Confederate Gold and Silver

by Peter F. Warren

  “Fine, just fine! Captain, this is a very important assignment. It is safe to say the future of the Confederacy rests with your ability to complete this most sensitive mission. I’m afraid our future also rests with the ability of two other men to complete two similar, but smaller assignments as well.”

  Memminger then took Francis by the arm and escorted him into a large office on the second floor of the Confederate capitol building. They were joined by both McAulay and White. After a few moments of pleasantries, Memminger excused himself for a few minutes and left the room. While he was gone, the three captains took the brief time that was available to renew their friendships which had started back at Lee’s camp.

  As they talked amongst themselves within Memminger’s office, the large double doors which led to a larger office opened. As they opened, Francis expected to see Memminger returning to rejoin them for a further discussion. Instead he saw that not only was Memminger coming through the doors, but so was Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Quickly coming to attention, Francis saluted President Davis as he walked across the office to greet him. “Captain Francis, it is indeed an honor to meet someone I have recently heard so much about. I am pleased to tell you everyone speaks glowingly about your abilities.”

  Never having met President Davis before, Francis was somewhat awed to be in the presence of someone he had heard so much about. Nervously he responded to Davis’ comments. “Sir, I assure you, the honor is indeed all mine. As I have been humbled to have been selected for this assignment; I am equally as humbled to be in your presence. I shall indeed remember this day for many years to come.”

  “Captain, I have also heard of the recent injury to your hand. I trust you are recovering well and will soon be back in good health. I am in your debt for your service to the Confederacy.”

  “Sir, I am doing fine. I appreciate the interest both you and Secretary Memminger have shown regarding my injury. I assure you it will soon be healed quite well.”

  President Davis then motioned for Francis to follow him towards three large chairs that sat within Memminger’s office. “Judiah, please allow me to be informal while we briefly speak on the matter at hand. Please, be seated.” After they had each taken a seat, President Davis spoke again. “I have the fear, a fear Secretary Memminger and others now share with me, that Richmond soon will be a target for the Union. As such, I must take immediate precautionary steps to protect our government and our ability to continue to fight this terrible war we are now engaged in. I must, as Secretary Memminger has correctly pointed out, take the steps necessary to protect our assets, that being the money in our treasury. We must move our treasury to a safer location so it does not fall into the hands of the advancing Union army. As a result of an order I have sent to General Lee, you have been chosen by him to move our assets to a safer location. You must understand the importance and the seriousness of the situation we now face. Do you, captain?”

  “President Davis, I again say to you that I was humbled several days ago by being in the presence of General Lee. I am equally humbled to be here now with Mr. Memminger and with you. I am honored by the faith and confidence each of you have shown in me to serve our country. I promise I will never give you cause you to question your faith in me. Sir, I do understand the importance of the assignment you are giving me and I also understand the seriousness of the situation we are facing.”

  President Davis stood and shook Francis’ hand, wishing him well with his assignment. As Lee did, he now also directed Francis to report directly back to him after he completed his assignment. Then he left Francis with Memminger so he could return to his office and to the other affairs which awaited him.

  As the doors to his office were closed, Memminger now gave Francis some additional information. “Captain Francis, as both President Davis and General Lee have already expressed to you, I also have the utmost confidence in you. I will pray for your safe return. As they have already done, I also wish you well in your assignment. Now back to the matter at hand. I am preparing three copies of a letter that I will have delivered to you at the train station. Another letter from President Davis will also be delivered to you at the same time. These letters are sealed and are not to be opened. You will be given one copy of each letter for your needs as you travel. They are letters directing you to escort our assets, which President Davis has spoken to you about, to Atlanta. The letters are only to be opened in the event you are challenged by anyone, including any officer of the Confederacy, who attempts to impede your delivery of the assets to Atlanta, or who attempts to challenge your authority to pass unmolested throughout the South. You must guard these assets with your life and with the lives of your men. You must not fail us. Sir, we cannot function as a government, nor can we convince our potential overseas allies to join us, if we cannot sustain our own cause.”

  Memminger paused briefly to collect his thoughts before continuing. “Captain McAulay and Captain White will accompany you to the train station. Once there they will give you further orders. Captain, if problems occur, significant problems mind you, you are to telegraph my office with your concerns. I must know you are well and that our assets are safe. If I do not hear from you, I will trust that all is well. Remember though, the Union has spies amongst us, including at our telegraph offices. Be careful with the messages you send me as you will not know who might be intercepting them. Now, captain, I bid you a successful mission.”

  Francis had closely listened to what Memminger said to him. As he listened, he noticed the anxiety and concern in Memminger’s voice. Francis equated it to the same concern and worries a parent might have in the middle of the night when a child had been terribly sick, fearing and wondering if the child’s life would see the light of day the following morning. Saying goodbye to Memminger, he sought to assure him that all would be fine. “Sir, I will not fail you.”

  ******

  The short ride back to the train station was done in silence as McAulay and White both allowed Francis time to absorb what had been thrust upon his shoulders. They knew what they would soon tell him would add to the burden he now faced. They let him ride in peace, collecting his thoughts as they rode.

