Confederate Gold and Silver

by Peter F. Warren

  Over the next four days they slept little and ate simple cold meals as they moved slowly towards Lexington and to safety. But the men, whether they were scouting out in front of the wagon train, or driving one of the wagons over the bumpy terrain, never complained. Francis had grown impressed with their efforts to move the wagons south without complaining a lick. As they were earning his respect, he also was earning theirs as they saw he worked just as hard as they were and that he ate the same simple cold meals they were eating. He showed them, without trying to do so, that he was a different type of a leader than those they had toiled under previously.

  After safely reaching the Lexington train station, their only problem came when it was time to load the train with their horses, wagons, and other supplies. Every available space on the station’s platform was crammed with war supplies, cotton, injured soldiers, lumber, and much more, all waiting for future trains to move them to assist in the war somehow. Francis and his men now had to improvise a way to load the rail cars with the heavy wagons and their precious cargo.

  From lumber stored on the station’s platform, they crudely built ramps that ran from the ground of the rail yard up to the sides of the now empty rail cars so they could load the wagons onto the train. With Francis supervising the work, and with help from other railroad workers, and from other Confederate soldiers who had been waiting to move out on another train, they pushed and pulled the first few wagons into place without any problems. As they pushed and pulled one of the last wagons up the ramp, one of the ropes the men had been using to pull the wagons onto the train snapped and the heavy wagon rolled backwards. It was simply too heavy for the men to hold in place on the ramp. As the wagon rolled off the side of the ramp, it crashed to the ground and landed on its left side. It was the wagon with the stars painted on it.

  Standing on the edge of the rail car, Francis looked down to see the damage to the wagon had caused several gold bars to be spilled onto the ground. The bars were no longer hidden from sight within their secret compartments and within the flour barrels. As he saw them scattered on the ground, so did his men and so did the others who had been helping them load the wagons onto the train. At first they all just stood there staring at the gold bars, but then a Confederate soldier, a sergeant from North Carolina who had been helping them, and then another soldier, who was also from North Carolina, moved to pick up a couple of the gold bars. “Not another step or you shall not live to see the end of this beautiful day!” Immediately the strong command tone in Francis’ voice caused them to stop in their tracks and they looked up to see him standing there pointing his pistol at them. Acting quickly, and before any other men could get up the courage to challenge him, three of his men grabbed their rifles and moved the others who had been helping them away from the spilled gold bars. As they did, they barked at those who had been helping them. “Don’t do it boys, don’t try it! It ain’t worth dying fer! Go on, get!” As they moved the others away from the damaged wagon, the rest of Francis’ men collected the spilled gold bars and stacked them at his feet on the edge of the rail car.

  As his men did this, Francis again spoke to the others in an attempt to try and diffuse their thoughts of trying to steal a bar of gold. “Men, we appreciate the help you have given us today, but this gold belongs to the people of the Confederacy. It belongs to you and to wherever you are from, be it North Carolina, Virginia, or wherever, but it belongs mostly to our cause. This gold is what helps us fight the Yankees. It buys us food, it buys us weapons, and it buys us whatever else we need. My men and I are protecting this gold on orders from General Lee himself, so do not challenge me or my men here today, for if you do you will have to answer to your maker very soon and we do not want that. If you talk about what you have seen here today to others, you are a traitor to our cause and you will have defied the orders of our leaders to help protect this gold. Now move along and forget what you have seen here today.”

  As the others moved away from the train station, Francis had his men, who like him were men who also had never seen this amount of money or gold before in their lives, off-load the rest of the gold and silver from the damaged wagon and place it on the rail car where he stood. In total they took eight bags of silver and gold coins, and several more gold bars, besides the ones that had spilled onto the ground, from the damaged wagon. They also placed the bag containing the jewelry on the floor of the rail car. It was the first time Francis had seen it. After taking the remaining provisions, harnesses, and two wagon wheels from the wagon, they dragged it off to the side of the rail yard and abandoned it.

  When the train’s engineer saw Francis’ men had finally completed the loading of the train, and after checking with Francis one last time to make sure his needs had been completed, Worden moved the train slowly out of the station, heading it further south. As the train moved out of the station, Francis had his men consolidate the gold and silver, and the other items they had salvaged, amongst the other remaining wagons.

  Before they closed the last hidden compartment in one of the Conestoga wagons, Francis showed his men the contents of the cloth bag. It held the jewelry so many ladies from across the South had recently donated to the Confederate cause. The fine jewelry, especially two sets of earrings that had diamonds in them, drew comments from all of them. “Men, your sweethearts would love to have anyone of these pieces. I don’t know much about jewelry, but these pieces just look expensive. It was very nice of some of our ladies to give up this fine jewelry for the cause though. Let’s just hope we can put it to good use.”

