Confederate Gold and Silver (7 page)

“Be my guest. I’ll see y’all on Thursday morning.”

After briefly inspecting the boat again, Paul drove home to tell Donna about his purchase. As he did, he could not help but to again think of what a generous person Steve was. “I wonder what he has done for other people he has met? I hope I can somehow repay him for his generosity.”

What Paul would soon realize was by buying the boat he would soon help someone else. Someone who had not seen home in almost one hundred and fifty years.

Summer,
1863

4
Gold
On
The
Move.
 

“The
war
is
commenced,
and
we
will
triumph
or
perish.”
Governor
Francis
Pickens
—
South
Carolina
—
After
the
Confederacy
had
captured
Fort
Sumter.

The war had started with cannons being fired in anger at each other; the South’s cannons firing defiantly at the North and the North’s cannons angrily responding back at the South’s attempt to leave the Union. Behind the loud roar of the cannons it was now countrymen fighting against each other and, in some cases, brothers fighting against brothers. The two sides were made up of their many different states, their militias and armies, and for the South, their ragtag armies that were preparing to fight against a seemingly far better trained and equipped Union army. In many cases, especially in the Confederate army, soldiers who had served in the Union army prior to the war now fought against their family and friends who had remained loyal to the Union. Many Union soldiers now found themselves fighting against family members and friends who pledged their allegiance to the newly formed Confederacy. A war between our country’s own individual states was something no one ever expected to occur, but now it had. It would rage for several years. The war would cost the nation over 600,000 of our countrymen before it was over.

The anger behind the cannon fire, anger fueled by both sides being committed to their respective causes, caused the war to last far longer than anyone could have imagined. After the war had started, many people on both sides predicted it would be over by the end of the first summer. The Confederacy, committed to defending the rights of each state, and their institution of slavery; and the Union, committed to keeping the country intact as it had been prior to the start of the war, and to ending the practice of slavery, as well as being committed to punishing the South for trying to leave the Union, kept the war raging. Each side was convinced their beliefs were the right ones. As the war reached the end of its first summer, no one could predict when the war and the killing of our nation’s young men would end.

Here the legend began. Two years after the war had started at Fort Sumter; the war had visited many other places, places where peace, family, farming, religion, and even local politics should have been the issues, not visits by soldiers fighting a war killing each other. The war between the two large armies stopped in places called Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania Court House, Vicksburg, and in many other places, places where the tragedy of war robbed families of their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons. The war also robbed many others, in places where the battles were being fought, of their right to the pursuit of happiness.

In many of the war’s early battles the Confederate army, seemingly more organized and more determined than the larger and better equipped Union army, won more of the battles than they lost. Then both sides came to Gettysburg. Here the two sides fought a three day battle which many people soon believed caused a turn in the South’s fortunes to occur. It was a turn which saw the Union army finally start to fight with much more conviction. That conviction finally came to the Union army, in part, because Lincoln and his generals finally realized in order to win the war they had to defeat the Confederate army itself; trying to conquer their land, like some of the early Union generals had tried to do, would not lead to the end of the war. Devastating the Confederate armies with huge losses of men and interrupting their supply and communication lines were among the keys to securing a victory. Soon President Lincoln and his new commanding general, General Ulysses S. Grant, along with some of Grant’s most trusted generals, would employ that tactic in their future campaigns against the Confederacy.

The Confederate army had fought well at Gettysburg, but decisions which had been made to attack the Union army at times during this battle, especially when the Union army held the high ground, proved to be poor ones. Attacking an army who was continually being resupplied with more men and with more equipment as the battle went on was also among the poor decisions which were made. Those decisions, influenced in part by other factors, such as poor communication at times between General Lee and his generals, as well as the South’s cavalry unit being elsewhere during a significant part of the three day battle, doomed the Confederate army at Gettysburg. These failures would rob them of one of their most precious resources, one they could never replenish as easily as the Union army could. That resource was their men. Unlike the South, the North had a much larger portion of the nation’s population to draw from and finding replacement troops was far easier for the North during the war. The poor tactical decisions which were made, coupled with the sheer strength and size of the Union army, as well as the terrain which the Confederate army had to fight on, all proved too much for the Confederacy to overcome at Gettysburg.

The Confederate army lost far too many men during this battle as over twenty-three thousand soldiers were either killed, wounded, captured, or missing by the time it was over. While the Union army lost a similar number of men, just like the other needs of war, such as food, weapons, and horses, the Union absorbed those losses far better than the Confederate army could. Perhaps those losses might have been less, and perhaps the poor decisions might have not been made if General Robert E. Lee, the commanding general of the Confederate army, had not lost his ‘right arm’. General Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson had been killed earlier in the year, having been accidentally mortally wounded by his own men. But many factors turned the tide in this significant battle and Jackson could not have controlled all of those factors which in the end worked against the Confederacy at Gettysburg during that hot July in 1863. While Lee would accept the responsibility for all that went wrong, it was not the fault of one man they had been turned back. It was far more than that.

Despite their courage, and despite their desire to stay and fight another day, the decision was made to begin an orderly withdrawal south, back across the Potomac River, and back into the relative safety of the Shenandoah Valley. As the Confederate army withdrawal took place, the long gray line of the Confederacy stretched for miles and took weeks to complete before they reached safety. As they withdrew, and despite their best efforts to protect their rear guard, both armies clashed in several small skirmishes and battles as the Confederate army moved back south.