  While he had met with President Davis and Secretary Memminger, the other Confederate sergeants assigned to the detail started arriving at the train station during the afternoon. They had all arrived by the time he returned, except for the sergeant from South Carolina. As Francis approached, the sergeants from Virginia saw him and they walked to where he now hitched his horse to a railing near the station’s main office. As they did, the sergeants from the other states followed their lead and they also walked over to where Francis had dismounted.

  After dismounting from their horses, McAulay and White led Francis to an area of the rail yard where four boxcars sat at the end of a rail spur for the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad. Stopping before they reached the boxcars, Captain McAulay told Francis what he was going to be told by them was to be considered sensitive. They also told him that he had to post a guard around the boxcars as they were now his responsibility. McAulay suggested to him that he should post the guards a short distance away from the rail spur as he did not want prying eyes, meaning Union spies, to see what was contained within the boxcars. McAulay also suggested one of the sergeants should be with him while he was briefed on the contents of the boxcars. “Captain, I suggest you do so in the unlikely event you are seriously injured or killed during this assignment. Someone will have to know what is expected of them. I am sure you can understand why I am suggesting you do this.” Francis had somewhat discussed this very need with Lee already, but he had not planned on telling any one of his sergeants the details of their assignment so early in the mission. Reluctantly, he decided to follow McAulay’s suggestion.

  Francis nodded his head and excused himself for a moment, walking over to where his men had gathered. After briefly introducing himself to the newly arrived s
ergeants, he explained to them the need to have a guard posted around the perimeter of the boxcars. “I want it done quietly and discreetly.” As he started to assign his new personnel to the posts he wanted them to take, Sgt. Douglas Vane, a Georgia boy from outside of Athens, through tobacco stained yellow teeth, challenged him on the need to post them on guard duty as the boxcars had not been guarded prior to this.

  Stepping close to Vane, Francis could feel his blood begin to boil. “Sergeant, if you ever challenge my authority again I will have you court-martialed, if not shot first. If you survive those two indignities, then I will recommend that you be severely disciplined. When that’s all over with, you will wish that I just had you shot! Do you understand me?” He now glared at Vane, waiting for him to answer, but he was not yet finished dressing him down. “Someone picked you to represent Georgia for this assignment, but right now I am thinking they could have made a better choice, and I don’t care who it was that picked you. Do you understand what I am saying?” Francis had just faced down the first challenge of his assignment and he had done so very strongly. He knew doing so would likely lessen the number of any future challenges to his authority.

  The rebuke Sgt. Vane received was one delivered with fierceness and with such a strong air of confidence that he immediately knew he had challenged the wrong person. He had all he could do to muster a weak reply to Francis. “Yes, sir, I understand. Sir, I regret my comments.”

  Francis then looked at the rest of his men who were gathered around him, warning them never to question his ability or authority. He also told them if they did they would incur his wrath worse than Vane had just received. Collectively they simply nodded their heads to show him they understood what he had told them. Now he looked at Vane again. “Sergeant, for what it’s worth, if you had taken the time to notice what was going on in the area, and I hope you other men have done so, you would have noticed there were at least seven other soldiers already guarding these boxcars and the train station when we got here. Look up at the station’s water tower and you will see there is someone on the roof; he’s a soldier not a worker. Look up at the opened window near the top of the church steeple. Can you see the soldier on the right side of the window looking down on us? And what about those two men standing in the shadows of those trees over yonder? Those are rifles leaning against the trees, not rakes or shovels. Our boys have been guarding the train all along, so do not tell me we have not had a guard on it. They have been guarding the train just like you are going to do from this point on.” He watched as his men looked to find the sentries he had pointed out to them. Unlike Francis, his men had not seen any of the sentries before now.

  Francis eyed his men closely before selecting two of them. “Sgt. Banks, post the men around the train and the station. Sgt. Hatfield, come with me.” His orders sternly given to his men, Francis turned and walked to where McAulay and White had watched him deal with his authority being challenged.

  The observations made by Francis of the soldiers who had been guarding the boxcars and the train station itself, not only caused all of the sergeants assigned to his command to be impressed at what he had detected, but also caused McAulay and White to be impressed as well. They had been responsible for setting up the guard around the perimeter of the boxcars, but had not yet told him about it. Francis’ detection of the soldiers who were guarding the train before they could tell him about them, as well as how quickly he had handled a challenge to his authority, would later be relayed to Secretary Memminger. It would confirm to all of them that Lee had selected the proper person to lead the move of the treasury further south.

  Opening one of the boxcars, McAulay and White explained to Francis and Sgt. Hatfield that President Davis had elected to move the majority of the treasury in three separate moves, each to three different locations for now. White explained further that two days prior a smaller detachment of soldiers had moved almost one million dollars in gold and silver coins south to Meridian, Mississippi. He then told Francis of another plan already in place. It was a plan to be executed in another two days and it involved a similar size shipment of gold and silver being shipped to Louisiana. The last shipment, in due time, White further explained, would also be sent to Meridian. The rail lines running through Meridian would make it easier to transfer the treasury to a new Confederate capitol if Richmond fell to the Union army. But for now, White continued to explain, the money would sit in three different cities until President Davis gave further orders on where it was to be consolidated. The money being moved in two days was also being shipped by rail. It would be protected by a group of soldiers disguised as wounded soldiers returning further south to recuperate from their wounds.

