A Counterfeiter's Paradise (49 page)

220, Memminger responded by

Memminger’s measures: Tremmel,
A Guide Book of Counterfeit Confederate Currency
, pp. 6–7.

220, Meanwhile, the Yankee

Arrest of William P. Lee:
Daily Richmond Examiner
, July 26, 1862. Union presence in Elizabeth City: Alex Christopher Meekins,
Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and the Civil War: A History of Battle and Occupation
(Charleston: History Press, 2007), pp. 42–43.

220–221, Despite the heavy

All quotes:
Daily Richmond Examiner
, July 26, 1862. While the government in Richmond couldn’t legally compel people to accept its Treasury notes, individual states passed laws that monetized graybacks by requiring banks to accept them on deposit and use them to settle interbank balances. They were also made receivable in payment for state taxes and dues; see Gary Pecquet, George Davis, and Bryce Kanago, “The Emancipation Proclamation, Confederate Expectations, and the Price of Southern Bank Notes,”
Southern Economic Journal
70.3 (January 2004), pp. 618–619.

221, In August, while

Upham’s August flyer is reproduced in Tremmel,
A Guide Book of Counterfeit Confederate Currency
, p. 41.

221–222, By the summer

The Second Battle of Bull Run took place on August 28–30, 1862, and Lee ordered his troops to cross the Potomac into Maryland on September 4, 1862; see James
M. McPherson,
Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 81–90. Lead-up to emancipation: David Herbert Donald,
Lincoln
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), pp. 373–376. The Battle of Antietam: Harry Hansen,
The Civil War: A History
(New York: Signet Classic, 2002 [1961]), pp. 249–263, and Drew Gilpin Faust,
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War
(New York: Knopf, 2008), pp. 66–69.

222–223, Lincoln’s embrace of

Shifting perception of the war in the South: Pecquet, Davis, and Kanago, “The Emancipation Proclamation,” pp. 622–623.
“publicly advertised…”:
from Davis’s message, included in
Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, 1861–1865
, vol. 5 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1905), p. 297; for the full message, see pp. 297–299.
“[P]rinted advertisements…”:
from Memminger’s report, included in Raphael P. Thian,
Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederate States of America, 1861–’65
, appendix, pt. 3 (Washington, DC, 1878), p. 76.

223, These warnings prompted

Debate in Confederate Congress: Tremmel,
A Guide Book of Counterfeit Confederate Currency
, pp. 8–10.
“principal places of trade”:
from a letter by Memminger to Alexander Hamilton Stephens, dated August 26, 1862, included in Thian,
Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederate States of America, 1861–’65
, appendix, pt. 3, pp. 81–82. Approval of death penalty for captured enemy soldiers with counterfeit money: Tremmel,
A Guide Book of Counterfeit Confederate Currency
, p. 10.
“I entirely concur…”:
from a letter by Memminger to B. C. Pressley, dated October 17, 1862, included in Raphael P. Thian,
Correspondence of the Treasury Department of the Confederate States of America, 1861–’65
, appendix, pt. 4, p. 367.

223–224, On Christmas Day

The scene and
“[N]o little gunpowder…”
: John Beauchamp Jones,
A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary at the Confederate States Capital
, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1866), pp. 224–225. See also Joseph G. Dawson, “Jones, John Beauchamp,”
American National Biography Online
, February 2000,
http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-00879.html
. Weather in December 1862 in Richmond: Robert K. Krick,
Civil War Weather in Virginia
(Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2007), pp. 78–80.

224, Jones was better

“A portion of the people…”:
Jones,
A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary
, p. 200. Transformation of Richmond into a rowdy capital: Thomas,
The Confederate State of Richmond
, pp. 65–70; Thomas discusses the winter of 1862 on pp. 111–112 and the city’s population on pp. 24, 128. For more on prostitution in wartime Richmond, see
Richmond Daily Dispatch
, May 13, 1862. Rise of gambling, prostitution, and crime: Ernest B. Furgurson,
Ashes of Glory: Richmond at War
(New York: Knopf, 1996), pp. 99–100.

224–225, What made life

Rising prices: Thomas,
The Confederate State of Richmond
, pp. 73–74, 87, 113–114. Cost of a Christmas turkey in 1862: Jones,
A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary
, p. 224. Steady decline of the grayback: Marc D. Weidenmier, “Turning Points in the U.S. Civil War: Views from the Grayback Market,”
Southern Economic Journal
68.4 (April 2002), pp. 886–889. Drawing on quotations from Southern newspapers, Weidenmier charts the grayback price of a gold dollar over the course of the war. On August 15, 1862, after holding steady at two Confederate dollars per gold dollar since May 2, the price of gold in graybacks begins to increase.
“He says Mr. M.’s head…”:
Jones,
A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary
, p. 211.
“headstrong, haughty…”:
ibid., p. 242.

