Towards midnight...our train started and crossed the bridges [of the Richmond-Danville line]; and after a short delay in Manchester we steamed away at the rate of some ten miles and hour.”
April 3-6, Danville, Va.
Capt. Parker and the Treasury train arrived at Danville the following afternoon, not long after President Davis’s train had arrived. Shunted to a siding, the Treasury train remained under Parker’s guard at Danville for three days. During this time President Davis, members of his cabinet, and others anxiously awaited news of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and clung to the hope of continuing the war. They had no way of knowing just how dire Lee’s position was, or how close to collapse the Confederacy had come.
Here at Danville we have the beginnings of one of the enduring mysteries surrounding the flight of the Treasury--the fate of 50 kegs of Mexican silver coins, worth $4,000 per keg back then. Parker states in his book that they did not unpack the assets from the treasure train, “except that taken for use by the government.” Of the actual amount he claimed to have no knowledge.
According to authors Wesley Millett and Gerald White in The Rebel and The Rose (Cumberland House, 2007), the kegs were taken off the train and hauled to the Bank of Danville, for unspecified reasons. Meanwhile the rest of the Treasury assets and private bank funds remained on the train under guard. Some Treasury money was apparently used to redeem Confederate paper money, with Treasury officials reportedly paying $1 in silver coin for $70 in paper money. There is no record of the total paid out, however.
Without Lee’s troops, defenses at Danville were pathetically weak and could not possibly hold, should Union troops attack. So concern about the safety of the Treasury mounted, and with no word on Lee’s fate, Confederate officials at Danville decided April 6 to send the Treasury on to the now unused mint at Charlotte, NC. Before leaving, Senior Teller Walter Philbrook made the first official tally of the remaining Treasury bullion and coins--a total of $327,022.90.
Here’s where the plot thickens regarding the Spanish silver. According to Millett and White, just 10 of the 50 kegs of Spanish silver were returned to the train before it left, and one other was apparently used to redeem Confederate paper money in Danville. The fate of the other 39 kegs, which would not have been included in Philbrook’s tally, is a matter of much speculation. If they actually existed, they would have been worth $156,000 then and could have been left in Danville to pay Lee’s Army, which, it was hoped, would make its way there.
Millett and White mention a theory that the silver was buried under what is now a graveyard in Danville and never recovered. Modern day treasure hunters claim to have evidence from sophisticated electronic equipment that a large quantity of metal is buried there, but Danville city officials have so far refused to allow digging.
April 7, Greensboro, NC
On the way to Charlotte, the Treasury train made one stop, at Greensboro, NC. A payroll of $39,000 was issued to Gen. Joseph Johnston and his troops. Johnston still had not surrendered (he held out until April 18th). Another $35,000 in gold sovereigns was issued to Pres. Davis. Though it remained with his baggage, he never took personal possession of it.
April 8-11, Charlotte, NC
“We reached Charlotte about the 8th,” Parker wrote, “and I deposited the money in the mint as directed...I thought I was rid of it forever.”
He would not be so fortunate, and he might have imagined why. Only he and sixty young midshipmen stood between the Treasury’s precious horde and anyone brazen enough to try taking it in the confusion of the Confederacy’s last days. That is if the Union soldiers didn’t get it first.
Parker’s first hint of things to come arose soon after arriving at Charlotte. After overseeing the laborious process of offloading the Treasury money and records from the train, he tried reporting by telegraph to his commanding officer, Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory, who was thought to be back in Danville. But the lines were down. At first Parker was unsure what to do, because he feared that federal troops had cut the lines and might soon arrive in Charlotte. Finally, on his own authority, he decided to move the Treasury farther south to Macon, Georgia.
Parker had no way of knowing that on April 10, Davis received word of Lee’s surrender and decamped southward by rail from Danville. The remnants of the Confederate government were on the move now, and soon so would the Treasury, but neither knew in what direction or toward what destination the other headed.