  Captain White then told Francis his assignment involved the largest amount of money of the three shipments. It was a shipment of several million dollars, mostly in gold and silver coins, which was being shipped to Atlanta. Once inside the boxcars, Francis was shown how the gold and silver had been concealed. The boxcars held a total of four large Conestoga wagons and nine large buckboard wagons, several of which had been secretly modified. While two of the Conestoga wagons simply held supplies and provisions for their trip, the other two wagons, and each of the nine buckboards, had been outfitted with special compartments to hide the money. The wagons also carried several large wooden barrels with false bottoms that contained gold and silver coins as well. Most of these barrels, Francis was told, also contained flour, sugar, salt, and water in a further attempt to give the appearance they were simply what they appeared to be.

  As Francis listened to White talk about the various hidden compartments, he saw one of the Conestoga wagons had a small painted star on each side of the wagon’s canvass top. “Excuse me, captain, but the wagon with the two stars on the canvass; do those stars have any significance?”

  White walked them to the wagon with the stars painted on the canvass top. “Captain, I’m impressed. Your powers of observation are again very good. Those stars were painted on the canvass so you could easily identify this wagon from the other three like it. Look here.”

  After they moved closer to the wagon, White showed them this wagon, like the others, also carried some provisions so it would look like any other wagon. But then White opened a hidden compartment, one of several built into the wagon by some of Richmond’s finest cabinetmakers. The opened hidden compartment revealed to Francis and Hatfield a total of ten gold and silver bars of assorted sizes. “Captain, there are a total of five hidden compartments within this wagon, plus the barrels with their false bottoms. Each compartment holds gold and silver bars which have been made from some of the South’s finest gold and silver jewelry. Some of the bars have been made from silverware as well. All of which has been donated by our citizens to help fund the fight for our cause. Also inside one of the compartments is a large cloth bag which contains some expensive jewelry. It is jewelry many Southern ladies have only just recently donated to help fund our cause. The stars have been put on this wagon so you know, in the event of trouble, that this is the most important wagon for you to protect. It must be protected at all costs.”

  Listening to what White had told him, Francis quickly realized his mission had been well planned out. It was not a mission which had been pieced together overnight. “Very impressive! I can see the wheels on these wagons also appear to be built differently than the wheels on the other wagons. They give the appearance of being built stronger, perhaps to handle the weight of the gold and silver bars better?”

  “Captain, you are correct. They were purposely built just for that reason. We also have had two extra wheels placed in one of the wagons in the event you should experience a problem with one of the wheels during your trip. Hopefully you will not need them.” As they closed up the hidden compartments, and then the side door to the boxcar, Francis was told the train would also have three additional boxcars on it for the teams of horses needed to pull the wagons. Those additional cars would also have spac
e for his men’s horses and for other supplies they would be taking with them. Francis was then told the final piece of information he needed to know. The train was scheduled to leave at 6 pm.

  Captain McAulay then spoke the words Francis had earlier privately raised with himself when he had thought about the trip south. “Captain, as much as possible you should be travelling by rail as it will get you to Atlanta in the shortest amount of time. However, you need to be ready to adapt to the problems you may face when you are confronted by acts of Union sabotage to our rail lines or from equipment failure that may stop a train you are riding on. Regardless of what you encounter, you must get these wagons, and the precious cargo contained within them, to Atlanta as soon as possible. Captain, we wish you good luck and a safe trip.”

  As the three officers shook hands and said their goodbyes, White reached inside his uniform blouse and pulled the letters from President Davis and Secretary Memminger out of his pocket, handing them to Francis. Memminger had instructed White to hand them to him after he knew for sure Francis was up to the challenge of this assignment. White now knew he was. Leaving him standing alone on the train station’s platform, McAulay and White walked back to their horses so they could report back to Secretary Memminger.

  Remaining on the railroad platform, Francis watched them as they rode away; standing there until he could no longer see them. He was now alone with a large sum of money and a group of men he did not know. As he walked down the steps from the station’s platform, he had but one thought as he eyed his men who were now posted around the boxcars. “I hope these men are up for the challenge that awaits them. God knows I will need their help to complete this mission.”

  After motioning to his men, Francis gathered them near one of the rail cars. He then told them some of the particulars of the mission they were about to start. “Men, we have been charged with a most sensitive assignment, one which must be completed as it has been planned. If we fail, well that will likely mean the end of our way of life I am afraid and we will be governed, again I’m afraid, by the laws of the Union. I will tell you more as we move south, but what I will tell you right now is our destination is Atlanta. I will also tell you this train is leaving at 6 pm. So right now, I need you to get your horses and your gear onboard one of those three boxcars being coupled to the other cars. Be prepared to leave very soon.” Pausing for a moment to think a thought out, Francis then looked at Banks. “Sgt. Banks, pick two men and have them stay with you guarding the boxcars until we are ready to leave. Sgt. Griffin will make sure your horses are put onboard the train.”