225, To his credit

Memminger’s efforts to warn Congress: Richard Cecil Todd,
Confederate Finance
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1954), pp. 109–120.
“Like the moon’s…”:
from a report by Memminger delivered on January 10, 1863, quoted ibid., p. 110. Vicious cycle of Confederate paper credit: Mihm,
A Nation of Counterfeiters
, pp. 328–329. For more on Confederate inflation and the vilification of Memminger, see Furgurson,
Ashes of Glory
, pp. 190–191.

225, Too much paper

The link between war news, Southern expectations, and Confederate values has been well documented: see Pecquet, Davis, and Kanago, “The Emancipation Proclamation,” pp. 616–630, and Weidenmier, “Turning Points in the U.S. Civil War,” pp. 875–890.

225–226, In the second

Prices of a gold dollar in graybacks: Weidenmier, “Turning Points in the U.S. Civil War,” p. 887. Impact of Antietam, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Northern congressional elections on the value of the grayback: ibid., pp. 875–885, and Pecquet, Davis, and Kanago, “The Emancipation Proclamation,” pp. 617–629. As Weidenmier
shows, the value of the grayback didn’t perfectly track Confederate war fortunes: it didn’t always rise with a battlefield victory and fall with a battlefield defeat. However, the evidence does suggest that the grayback’s decline from August 1862 onward reflected the hardening Southern view of the war as a longer, costlier conflict—and the corresponding spike in skepticism over whether the Confederate government would ever be able to exchange its notes for specie. Even if the notes couldn’t be redeemed for coin, a negotiated peace would have left Southern state governments intact; their courts could uphold the legality of the grayback and make arrangements for its retirement. This possibility also became more remote as the war went on.

226, Upham posed a

Upham’s effect on grayback depreciation: Marc D. Weidenmier, “Bogus Money Matters: Sam Upham and his Confederate Counterfeiting Business,”
Business and Economic History
28.2 (Winter 1999), pp. 313–324.
“The people, among whom…”:
Daily Richmond Enquirer
, October 9, 1862.

226–227, In late 1862

Hilton’s shop was located at 11 Spruce Street. Hilton’s career: Tremmel,
A Guide Book of Counterfeit Confederate Currency
, pp. 54–55. Printing House Square: Lee E. Gray, “Type and Building Type: Newspaper/Office Buildings in Nineteenth-Century New York,”
The American Skyscraper: Cultural Histories
, ed. Roberta Moudry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 86–89, and Sarah Bradford Landau and Carl W. Condit,
Rise of the New York Skyscraper, 1865–1913
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), pp. 50–52. A color lithograph of Printing House Square in 1866 by Endicott & Co. can be seen in the New York Public Library Digital Gallery,
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org
.
“perfect fac-similes…”:
Harper’s Weekly
, October 4, 1862.

227, It didn’t take

Upham’s response ad:
Harper’s Weekly
, October 18, 1862.
“$500 in Confederate…”
and
“so exactly like…”:
Harper’s Weekly
, January 10, 1863.
“sent, post-paid…”:
Harper’s Weekly
, January 31, 1863.

CHAPTER NINE

229, It was raining

Weather in New York on New Year’s Eve:
New York Herald
, January 1, 1864. Astor House ball:
New York Herald
, January 1, 1864, and
New York Times
, January 1,
1864. Background and description of the Astor House: Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace,
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 600–601. Murray’s operation and the details of Hilton’s arrest:
New York Times
, January 3, 1864, and January 4, 1864; see also
New York World
, January 4, 1864.

230, Upham had left

Upham stopped printing notes on August 1, 1863, according to his October 12, 1874, letter to William Lee, included in William Lee,
The Currency of the Confederate States of America, a Description of the Various Notes, Their Dates of Issue, Varieties, Series, Sub-Series, Letters, Numbers, Etc.; Accompanied with Photographs of the Distinct Varieties of Each Issue
(Washington, DC: Published by the author, 1875), p. 24. A gold dollar cost two grayback dollars on August 8, 1862, and by August 7, 1863, the same amount of gold cost twelve grayback -dollars; see Marc D. Weidenmier, “Turning Points in the U.S. Civil War: Views from the Grayback Market,”
Southern Economic Journal
68.4 (April 2002), pp. 887–888. On p. 883, Weidenmier discusses the impact of Gettysburg on the grayback.

230–231, In an irony

One of the three code-breakers, David Homer Bates, wrote an article for
Harper’s
in 1898 about the case: David Homer Bates, “A Rebel Cipher Dispatch. One Which Did Not Reach Judah P. Benjamin,”
Harper’s New Monthly Magazine
, vol. 97 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1898), pp. 105–109. Aside from Bates, the “Sacred Three” also included Arthur B. Chandler and Charles A. Tinker; see Christopher Andrew,
For the President’s Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush
(New York: HarperCollins, 1995), p. 19.

231, Two days later

“Say to Memminger…”:
Bates, “A Rebel Cipher Dispatch,” p. 109.

231, Murray’s sweep went

Murray’s sweep and
“a great victory…”
:
New York Times
, January 4, 1864. Pleas of Hilton’s friends:
New York World
, April 29, 1864. One of Hilton’s friends, A. J. Williamson, wrote President Lincoln a letter, dated June 29, 1864; see George B. Tremmel,
A Guide Book of Counterfeit Confederate Currency: History, Rarity, and Values
(Atlanta, GA: Whitman, 2007), p. 58.