On April 11, with his guard unit bolstered by an additional 90 or so other Confederate navy men from Portsmouth, VA, Capt. Parker had the unwieldy Treasury cargo of money, records, and private bank assets loaded back onto the train for the journey southwest to Macon. The first stop on the way was Chester, SC.
April 12, Chester, SC
At Chester, the lack of rail connections heading southwest toward Macon forced Parker to resort to wagons and an overland trek to reach the next stop, Newberry, GA. Once they reached Newberry, secure rail lines would take them the rest of the way to Macon. Before leaving on the harrowing overland march, Parker wrote: “I here published orders regulating our march, declared martial law, and made every man carry a musket. I had about 150 fighting men under my command [now], and expected, if attacked, that we could give a good account of ourselves.... The next morning early we took up the line of march... All hands were on foot, myself included, and I gave strict orders that no man should ride, unless sick.”
April 14, Newberry, SC
“That afternoon we arrived...after a march of twelve hours duration,” Parker tells us. “We had marched rapidly, as we supposed General Stoneman to be in pursuit with his cavalry. I left rear guards at every bridge we crossed, to be ready to burn it if necessary to check a pursuit. I am not sure now whether General Stoneman ...was after us or not ; but we thought at the time he would get news of the treasure at Charlotte and follow us.
“During the march I never allowed any one to pass us on the road, and yet the coming of the treasure was known at every village we passed through. How this should be was beyond my comprehension. I leave it to metaphysicians to solve....”
The Greenville & Columbia Railroad at Newberry offered a respite from the hardships of the overland trek. Parker--still without orders--soon had the Treasury cargo loaded onto a train bound for Abbeville, SC, 45 miles to the west. As Parker steamed toward Abbeville with his entourage on April 15, he had no way of knowing a beleaguered, now ex-Gen. Robert E. Lee, had that same day returned to his home in Richmond.
Lee’s son, Robert E. Lee, Jr., later described the poignant scene as his father rode into the city on his horse Traveller: “The people there soon recognized him; men, women, and children crowded around him, cheering and waving hats and handkerchiefs. It was more like the welcome to a conqueror than to a defeated prisoner on parole. He raised his hat in response to their greetings, and rode quietly to his home on Franklin Street, where my mother and sisters were anxiously awaiting him. Thus he returned to that private family life for which he had always longed, and became what he always desired to be--a peaceful citizen in a peaceful land.”
April 16, Abbeville, SC
The war was far from over for Capt. Parker and others, however. There would be no glory, though, only difficult decisions in the face of impossible odds.
The Treasury train arrived at Abbeville by midnight on the 15th, and the next morning Parker had everything loaded back onto wagons for a 40-mile trek almost due south to Washington, GA. Along the way southward it seems likely Parker heard news of Lee’s surrender. Parker wrote: “We formed a wagon train again here and set off across the country for Washington, Georgia. The news we got at different places along the route was bad. Unmerciful disaster followed fast and followed faster. We ‘lightened ship’ as we went along--throwing away books, stationery and even, as we heard the worst news, Confederate money. One could have traced us by these marks and formed an idea of the character of the news we were in receipt of. From Abbeville to Washington is about 40 miles, and we made a two days march of it.”
April 17, Washington, Ga.
After crossing the Savannah River by means of a pontoon bridge near Vienna, SC, Parker’s wagon train reached Washington, GA, a picturesque plantation town. Treasury and bank assets were unloaded and stowed in a former Bank of Georgia building on the town square.
“At Washington we had an abundance of provisions,” Parker wrote. “Our coffee and sugar was as good as gold, and by trading it for eggs, butter, poultry and milk, we managed to keep up an excellent mess. All the men, teamsters and all, were allowed plenty of bacon, coffee and sugar, and if they were ragged, they were at all events ‘fat and saucy.’”
Unfortunately for Parker, he now received news that Federal troops had captured Macon, his original goal. Augusta became his new objective and the next day, Parker and his men loaded the Treasury and bank assets onto rail cars for transport by the Georgia RR line to Augusta.