As the Confederate army moved south through Maryland after crossing over the Potomac River, the Union army continued to inflict losses on the Confederacy. Among those losses was the death of Brigadier General J. Johnson Pettigrew. Despite surviving Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg, Pettigrew was killed during the Battle of Falling Waters. His death was another the Confederate army could not afford.

At the Battle of Manassas Gap, at Fairfield, at Boonsboro, and in other places, the Confederate army would lose another five thousand soldiers. Their losses at Gettysburg, of both the battle and of men, and their additional losses of men during their withdrawal, did not directly lose the war for the rebel army. Their losses also did not cause them to lose their will to fight, but those continuing losses did have a significant adverse effect on their ability to sustain an army large enough to fight in many future battles.

After their withdrawal from Gettysburg, the Confederate army would again fight bravely despite being ill equipped in many battles. They would fight at the Second Battle of Fort Sumter, at the Battle of Chickamauga, at the Battle of Five Forks, at the Battle of Atlanta, and at over one hundred and fifty other locations before they agreed to surrender at Appomattox Court House in 1865.

******

As Lee’s army moved south, the President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, soon learned of the defeat of his army at Gettysburg. Davis would then learn of another devastating loss to the Confederacy when news of General John Pemberton surrendering his troops in Vicksburg to General Ulysses S. Grant reached him. The additional news of Port Hudson, on the Mississippi River, also falling to the Union army contributed to the bad news that would reach Davis. The news of those losses was crippling to both the South and to President Davis. He, like others, soon began to fear Richmond, the Confederate capitol, would be next to fall to the advancing Union army. The pressure placed on him to protect Richmond, and to protect the assets of the Confederacy, was enormous. Among the principle assets he had to take steps to protect was the treasury of the Confederacy. Money needed to continue their fight against the Union.

In the early days of the war, the Confederacy had seized the United States mint in New Orleans and had taken possession of a large amount of gold and silver coins. Those coins were estimated to be worth in excess of six million dollars at the time they were stolen. Additionally, the Confederacy also seized bonds and bank notes which led to approximately twenty million dollars in total assets being seized from the mint and from a nearby state bank depository. That money, first taken to Columbus, Georgia after being seized, was later shipped to Richmond to help the South finance their war efforts. President Davis now had to take drastic steps to protect that money and the rest of the Confederate treasury.

After meeting with Confederate Secretary of the Treasury Christopher Memminger, a Charleston, South Carolina native, and explaining his concerns to him, President Davis drafted a letter to General Lee. After several more conversations with Memminger, Davis sent two army captains assigned to his staff to deliver his letter to Lee. The captains were also directed to discuss with him the concerns Davis had regarding the safety of the Confederate treasury. “Tell General Lee he must act fast. We cannot afford undue delays in starting this mission as I fear the Union army will soon be on the outskirts of Richmond.”

It took the better part of eight days for Captains John McAulay and Steven White, both native Mississippians, to finally locate Lee as he moved south through the lower part of the Shenandoah Valley.

The difficult withdrawal, during the hot humid days of July, coupled with the additional burdens of responsibility Lee faced as his injured army moved south after their defeat at Gettysburg, had begun to take their toll on him. He had eaten little, and slept even less, despite the protests of his aide, Major Walter Taylor, and others. Finally, as they moved into the southern part of the Shenandoah Valley, Lee relented and agreed early one afternoon to halt the army so they could rest. As his men began to make camp, Lee finally had an opportunity to relax and to eat his first good meal in several days. Before he did so he made sure kitchens had been set up to feed his men their first real meal in days. Once he had been assured steps were being taken to feed the men, Lee finally sat down to eat. It had only been out of sheer exhaustion, both mental and physical, that Lee had consented to stop and rest. Now knowing his men were being taken care of, he sat and enjoyed his meal.

Sitting alone as he finished his meal under the shade provided by a canopy of large maple trees, Lee heard sentries announce the arrival of Confederate messengers. Major Taylor, assisted by other staff members, intercepted the messengers before they could reach Lee. As he spoke with them, Taylor quickly realized the importance of their assignment and learned they had been sent personally by President Davis to meet with Lee.

If they had arrived in camp without being sent by President Davis, they would have been denied access to Lee until after he had gotten some rest, but after being briefed on why they had to see him, Taylor had no choice but to interrupt a very fatigued Lee as he finished his meal. “General, please forgive me for interrupting you as I know how tired you are, but these two messengers were sent here to meet with you by President Davis. I could not refuse them this opportunity to meet with you. Sir, it is very important that you see them. I would not have bothered you if it was not a matter of grave importance. General, please forgive me.”

“Major Taylor, do not be concerned about interrupting me. I know you would not have done so if it was not important. You may escort them over to my table. Please join us when you are finished with your other duties.” Lee set his fork down on his plate, too tired to completely finish his meal and too polite to do so in front of the messengers sent to meet with him.

As Taylor escorted the two officers to Lee’s table, they both stopped before reaching it. First coming to attention, they then saluted the commanding general of the Confederate army. Lee stood, returned the salute, and walked to where they had stopped. The captains stood several feet away, respecting the privacy Lee’s rank demanded as he had sat at the table.

As he shook hands with the two captains, Lee told them to relax and extended his hand towards chairs which had been brought over for them to sit down on. Even though they had been invited to sit down, neither of them moved until they saw Lee take a seat first, knowing it would have been disrespectful for either of them to sit down before he did. As Lee sat down, they both noticed how slowly he had walked back to his seat, his fatigue far too obvious to miss. Despite his fatigue, Lee was still sharp as a tack. He quickly recognized Captain McAulay from meetings President Davis had hosted during the early days of the war. Lee warmly greeted him, addressing him by his first name.