Confederate Gold and Silver

by Peter F. Warren

  The press release advertised Paul’s orchestrated media event would be held on Thursday, August 18th, at ten in the morning, at the Wilmington Convention Center, in Wilmington, North Carolina. After he finished calling the media representatives on his list, Paul called Chick’s home. Chick and Jayne had been faxing and emailing a few additional news releases from there.

  Tired from a long day of finishing up the details for the media event, and from dealing with several reporters on the phone, Paul briefly gave Chick an update on where they stood. “Well, I’ve done what I can do to get everyone there. Let’s hope it all works as we planned it.”

  “Did you get any feedback from them?”

  “Several newspaper and magazine writers said they were going to be there, so we will have to wait and see. I promised several of them I would do one-on-one interviews after the presentation. I figured that might motivate them to get there. Let’s get together at my house on Friday, say around eleven, and we will talk more on this, OK?”

  “Sounds good. See you then.”

  ******

  On Friday they finalized their plans for the ‘Dog ‘N’ Pony Show’. This was the name Paul had taken to calling the press conference. After finishing up a few last minute needs, they decided they would drive up to Wilmington the night before the event to have dinner and to get settled.

  ******

  The morning of the press conference Paul let Chick and Jayne handle the logistics of the event as he stayed out of sight in a back room of the convention center protecting the Confederate uniform blouse and the two bottles he was using as his main props for the day. As they got the media settled in the large conference room and satisfied their needs for seats, electrical outlets, and other similar requests, Paul sat in the small back room rehearsing what he was going say.

  Precisely at ten o’clock, Jayne came to where Paul had been rehearsing and told him they were ready. “Paul, the response is even better than we hoped for! We have at least fifteen television stations here, at least eighteen different newspapers, and several magazine writers are also here. We even had a few folks show up from several different Confederate historical groups as well. Chick set the television folks up on one side of the room to accommodate them and he put the folks from the historical groups in seats in the front row as you wanted. We know you want to treat those folks well. So let’s go do this and let’s hope it works!”

  As Paul opened the door in the room he had been waiting in, a door which led to a small hallway off the back of the conference room, he was confronted by the presence of two large uniformed security guards. Jayne quickly explained their presence. “Paul, Chick thought last night, because of the uniform blouse being displayed here today, that it would not hurt to have some security here. You never know who might try to do something stupid. I hope you aren’t mad he didn’t tell you, but he thought it was a smart thing to do. He just wants it to go well today.”

  “Nope, not at all. It was a good idea in fact.” Paul smiled as he answered her as he knew the presence of the two armed security guards would only contribute to the effects he hoped the ‘Dog ‘N’ Pony Show’ would have with the media.

  As Paul walked to the podium carrying the box containing his props for the day, a voice yelled out from the back of the room. “What’s in the box?” It was a question that did not get an immediate response.

  After introducing himself and after laying out the ground rules for the press conference, Paul walked those present through the events of the discovery he had made. He told them almost every detail, including most of what he had found with the soldier’s remains. During the presentation he also introduced Chick and Jayne to the media; introducing them as friends who he was now working with to properly document the discovery he had made.

  Paul spoke confidently to those who were present as his years of speaking to groups of fellow workers, civic groups, and others during his career as a state trooper had made him comfortable speaking in front of large crowds. As he spoke, his eyes scanned the room looking for familiar faces, but he knew there would likely not be anyone present he would know except for a few television reporters whose faces he had seen on the news a few times. Then his eyes focused on one familiar face. He could tell it was a face that was not a happy one.

  Winding down the first part of his presentation, Paul acknowledged the assistance several South Carolina agencies had provided since the soldier’s remains had been discovered. Singling him out, Paul acknowledged the presence of Captain Bobby Ray Jenkins of the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office. He thanked him, as well as Sheriff Renda, for their assistance when the soldier’s remains were first discovered. Even with the recognition he had directed at his friend, he could tell it had done little to change the scowl on Bobby Ray’s face.