April 18, Augusta, Ga.
Parker arrived at Augusta only to find out the city was about to fall to Union troops. He also learned of Pres. Lincoln’s assassination, and no doubt worried about the repercussions for the South, as many others did. With Lee’s surrender and Union troops closing in, the situation was now truly desperate, but Parker refused to relent in his duty, and soon decided what his next move would be.
“The simple fact is that I had made up my mind to hand the treasure over to President Davis,” Parker tells us, “if it were in the power of one man to do so. I sought no advice on that point. The money had been confided to my keeping, and I determined to hold it as long as the war lasted.
“The war was not over, as some in Augusta would have had me to believe. So long as an army remained in the field, the war to me existed. I knew that it must be soon over; but what I mean to express is, that until I knew that General Johnston, under whose command I now considered myself, had surrendered, my duty was plain to me.
“Whilst in Augusta, and afterwards, I was advised by certain persons to divide the money out, as the war was over, and it would otherwise fall into the hands of the Federal troops. I was told that we would be attacked by our own men, and might, at the very end of the war, fall by the hands of our friends. To this I made but one reply: The treasure had been put in my keeping, and I would hold it until I met President Davis; and that, if necessary, the command would be killed in the defense of it. My officers and men stood firmly by me in this, and all advances were met by a quiet reply to this effect.”
April 23-28, The Return to Washington, Ga.
Abandoning Augusta, Parker and the Treasury returned to Washington, GA, by train on the 23rd. Now set in his plan to deliver the Treasury to Pres. Davis himself, Capt. Parker still had one serious problem. He had no way of knowing where Davis and his entourage was. His best guess, however, was that Davis himself was heading south to Abbeville. So a few days after arriving at Washington, Parker ordered the Treasury assets transferred to wagons again for transit to Abbeville.
The private bank assets, which had always been kept separate from the Treasury funds, were at this time deposited in the old Bank of Georgia building, by order of Judge William Crump, the Confederate Treasury Assistant Secretary and the senior civilian traveling with Parker. That $450,000 in coins would remain there until confiscated by Federal troops in May.
Finally, on April 28, Parker’s wagon train left for Abbeville, arriving there in the afternoon the following day.
Clearly, matters were coming to a head. Parker knew his duty and had his objective now, but where was President Davis? What is more, Federal troops seemed to be on his doorstep, and there was the very real problem of protecting the Treasury from hordes of paroled Confederate soldiers. Would Parker be able to live up to his promise of delivering the Treasury to Davis himself?
April 29-May 2, Abbeville, SC
“We arrived at Abbeville,” Parker wrote, “... and here I stored the treasure in a warehouse on the public square, and placed a guard over it as before. I also kept a strong patrol in the town, which was now full of General Lee’s paroled soldiers on their way to their homes. Threats were frequently made by these men to seize the money, but they always received the same reply....”
“[One evening] a paroled officer...approached me and said he had information that the paroled men intended to attack the treasure that night....” Capt. Parker responded to the threat with his usual determination. Said he: “I thanked him and went to my quarters, where I issued orders to double the guard and patrol. Everything seeming to be in a state of quietude, I retired about midnight...About 3 o’clock in the morning, Lieutenant Peek, the officer of the guard, tapped at my window. I can hear him now: ‘Captain,’ said he in a low voice, ‘the Yankees are coming.’”
“Upon inquiry I learned that a detachment of Federal cavalry had captured two gentlemen at Anderson, about thirty miles distant the evening before. One of the gentleman had escaped and brought the news to Abbeville, and as Mr. Peek told me, ‘[he] thought the Federals would arrive about daylight.’ I immediately called all hands and packed the money in the cars, and by daybreak had everybody on the train in readiness to move. [But] I walked the platform in thought, for I had not quite decided to run. About sunrise we saw a company of cavalry winding down the hills in the distance, and I sent out two scouts, who shortly returned with the information that it was the advance guard of President Davis’s escort.” One can certainly imagine the relief that must have overcome Parker at that moment.