231–232, Although it would

“The Treasury has no connection…”:
from Memminger’s letter to Major General Whiting, dated January 21, 1864, included in Raphael P. Thian,
Correspondence of the Treasury Department of the Confederate States of America, 1861–’65
, appendix, pt. 4, pp. 570–572.

232, The details eventually

The long, somewhat convoluted story appeared in the
New York World
, April 29, 1864.

232–233, The Confederacy had

In 2001, a portfolio of twenty-five of Upham’s facsimiles was discovered at an auction in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The portfolio was prepared by Upham for his friend George William Childs, a journalist and the publisher of the
Philadelphia Public Ledger
. See George B. Tremmel, “The Rosetta Stone of Sam Upham,”
Paper Money
45.2 (March/April 2006), pp. 138–152, and
A Guide Book of Counterfeit Confederate Currency
, pp. 48–53. The historian was William Lee; Upham’s letter of October 12, 1874, appears in Lee,
The Currency of the Confederate States of America
, pp. 24–25.

233, More than a decade

Upham’s move: Tremmel,
A Guide Book of Counterfeit Confederate Currency
, pp. 36–37. Upham’s new location was 25 South Eighth Street.
McElroy’s Philadelphia City Directory for 1865
(Philadelphia: E. C. & J. Biddle, A. McElroy, 1865), available on microfilm at the Philadelphia City Archives, lists Upham’s shop on Eighth Street as selling “patent medicines.” He advertised Upham’s Bay Rum on the back page of a pamphlet of one of his poems, “Columbia’s Centennial Greeting,” published in 1876; the item is held by the Broadsides Collection of the American Antiquarian Society, accessible online through Readex American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I, 1760–1900. In the ad, he lists his South Eighth Street address as his “principal depot and laboratory.” A broadside advertising “Tish-Wang,” from 1863, is held by the Graphics Arts Collection of the American Antiquarian Society, also accessible online through Readex American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I, 1760–1900. The “Tish-Wang” ad includes the warning “Beware of Counterfeits.”

233, Upham had moved

Upham’s credit record and business reputation: “Upham, Samuel C.,” Pennsylvania, vol. 140, p. 78, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections,
Harvard Business School. Hilton’s record: “Hilton, Winthrop,” New York, vol. 194, p. 749, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School. It’s not clear when Hilton was released from prison. According to an online database accessed through
Ancestry.com
,
Civil War Prisoner of War Records, 1861–1865
, drawn from microfilm records housed at the National Archives, Hilton was captured on December 31, 1863, in New York City, and released by order of General Dix in April 1864. Either the date of his release is incorrect or he was transferred to another facility, because A. J. Williamson wrote his letter to Lincoln on Hilton’s behalf on June 29, 1864, when the printer was still imprisoned.

233–234, Hilton had been

“so indelibly photographed…”:
from a speech by Upham at the “Second Annual Re-union and Banquet of ‘The Associated Pioneers of the Territorial Days of California,’” dated January 18, 1877, included in the appendix to Samuel Curtis Upham,
Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn, Together with Scenes in El Dorado, in the Years 1849–’50
(New York: Arno, 1973 [1878]), p. 435; for the full speech, see pp. 432–436. The appendix includes a range of Upham’s writings on California, including “Ye Ancient Yuba Miner, of the Days of’49,” an unsentimental and darkly funny poem about the gold rush days.

234, In 1876, America

1876 Centennial: Dorothy Gondos Beers, “The Centennial City, 1865–1876,”
Philadelphia: A 300-Year History
, ed. Russell F. Weigley, Nicholas B. Wainwright, and Edwin Wolf, 2nd (New York: W. W. Norton, 1982), pp. 465–470. Associated Pioneers celebration: S. C. Upham,
Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn
, pp. 400–423.

234–235, While Upham and

Technology of the Centennial: Beers, “The Centennial City, 1865–1876,” p. 469, and Linda P. Gross and Theresa R. Snyder,
Philadelphia’s 1876 Centennial Exhibition
(Charleston: Arcadia, 2005), p. 73.

235, To Upham, the

Upham’s death certificate, obtained from microfilmed records at the Philadelphia City Archives, provides the details; his occupation is listed as “Manufacturer, Chemist.” His will and the inventory of his estate: Brent Hughes,
The Saga of Sam
Upham: “Yankee Scoundrel,”
rev. ed. (Inman, SC: published by the author, 1988), pp. 15–17. Obituary:
Philadelphia Inquirer
, July 1, 1885.

236, Initially the federal

Sixteen hundred state banks: Bray Hammond,
Sovereignty and an Empty Purse: Banks and Politics in the Civil War
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), p. 291.
Briscoe
v.
Bank of Kentucky
: Bray Hammond,
Banks and Politics in America: From the Revolution to the Civil War
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991 [1957]), pp. 566–571. Inflationary effect of greenbacks: Hammond,
Sovereignty and an Empty Purse
, p. 300.