  After finishing the first part of his presentation, Paul moved over to the box he had placed on a small table next to the podium. “I have been a cop for over thirty years and I know when there is more to a story than what the obvious tells you. I want to start this part of the presentation by telling you that neither I, nor my friends, seek any benefit, any fame, or any personal gain from the discovery I have made. I may be retired from being a cop, but I still possess my investigative instincts. The discovery I have made is not just that of a long forgotten Confederate soldier finally being found; it is much more than that. Because of what I have found, and because I was paid in my past career to dig for facts, I intentionally have kept a couple of items I found from the authorities. I did so because I realized a bigger picture existed within this discovery and that it was more, and excuse me for saying it this way, but it was a discovery of more than just the bones of this dead soldier. Whatever I have kept, and whatever I will find, will be turned over to the rightful owners or to the authorities after we have sifted through the clues I have. I have meant no disrespect to anyone by keeping these items, but no crime was committed by the soldier as we believe he was killed during an act of hostility at the time of the Civil War. I also have committed no crime. I just happened to find his remains. I promise you when I am done, all that I find, rather what we find, will be turned over to the people of this country to see and enjoy. It is not ours to keep or to profit from. None of you know me, so none of you know if you can trust what I have just told you about turning over the items I have found when I am done with them. I want you to know that’s exactly what I am going to do. If any of you elect to write your stories with any hint that we have done anything wrong or that we are using this discovery to make a fast buck off, you will not get another ounce of cooperation from us. This is simply a story about the discovery of a dead Confederate soldier by a retired cop who believes this soldier still has an important story to tell.”

  Then he dropped the first bit of new information on those present. As he did the click of cameras and the intensity of the reporter’s concentration intensified.

  After taking off the lid of the box, Paul reached into his pants pockets and pulled out a pair of white cotton gloves. With a planned purpose, the purpose being to play up the moment for the media, he painstaking put the gloves on before he withdrew anything from the box. Finished donning the gloves, the Confederate Tail Coat was carefully removed from the box. “This Tail Coat, which I commonly refer to as a uniform blouse, belonged to the soldier I found. I found it still hanging within the tree where I found the soldier’s remains. In fact, some of his remains were still within this very blouse. This blouse, as you can see, still bears the Confederate symbols for the rank of captain. Inside the blouse I found the soldier’s first initial and his last name sewn into one of them pockets. As many of you know, soldiers on both sides often did this. They did this so in the event they were killed in battle their remains could be positively identified. From the name sewn inside the blouse and from other evidence I found at the site, we believe we now know who this soldier was. The other evidence matches the initials sewn into this bl
ouse. But because I have told you we are going to dig into the clues which were left behind, we are not going to identify the soldier’s name at this time as we want to make sure we know who he was.” A collective groan then went up in the room as the reporters wanted as much information as possible from Paul that morning.

  “I realize you are all interested in knowing this soldier’s name; I would want to know that as well if I was doing what you do for a living. However, as I did when I worked on significant investigations, I never release information before it can be verified and corroborated. As you all know, anyone worth their own salt never prematurely releases important information. When we know for sure who he is, you will also know, but not before.”

  Paul then held up the blouse so it could be photographed and videotaped by those present. Then handing the blouse to Jayne, she carefully laid it out on the table so it could be photographed again after the press conference was over.

  After reaching back into the box, Paul held up the two glass bottles, explaining they had been found within the soldier’s blouse. After telling the media about the bottles, he placed them down on the table next to where the blouse had been laid out. In fairly quick succession, and with brief comments on each, as he had done with the blouse and the two bottles, he held up the bayonet, the saber, and the soldier’s gold pocket watch for those present to see.

  “Folks, the items on the table have all been photographed by me and by others. We have also documented the locations where they were found. They all were found within the same tree which hid the remains of the soldier for so long. You can come up here and photograph them when we are done, but please do not touch any of the items we have set out on the table as they are very fragile. Everyone will have time to ask questions and to photograph them, so please respect the historical value of each item and the desire we have to preserve them for others to see.”

  Paul then dropped the second piece of new information on those present. “I also want to tell you that besides the items we have already discussed, I also found letters the soldier had apparently written to his father and to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. They were secreted within these same two bottles. We also found one other letter and one other piece of paper in the bottles as well. We believe these letters will help us verify who this soldier was. Based on what we already know, we are currently searching for any military records which might exist before we release his name to you.”

  From the back of the room came the obvious question everyone present wanted an answer for. “We understand your need to be accurate, but if you have learned so much about him already what’s the harm in releasing a dead soldier’s name?”

  “Because we simply are not ready to do so. Out of respect to this soldier, someone who time had apparently forgotten about, I will not release his name until we are certain who he is. If we can, we would like to be able to notify anyone who might still be family of some sort to him first. If we find any living kin of his, I promise we will notify you of that. Perhaps we will set something up so you can be there with us when we tell them what we have found. I am confident when the time comes to notify you of his name, you all will have an appreciation for why we are not releasing it now. All I can do is to ask you to trust me for now. I promise you there will be a great finish to this story!”

  Standing up from where he had been seated in the third row, a writer directed a question to Paul. “OK, I still am of the opinion that you should be releasing his name to us, but for me personally I will give you some slack on this for now. However, if I find out you are trying to pull a fast one on us I will expose you as a fraud, as a con artist, or whatever the term is that fits you. You need to know that.” Greg Masterson was a North Carolina based free lance writer who had many written articles regarding the Civil War, primarily selling his stories to magazines whose audiences were Civil War and military buffs. Paul knew who he was as he had read several articles Masterson had written over the years.