April 30-May 2, Davis at Abbeville
Upon arrival of Pres. Davis’ party at Abbeville, Navy Secretary Mallory formally relieved Parker of his command and disbanded the Corps of Midshipmen, ending their 30-day odyssey. Parker eventually took his parole and with his wife returned to Norfolk. But not before playing what appears to be an important role in Pres. Davis’s plans for the Confederacy.
Parker remembered that final day of his command in his autobiography: “By order of Secretary Mallory, I transferred the treasure to Capt. Micajah Clark, and by him was instructed to deliver it to the care of General Basil Duke, which I did at the railroad station. By Mr. Mallory’s order I then immediately disbanded my command...The midshipmen left in detached parties, and an hour after President Davis’s arrival, the organization was one of the things of the past.
“...And here I must pay a tribute to the midshipmen who stood by me for so many anxious days; their training and discipline showed itself conspicuously during that time, the best sentinels in the world, cool and decided in their replies, prompt in action, and brave in danger, their conduct always merited my approbation and excited my admiration. During the march across South Carolina, foot-sore and ragged as they had become by that time, no murmur escaped them, and they never faltered.... They were staunch to the last, and verified the adage that ‘blood will tell.’”
The situation was rapidly deteriorating at this point, and after Parker’s departure, those dire circumstances, which he had somehow managed to keep at bay, would soon converge on the ragged remains of the Confederacy. As Parker himself observed at Abbeville, the collapse of the Confederate government was near.
“Mr. Davis had with him four skeleton brigades of cavalry....Many of the men traveled with him, I believe, to get their rations. Some of them were throwing away or selling their arms, as they looked upon the war as over. There were many noble spirits among them who were ready, and anxious, to follow and defend the President to the death, but the force taken as an organization was demoralized.
“...In addition to the four brigades of cavalry, the President had in company more Brigadier-Generals than I thought were in the army. Many of them had ambulances and wagons, and the train must have been several miles long. It seemed to me that it was half a day coming in.
“...[At Abbeville President Davis’s] deportment was singularly quiet and dignified....he showed no signs of despondency. His air was resolute; and he looked, as he is, a born leader of men.” Parker went on to describe a private meeting with Davis, who at this point planned to remain in Abbeville for four days. Parker warned Davis that: “...his capture [was] inevitable if he prolonged his stay. [Davis] replied [to me] that he would never desert the Southern people...[and] gave me to understand that he would not take any step which might be construed into an inglorious flight. He was most impressive on this point. The mere idea that he might be looked upon as fleeing, seemed to arouse him. He got up and paced the floor, and repeated several times that he would never abandon his people.
“I stuck to my text; said I: ‘Mr. President, if you remain here you will be captured. You have about you only a few demoralized soldiers, and a train of camp followers three miles long. You will be captured, and you know how we will all feel that. It is your duty to the Southern people not to allow yourself to be made a prisoner. Leave now with a few followers and cross the Mississippi, as you express a desire to do eventually, and there again raise the standard.’”
But Davis refused Parker’s entreaties. At an afternoon session with military commanders in his camp, including Gen. Breckinridge, Davis asked for their assessment. Their consensus was that the war was lost, that continuing it west of the Mississippi as Davis hoped, was not feasible, and that Davis should leave the country as soon as possible. Upon hearing that, Davis seemed to finally accept the hopelessness of the military situation east of the Mississippi, but he appeared to remain determined to somehow reestablish the Confederacy in the west.
That evening, Secretary of State Judah Benjamin begged Parker to again talk with Pres. Davis. Parker remembered: “I found Mr. Davis alone as before...I remained some time, and saw that he had a better appreciation of the condition of affairs in Georgia than when I had seen him in the morning.
“I proposed to him that he should leave Abbeville with four naval officers, (of whom I was to be one) and escape to the east coast of Florida. The object of taking naval officers was that they might seize a vessel of some kind and get to Cuba or the Bahamas; but this he rejected.