  As they stood together looking at the jewelry, Sgt. Stine, speaking for the other men, asked Francis about their precious cargo. “Captain, begging your pardon, but what’s this all about? I mean these here gold bars, the bags of silver and gold coins, and this here fine jewelry, why are we moving all of this in these here wagons? Early on y’all told us some news, and while we all know our place in this here army, and while we will do whatever you and General Lee asks of us and all, but with all due respect, ain’t we got some right to know the story about this here money and all?”

  Francis had thought several times about telling his men more about their mission. He had wanted to be able to trust them just as they had shown their trust in him. Now he knew the time had come to tell them everything.

  “Men, first I want you to know all of you have earned my confidence in a short period of time. Until just recently I had to keep our mission a secret from even you as I had to know that I, and the Confederacy, could trust you. I now know that we can.” Over the course of the next half-hour Francis told his men about their mission, about the money they were protecting, and told them that President Davis had wanted each of the Confederate states represented in the mission as the money belonged to the entire Confederacy and not to one state. Most importantly, he told them why keeping this money out of the hands of the Union army was so important to the Southern cause.

  After he answered a couple of questions his men had, Francis surprised them with his last few comments. While he told them his orders were to get the money to Atlanta, he then told them he expected to receive new orders after they got there. He believed his new orders would tell him to move the money to Mississippi. He then shocked the men by telling them he believed they would not live to see that happen. “Men, if I am wrong in my premonition I will be a happy man. If we should live, but fail in our mission it will be my fault alone that we do. I will never allow you to be blamed for our failure; I simply will not allow that to occur.” Upset by his own thoughts, Francis walked to the other side of the rail car to be alone. His men were left wondering why he thought they would all be killed. No one, not even Stine, had the courage to ask him about his premonition.

  After he had spoken to his men, Francis returned to his daily routine of inspecting the wagons and the horses. His routine never varied at the end of the day as he believed in what one of his early commanders had told him about fighting a wa
r. “Proper planning prevents problems!” So he always checked and rechecked the wagons, the horses, and most importantly, upon his men every night. His men had grown to appreciate both his concern and his thoroughness. They now appreciated him even more for one piece of news he had just told them. That news was he would take the blame if things went wrong during their mission. After posting the guard for the evening, Francis climbed aboard one of the wagons, checked his pocket watch to see what time it was and then fell asleep. As he slept the train moved further south and away from Lexington, passing through Salisbury, and then on towards Charlotte where it would stop to take on more wood for fuel.

  When the train stopped in Charlotte, Francis and his men gladly took the opportunity to get off to stretch their legs. As they did, they also took on some additional water for their horses. They had just finished doing so when several young boys quickly rode into town on their horses, yelling news of Yankee troops being seen less than an hours ride from town.

  At first, Francis did not know what to make of the news, or whether he could trust the information the boys had excitedly brought to town, but soon the train station’s telegraph operator came running out of his office with similar news he had just received. With that news also came other news about Union troops being seen further south in Chesterville. They had seriously damaged rail and telegraph lines running through there. The telegraph operator then gave Francis more bad news. His line had gone dead part-way through the last message he had just received. Francis knew he had to act fast.

  Summoning his men, he told them they could not risk staying on the train and running into a Union ambush somewhere along the train’s route. Knowing it would take time to unload the wagons, to get them hitched, and to move southeast away from the rail line, Francis ordered his men to do so quickly. As they did, he looked at a map in the telegraph office for a route of travel. After finding one, he then checked with the minister of the First Baptist Church about the route he intended to take. He had been speaking with him when the boys had ridden into town with the news of the Union troops being close to Charlotte. He hoped Minister Hartman would know if any rail lines were still in operation. Francis knew if they were not then the rest of his trip would be that more difficult to complete. No longer did Francis have Atlanta as his final destination, now he was focused on making it to Charleston, South Carolina. He no longer cared how they got the gold and silver there; he just wanted to get the treasury someplace where it would be safe, even if only for a few days. He also knew if he was to get the precious assets of the Confederacy safely to Charleston, they probably would need his prayers to the almighty to be answered. Francis counted on his prayers being answered as he knew whatever luck he still had it was running out fast.

  Minister Elijah Hartmann, a devout Baptist preacher, and an almost equally devout member of the local militia, told Francis that as far as he knew the train was still running to and from Charleston. “Twice a day I still believe.” The news brought a smile of relief to Francis. Silently he thanked the almighty for blessing him with some good news.

  As soon as the horses had been hitched to the wagons, Francis moved them out, heading southeasterly towards Charleston. In Charleston he hoped to either find a train that would take them south towards Atlanta or a ship that would do the same. As they moved out, he silently processed his one other option available to him. “If I have to, I will hide the money with our friends in Charleston until it is safe to move it further south, but where would I leave it and with whom?” As he thought more on the options he had, he also knew they first had to make it to Charleston.

  With the Yankees now close to Charlotte, Francis and his men pushed the horses hard so they could put distance between themselves and their enemy. As they did, they continually looked over their shoulders to make sure no one was gaining ground on them. There soon would be.

  Summer, 2011

  13

  The Investigation Starts.