  “Greg, as an amateur history buff I have read some of your work. Most of it I have enjoyed very much. I appreciate you giving us some slack on this and I would expect you to discredit us if you found we were misleading you, but I promise you have nothing to worry about. We are also promising you and everyone else here today, when we finally release the soldier’s name to you, we will also release copies of the letters I found within the bottles. On the table next to me is a sign-up sheet, just write your name and contact information down on the page before you leave today and we will send you a copy of those letters when we are ready to release them. All we are asking for is a little bit of time to follow up on a few leads we think we have and then we will be back in touch with all of you.” Paul paused from speaking for a couple of moments to finish completing a thought he had. Then he spoke directly to Masterson. “Greg, before you leave this morning, please stop and see me so we can talk for a moment.”

  Finally Paul gave his audience the biggest piece of news he had for them. It was the bait he hoped the writers would take; bait he hoped they would write about to help him move forward with the clues he was trying to solve. He also hoped the television reporters would talk about it when they did their segments on the evening news regarding today’s press conference. What he told them was not entirely the complete truth.

  “The last piece of information I would like to tell you about is we know this Confederate soldier fought his way through North Carolina during a part of the war and then entered South Carolina. We also know while he was in North Carolina he had to bury three of his soldiers along the way, somewhere we believe in the eastern part of the state. When he did, he had a wooden cross made to mark the spot of these three graves. As Civil War buffs, like some of you are, we hope when you file your stories or write your articles you will mention this grave site. We would simply like to examine this site for possible connections to our soldier and then work with the authorities to give those three soldiers a proper burial. We realize these graves may not exist any longer as they may have already been discovered. They also may have been disturbed when a highway, a road, or when a new neighborhood was being built, but it is our hope we can still find the site. It is also our hope one of your viewers or readers might have seen, or know of, a crudely made wooden cross which marks this site. If they do, we hope they would call me so we can work with the local historical society, and with other local authorities, to have the remains exhumed. We would like to have those remains then buried with those of the soldier I found.”

  From the back of the room another reporter yelled out a question to Paul. “Why should someone call you about this? Shouldn’t they just call the authorities, perhaps their local medical examiner, and not just you?”

  “They could certainly do so, but it’s our hope if someone knows of this grave they have an appreciation for the sacrifices these young soldiers made during a time when our country fought such a terrible war against each other. That grave, if it still exists, is a historical site and we would like an opportunity to connect it to the soldier I found. We would also like to make the grave site a part of an independent documentary film we are considering making. The soldier I found and the three soldiers buried in North Carolina were once Confederate soldiers who served together during the war. We believe it would be a nice gesture to reunite them together again and to properly bury them next to each other. They deserve at least that for the sacrifices they each made.”

  Off to his left a television reporter asked another question. “So what else did the soldier’s diary tell you?” Paul smiled at the question at first. “Good guess, not a totally accurate one, but a good guess nevertheless.” Quickly he had a follow-up thought to the question which had been asked. “OK, let them think it’s a diary I found. That works for me.”

  “OK, folks, that’s about it for the day, but I just want to reinforce to you one thing. I am a retired state trooper, but more importantly for this matter I am simply a history buff
who has stumbled onto some clues about our soldier’s past. My previous career trained me to dig for facts and that’s what I am going to do with the help of my two friends who also have a passion for the Civil War. None of us are interested in making names for ourselves, or making a buck off the remains we have found, or off the clues we think he left behind. As I have already mentioned, we are considering making a documentary about this discovery. If we do, and if it becomes a film which turns a profit, we will donate every cent back to a cause that preserves the history of those who fought in the Civil War.”

  With this last statement, Paul concluded his presentation to the reporters and writers. Chick and Jayne, with help from the two armed security guards who stood nearby, closely guarded the items they had spread out on the table. The artifacts were photographed and videotaped over and over by several of the news photographers and video camera operators to help complete the stories their colleagues would later file on this event. As that happened, Paul spent the better part of the next two hours giving one-on-one interviews to reporters from several local and regional television stations. He soon did the same for those newspaper reporters, magazine writers, and others who were present from area historical societies. As he patiently did so, he made sure he gently reinforced his request for help in finding the grave site of the three Confederate soldiers he had mentioned during his presentation. He gave each reporter and writer his personal cell phone number and email address, hoping they would include them in their stories and articles. Paul knew the wooden cross would be key to being able to find at least part of the Confederate treasury. Finished speaking with the last of the reporters, he silently prayed someone would see this story and would then call him with the location of the wooden cross.