I left the President at 9 o’clock, and as I went out, he sent one of his aid[e]s to call the Cabinet together. I went to my quarters, and not long after received a note from Mr. Mallory saying they would leave that night... About 11 o’clock, the President and his escort left Abbeville for Washington, Ga.” Capt. Parker was not among them. His duty now done, he joined the multitude of former Confederates now returning to their homes, eventually making his way back to Norfolk, VA.
May 2-3, The Near Mutiny
On his watch, Capt. Parker heard and rebuffed repeated threats from paroled officers against the Treasury assets, but never from within his ranks. His successor would not be so fortunate.
The job of safeguarding the Treasury now fell to Secy. of War Gen. John Breckinridge and some 4,000 cavalrymen, a force at last appropriate to the task of guarding the remains of the Treasury. Gen. Breckinridge ordered the Treasury taken off the train and loaded onto wagons for transit to Washington.
After crossing the Savannah River by pontoon bridge on May 3, the wagon train encamped at the Mrs. J.D. Moss house in Georgia. That night, matters came to a head. A near mutiny erupted over the Treasury assets, with the cavalrymen arguing that they were owed back pay and that they wouldn’t receive any of it, if Federal troops captured the Treasury. Breckinridge had no choice. He agreed to pay the cavalrymen about $26 each, a total of about $108,322, even though he didn’t have the authority to do so.
That authority would be granted later, after the fact. Meanwhile, the payout left the Treasury with something less than $145,000.
Unbeknownst to Gen. Breckinridge or any other Confederate for that matter, payments were unwittingly made to the 20 Union cavalrymen posing as Confederates in President Davis’ escort. The 20 had been detached from the First Ohio Cavalry to track Davis’ movements. They later received part of the reward for Davis’ capture.
May 3-4, Final Disbursals at Washington, Ga.
Pres. Davis meanwhile arrived in Washington, GA, on the third. Acknowledging the inevitable, he held a rump cabinet meeting in the old Bank of Georgia building, at which he oversaw the last two official acts of his doomed government, and then officially dissolved the Confederate States of America. In the first of the two acts, Major Raphael Moses was ordered to distribute $40,000 of Treasury funds to returning soldiers at Augusta, GA. Then Capt. Micajah Clark was appointed Acting Treasurer to take care of what remained of the Confederate assets.
Davis departed Washington on May 4, riding almost due south toward the Florida border with a small escort. Capt. Micajah Clark took charge of wagons loaded with Davis’s baggage and the $35,000 in gold sovereigns. He was to catch up with Davis after making final payouts of the Treasury at Washington.
Later on May 4, Breckinridge’s cavalry arrived outside Washington with the remaining Treasury assets (minus the chest of silver jewelry donated for the building of an ironclad; that had been left at the Moss house and was later confiscated by federal troops). Now in the Confederate encampment outside Washington, Acting Treasurer Capt. Clark paid out $56,116 to cabinet members, officers, soldiers, and others gathered there. Another $2,600 went to unreported miscellaneous expenses.
The remaining $86,000 in gold was issued in the hope the Confederacy might live on in the west. To that end, Clark turned over the gold coins and bullion to Navy Paymaster, Lt. Cdr. James A. Semple. Semple, accompanied by Navy Chief Clerk Edward Tidball, was ordered to hide the $86,000 in the false bottom of a carriage and take it to Charleston or Savannah. From there he was to ship the gold to Bermuda or Nassau, and thence to Liverpool, England, for deposit in an account for the Confederacy.
Meanwhile, the Washington town square that evening became the scene of an eerie bonfire. Major Moses, with Gen. Breckinridge and Acting Secy. of the Treasury John Reagan looking on, set fire to the $600-$700 million of Confederate Treasury notes, as well as all the remaining paper money and Treasury documents. Reagan took the English acceptances (worth 16-18,000 pounds) with him when he left Washington to catch up with Davis.