  “Tell the General I can hold my ground.”

  Major John Pelham, CSA

  Paul was not much of a computer guy, but he knew enough to spend part of the morning on Friday searching for answers on the Internet while he sat with his laptop at his kitchen table. Donna had found some information on the computer for him, but he was desperately trying to find answers to the many questions his brain had raised before shutting down for the night only five short hours ago. Sitting at the table, he soon drank several cups of black coffee in an attempt to stimulate his thought processes as he searched the Internet for the answers to his many questions.

  He spent the better part of the morning looking for information on the two bottles he had found. He also spent time seeking answers to why valuable gold coins might have been found on a Confederate soldier. Paul sensed the coins had seemed too valuable and too many for a soldier to have been carrying. “Had he stolen them, or won them playing cards, or had he simply just been paid in gold coins.” He knew the latter was not the case as even a Civil War novice knew about the financial problems the Confederacy had long endured during the war. He quickly realized they would not have paid a soldier in gold. He even spent some time seeking out information on ‘CH’ Memminger and Judiah Francis. Paul had wanted to find out more about the watch he had found, but for now he chose not to force open the slightly rusted watch. Not knowing who the maker of the watch was, he had little information to go on and elected to deal with it at a later time. “I’ll leave the watch be for now. If the other clues I have don’t lead me to anything then I’ll come back and look at it closer. I need to focus on the other clues first.”

  As he Googled information on the Internet, Paul soon found what he was looking for regarding the two makers of the bottles. He was especially interested in the information he found on the Willington Glass Works which had been located in Connecticut at the time of the war. “I worked a few investigations in Willington, I wonder how close I had been to where they were once located?” While he learned more about the two bottle makers, he still did not know how the bottles had come to be in the possession of Judiah Francis.

  Continuing his search on the Internet, Paul quickly learned more on Confederate Treasury Secretary Christopher Memminger, but in his quick initial search for information on Captain Judiah Francis he found nothing. As he sat at his kitchen table with his computer, he took a sip from his fourth cup of coffee, realizing he had just drawn a blank on learning more about his soldier. “That was a disappointment,” he thought as he shut down his HP Pavilion laptop. While he knew he needed to try and find more information on the Internet, he had hoped to find some quick answers as to what type of assignment President Davis and Secretary Memminger had selected Captain Francis for, an assignment they had referred to in their letters. As he stood up from the table, he knew he probably had little chance in finding specific information on the Internet regarding the actual assignment. Doing so would require a significant amount of time and research going over Confederate documents to find that kind of information. Paul hoped he would not need to spend any significant amount of time doing that type of research as doing so would likely stall the progress he was trying to accomplish with the clues he had.

  From his interpretation of the letters he had found, Paul began to believe Francis had been responsible for moving some amount of Confederate money, but he was not sure if his thought was a correct one. He ran several other thoughts through his mind regarding the gold coins, but they were just that, thoughts and guesses more than anything else. “Was he moving money to help pay for war materials? Could it have been destined for England to show them the strength of the Confederate economy? Or was it simply being moved to keep it out of the hands of Union troops before they invaded Richmond?” As he struggled to find the tiniest piece of useful information, he could not help but to wonder if he would ever know the answers to those questions. The one thing he wanted to know more than anything was if Francis had been charged with moving money of some
kind “what happened to that money?”

  As he washed his coffee cup out in the sink, Paul continued to ask himself questions. “Had Francis hidden the money like his letter says or did he finally deliver it to his destination? And what happened to the money he had supposedly buried in North Carolina and the money he talked about being left in South Carolina? Did he ever recover it or is it still buried there?” The questions he had raised were far too many. It was the answers to the questions which were far too few at this time.

  As he dressed to leave the house, Paul realized some type of crisis must have occurred, or was likely going to occur, for President Davis to authorize the movement of the Confederacy’s money from Richmond.

  ******

  His first stop after leaving his house was at the Socastee Public Library, on Highway 707, in the small community of Socastee, South Carolina. Paul had visited the small library on two other occasions and had found the staff there fairly friendly. He went there today as he knew he would need their assistance to search for some answers to his many questions.

  After spending some time looking through several Civil War reference books, Paul quickly found the information he had been seeking on Treasury Secretary Memminger. What he found, while interesting to him as a Civil War buff, did little to answer any of his questions regarding the assignment Memminger had a part in giving to Captain Francis. Like all amateur history buffs, Paul knew the Confederate capitol had been located in Richmond, Virginia, but when he read a couple of articles about Memminger’s role in the Confederacy, one of the articles spoke about the threat the Union army had posed to Richmond. The same article later detailed the fierce and prolonged battles which had taken place in and around Richmond, a battle eventually won by Union troops. “So perhaps I am right about this assignment given to Francis by Memminger and President Davis. Perhaps they were concerned about the threat Union troops posed to Richmond, and perhaps they had assigned him to move the Confederate treasury, or part of it, to another location. Perhaps that money was the assets he talked about in his letter to President Davis?”