Capt. Clark remembered those last hours in Washington: “An impression has prevailed with some that on that last day great demoralization, confusion and panic existed. Such was not so. The soldiers were orderly, and though the town was filled with men under no command, there was no rioting or violence...it seemed to me as if a gloomy pall hung in the atmosphere repressing active expression. [People]...realized that a government which had been strong and loved, the exponent of all their hopes and wishes, was, perhaps, dying the death before their eyes...an agony too great for words, with the bitterness of an almost despair filling all hearts, I rode into the darkness that night, as if from a death-bed.”
So, it would seem we’ve arrived at the end of the road--the Confederacy is officially dissolved, President Davis is now in a desperate attempt to escape capture by Union troops, the Treasury reserves are nearly gone, and but little hope for reviving the Confederacy remains. Still, there were plans afoot, and sums of money large and small were still to be had, should anyone decide to seize the opportunity.
On May 4, not long after dispersing the Treasury funds at Washington, Ga., Capt. Micajah Clark caught up with President Davis at Sandersville, GA. While at Sandersville, Davis decided to divide his much reduced entourage again. He continued almost due south, but sent Clark and the slower-moving wagons containing his baggage on a more southwesterly course toward Madison, FL, where both parties were to reunite.
Before departing, Clark paid out $9,840 for expenses of those in the president’s party from gold he had with him and the $35,000 in gold sovereigns in the president’s van. He also gave $3,500 to Secretary Reagan to carry in his saddlebags. Clark, now with just over $25,000 of Treasury money, headed for Madison.
Davis and his small escort made it only as far as Irwinville, GA. Shortly after dawn on May 10, Federal troops overran his camp, looted valuables, and arrested Davis and all but one member of Davis’s party (who managed to escape). Reagan was relieved of the $3,500 in Treasury gold, as well as another $2,000 of his own money, and the 16-18,000 pounds worth of English acceptances.
Meanwhile, Clark and his party continued south. By May 22 they passed west of Gainesville, FL, arriving that day at the plantation of a friend of President Davis’s. Learning of Davis’s capture, they decided their cause was lost. The men then agreed to split up the remaining Treasury funds in Clark’s possession. Each received $1,995, and after subtracting some additional miscellaneous expenses, $6,790 was set aside for Davis’s wife and her family.
Clark, returning from the aborted Florida escapade, had this to say: “The soldiers jingling their silver dollars on every road told the tale of the disbursement of the little Treasury, and I found on my return [from Florida, in June 1865] the wildest rumors through the country as to the amount it had contained. Five million dollars was the smallest amount mentioned....Federal detectives [were] swarming along the route we had traveled, hunting papers, the Treasury, and ‘the last man who had it in charge,’ for [they believed] an immense amount must have been secreted somewhere; $5 million to $15 million could not vanish in the air in a day.”
But, Clark argued, “...The old Confederates brought nothing out of the war, save honor, for God’s sake!, and the precious memory of the dead; let us preserve that untarnished, and defend it from slanderous insinuations.”
May 24, Temptation Will Out
As we’ve seen, the Confederate Treasury previously had been subjected to threats of robbery, only to be legitimately disbursed or otherwise spirited away. But there remained that other pot of gold and silver, the $450,000 in coins belonging to the private Richmond banks. It soon proved an entirely too enticing prize.
On May 5, a day after Davis had left Washington, federal troops took control of the town and seized all public assets, including the $40,000 Maj. Moses had for the care of returning soldiers. What is more important, they also confiscated the private bank assets, that $450,000. After determined entreaties, Federal officials at Richmond did finally agree that the bank assets should be returned to the Richmond banks. So, on May 24, five wagons left for Abbeville with the bank assets and four Richmond bank officials aboard.
Guarding the wagons was a small contingent of Fourth Iowa Cavalry, including, according to sources, a federal spy. The spy reportedly passed word of the route to some returning Confederate soldiers. They then trailed the wagon train until it encamped at Chennault, GA, that evening.
What is known for certain, is that about midnight, a gang of twenty robbers on horseback swept into the encampment, roused the sleeping escort, and put it to flight in the nearby woods. The robbers broke open the kegs of silver and gold coin, stuffing the booty into everything available--including their pant legs--before riding off into the night. They initially made off with just over $251,000 (about $5 million). Something like $40,000 in coins, which the robbers spilled on the ground, was recovered soon after. The remaining $160,000 on the wagon train eventually made its way to Richmond.
Meantime, however, ex-Confederate Gen. Edward Porter Alexander organized a posse of ex-Confederate soldiers and local men to recover the stolen bank funds. They arrested some of the thieves, until that is, the locals realized their neighbors were among them. Both sides drew guns as the situation became ugly, forcing Gen. Alexander to relent. He released the thieves, taking them at their word they would return the money the next day.
Gen. Alexander did recover some $70,000 from robbers and local citizens (including former
slaves), which he deposited in the old Bank of Georgia building at Washington, along with the $40,000 picked up from the ground. While $111,000 was thus recovered, the thieves had made off with about $179,000. No one knows what happened to that money, and speculation, never proved, has the thieves stashing it in various ways--under fence posts, in creeks, and in the woods--to be retrieved later.
July 1865, The Wild Man
The war might officially be over, but the bitterness aroused on both sides by the bloody conflict would linger. As the Confederacy collapsed around them, Southerners had good reason to worry that the victorious Northerners might treat the South harshly during Reconstruction. Then after President Lincoln’s assassination by a Confederate sympathizer, that possibility became all but a certainty. For a small group of Southerners, Union Gen. Edward Wild would prove to be a harbinger of hard times to come.
For his part, Brig. Gen. Wild was an ardent abolitionist who had lost an arm fighting the Confederates and probably had no great love for the South. He traveled to Washington, GA in July, 1865, as an agent for the Federal Freeman’s Bureau. Not long after arriving, he confiscated the $111,000 in private bank funds left at Washington for use by the Freedmen’s Bureau. Then, learning of the robbery at Chennault, he and Lt. William Seaton organized a search party of 12 African-American soldiers to recover the stolen $179,000.
The soldiers and local vigilantes soon ran amuck though, and took to looting of homes of local citizens, especially those of former slaves. They also seized the chest of silver jewelry--part of the Confederate Treasury assets--from the home of Mrs. J. D. Moss, where it had been left for safekeeping.
Next they raided the John Chennault house, site of the robbery. Suspecting the men of the Chennault family took part in the robbery, Wild and his raiders rounded them up, along with a male servant. Then, to force them talk, he reportedly had them strung up with their hands tied behind their backs. Adding to those outrages, the Chennault women were said to have been strip searched by a maid, while Lt. Seaton watched.
Even though Wild’s tactics produced no information about the robbery, he nevertheless seized the Chennaults’ valuables, and held them under arrest at the Washington courthouse for ten days. News of Wild’s rampage finally reached Maj. Gen. John Steedman, USA, at Augusta. On July 31, he arrested Wild and released the Chennaults. The Chennaults reclaimed their property, but the chest of jewelry remained in Federal custody, and disappeared shortly thereafter, never to be heard of again.
The fate of the $111,000 of recovered private bank funds didn’t end there either. Bank officials initially won permission to recover it, but first Pres. Andrew Johnson, and then Congress itself blocked the return in March 1867. A suit to recover the money languished in the U.S. Court of Claims until 1893. The Court finally decided to divide the $111,000 between the claimants and the federal government, because a part of the money was subject to confiscation by the federal government. It turned out that in March 1865, the private banks had taken part in a $300,000 loan to the state of Virginia, intended to supply Gen. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The federal government got $78,276.49; the claimants a paltry $16,987.88--28 years after the robbery.
1865-67, The Semple Solution
We return now to 1865 and the fate of the $86,000 entrusted to Lt. Cdr. Semple. In war, as in peace, passions die hard. Semple’s mission as originally planned was a last, desperate attempt to provide funds for a revived Confederacy, should that come to pass. Will Semple and his compatriot succeed in spiriting this gold to foreign shores? Or will they be caught and arrested by Union troops now swarming across the South? In fact, the fate of this horde of Treasury money will not be so simple, and is still something of a mystery today. What we know now authors Millett and White largely pieced together from later correspondence and recounted in The Rebel and The Rose.
According to Millett and White, Semple and Tidball succeeded in getting their hidden cargo of gold only as far as Augusta. There they met with Varina Davis’ brother, William Howell. Howell had worked under Semple as a civilian purchasing agent for the Navy. Perhaps it was the hopeless state of the Confederacy, the thought that the federal government would eventually claim the money, or just the temptation of all that gold, but Semple decided to ignore his orders and split up the horde. Tidball got $27,000 in gold coins, Howell $25,000 in gold bullion, and Semple $34,000 in gold coins. Then they went their separate ways.
Tidball managed to get his gold safely to Winchester, VA, and in 1867 bought land and built a farm there--most likely with the Confederate gold. Semple split up his share and left it in the care of trusted friends in Savannah, while he travelled incognito for some months to avoid arrest. Howell, meanwhile, decamped from Augusta for Montreal, Canada, taking with him his mother and Varina Davis’s children. Howell apparently used the gold to support his family and begin a new business in Montreal, though Semple may have retrieved part that horde.
Semple eventually used his gold to pursue a desperate plan to help the South, that of drawing the United States into a war with Britain. In a war, Semple believed, the North would need the South, and therefore be forced to lift the harsh terms of the Reconstruction. So, for the next couple of years, Semple worked with the Fenian Movement, a secret group of Irish immigrants in America and Canada. The Fenians hoped to raise an army to drive the British out of Ireland. The British government, of course, was none too pleased that the U.S. government was doing little to impede the Fenians. This, along with other issues raised tensions between the two countries to a point where, for a while, war seemed a possibility.
According to authors Millet and White, Semple travelled the country on behalf of the Fenians, perhaps as a courier, and apparently spent what was probably a large part of his Confederate gold. Another part, according to Millett and White, he gave to his friend and lover, Julia Gardiner Tyler--former Pres. John Tyler’s widow. After two years or so, Semple reportedly became ill and discouraged with the Fenian plot. With most or all his gold spent, he thereafter settled into relative obscurity in Virginia, until his death in 1883.
Lingering Mystery
Accounting for that $86,000 in gold closes the final chapter in the story of the Confederate Treasury’s last days. Virtually all of the known Treasury funds have been accounted for in one way or another with at least a reasonable degree of certainty, the greater part having been expended for what would be considered legitimate expenditures at the close of the war. Indeed, only a small part of that Treasury horde was ever recovered by the Federal Government. But the whereabouts of two big caches remain in question: the 39 kegs of Spanish reales--worth something like $16 million today, if in fact they ever existed; and the $179,000 in stolen private bank funds--traveling companions, but not legitimately part of the Treasury. And then there is that missing chest of donated jewelry that disappeared while in Federal hands. We may never know the fate of these riches, but then that's what keeps the lore of lost Civil War treasure alive for treasurer hunters--and for writers like me.
--------------
Bruce Wetterau is the author of Lost Treasure, A Clay Cantrell Mystery Adventure, a novel about the hunt for a horde of Confederate gold and the story of how it came to be lost in a cavern in the Allegheny Mountains. Wetterau is also the author of a second novel and eleven reference books, including World History, A Dictionary of People, Places & Events . Visit his website, www.brucewetterau.com
[1] Most, but not all monetary amounts, and modern equivalents are based on those presented in two very good monographs by Marshall P. Waters, PhD: Confederate Treasury--Final Disposition; The Missing Confederate Gold, Raid at Chennault, Georgia, May 24, 1865. Both were published by The Surrat Courier, a newsletter published by the Maryland Surrat Society.
