It was early evening when they entered the city. As they did, most of the city’s residents had already eaten their suppers and finished up their chores for the day. The streets were quiet and free of most people, even though the heat of the afternoon had dissipated. The breeze off the harbor made it a pleasant evening to be outside. Francis had wanted to enter the city under the cover of darkness so as not to draw any attention to his men and their wagons, but he could not refuse Colonel Hodges’ offer of a hot meal for his men. Reluctantly he entered the city earlier than he had wanted, but was soon pleased to see the streets were strangely deserted so early in the evening.
Still ever cautious, Francis had them enter the city through the Goose Creek section of town, not far from where the Washington Race Course stood off of Grove Street. It was away from the busier section of the city. He had reminded them to move as quietly as they could and as they slowly moved down the King Street road his men now did their best to keep the horses quiet. Moving south, parallel to the South Carolina Railroad lines, they made a right turn onto Warren Street, then pushed southwest through the Radcliffe Borough of the city, then onto Wentworth Street, and then back onto the King Street road. Francis knew they could have made their way directly to the warehouse once they had been on the King Street road, but he had chosen to take the streets he had seen earlier in the day which were less travelled. He wanted to avoid some of the busier intersections in the city so prying eyes did not see them as they moved towards the warehouse. He also did so to make sure no one was following them, pausing several times where streets intersected to make sure no one was.
Once back on the King Street road they proceeded to South Battery Road, a road running close to where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers merge with Charleston Harbor. Off to their east sat Castle Pinckney, one of the first Union pieces of property the Confederacy had seized near the start of the war. Close by in the harbor sat Fort Sumter. Francis had the men halt briefly so he could point out the two locations to them. As his men took a few minutes to look at where the war had started, he also found himself briefly looking out at the fort. Then he turned and focused his attention on his men as they looked out at the fort. He thought about why he had stopped there on the street. “They deserve to see where this has all started. They have sacrificed so much for our cause. Those who have died along the way have sacrificed even more. They can at least now tell their families they saw where the war started for all of us.”
Slowly they moved along King Street, soon pulling up in front of the warehouse Colonel Hodges had made sure was unlocked for them. They had just slid open the two large wooden doors to the warehouse when a sergeant assigned to one of Hodges’ artillery units arrived driving a buckboard wagon. Still seated, the sergeant saluted as Francis walked up to the wagon.
“Sir, I assume you are Captain Francis?” Francis could tell from the young sergeant’s question that he was somewhat nervous as he spoke to him
“Yes, sergeant, I am Captain Francis.”
“I see y’all found the place OK. Hope the warehouse suits your needs for the time y’all are here. I had my men drop off some grain and hay earlier for your horses. Them broken cannons inside, we dun lined them up against one of the walls so y’all would have plenty of room to store them wagons y’all got with ya. You can lock the doors from the inside if y’all need to, but ain’t no one gonna bother y’all down here. I got your hot grub here in the wagon. Colonel Hodges done arranged a right fine spread for y’all. I’ll bring the wagon inside and your men can unload it there.”
“Thank you, sergeant! Please extend our thanks to Colonel Hodges. Also, please tell him we would appreciate the same courtesy tomorrow evening as well. I expect we will be here for at least three days. We appreciate your efforts as well.”
“Happy to oblige, captain. I’ll have one of my boys bring y’all some biscuits and hot coffee in the morning as well.”
By now Francis’ men had opened the back doors of the large warehouse, one which had stored cotton and tobacco prior to the war. It was stored there before being shipped to Europe and Mexico. Soon fresh air off the harbor circulated throughout the building, clearing the stale and musty air from inside the warehouse. The men closely eyed the food in the wagon as it was driven into the warehouse to be unloaded. Knowing Francis would not let them eat until they had moved the wagons safely inside, and had taken care of the horses, the men now worked quickly to accomplish those tasks.
“Sergeant, I need one more favor from you. Can you leave me your wagon? You can take the horses with you, but I may have the need for a smaller wagon to use while we are in town for a few days.”
“Sir, Colonel Hodges told me personal like to make sure y’all got what ya need while y’all are in town. So if y’all need this here wagon, then I guess it’s yours to use. No need to return it, just leave it here in the warehouse and I’ll come back to fetch it when your gone.”
As Francis shook hands with the sergeant, the men turned the horses out into the small corral behind the warehouse. Soon the horses were fed and watered. The men had gotten fresh water for the horses and for themselves from a hand cranked water pump they found inside the warehouse. With those tasks finally completed, they knew it was their time to eat.
Moving the food closer to the opened wooden doors in the rear of the warehouse to both enjoy the fresh air and to use the remaining light to eat under, they gorged themselves on the food Hodges had sent over for them. They ate far too much, and far too fast, but after weeks of limited food they each surrendered to their cravings for fresh food.
Shortly after they had eaten, they again checked on the horses. Seeing the horses were well taken care of, they secured the doors to the warehouse and quickly fell fast asleep. They slept soundly and together for the first time in several weeks as no one had to ride guard duty during the night. They were now inside a secure warehouse and inside a fairly secure Confederate city. With their bellies full and after a good night’s sleep they would almost feel like new men the next morning.
Summer, 2011
23
A Cemetery’s Treasures.
“. . . we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, . . .”
President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, 19 November 1863
The white plastic pails holding the gold and silver coins had been hidden under a folding table which had been draped with a white drop cloth in Paul’s garage. Next to the table sat Paul, Chick, and Bobby Ray, and several empty cans of Coors Light. On the table was a bottle of Jack Daniels which Bobby Ray and Chick had put a good dent in after they had arrived back at Paul’s home from North Carolina. They had been so tired from their two days up in North Carolina that they had just looked forward to sitting in the garage and relaxing over a couple of drinks. The drinks had become more than a couple as they celebrated their successful find at Duke’s hog farm. They toasted each other and everything else as they talked about what they had found.
Paul had not called Donna to tell her what they found as he wanted to surprise her in person. Now it was almost time to do just that. It was almost six pm when she arrived home. With Chick and Pete’s vehicles in the driveway, as well as Paul’s two vehicles, Donna was forced to park her Nissan Murano at the end of the driveway. After carrying a few of her belongings into the house, she walked into the impromptu celebration being held in her garage. As she did, she misread seeing them drinking as a sign of bad luck over the past couple of days. Her first comment was the one they had each hoped for.
“Drowning your sorrows I see. Guess you adventure seekers did not find what you had hoped to find. Hey, it was your first time looking, maybe you will do better next time. Give me a minute to change my clothes and I’ll come out and drown your sorrows with you.”
“Hey, hon, do me a favor before you go
inside. Bobby Ray put a six pack under the table in a white bucket. I’m too sore from all the digging to reach for it. Will you grab it for us? The cooler here is just about empty.”
Donna gave Paul the Are your legs broken look as he was sitting closer to the table from where she stood, but being the good hostess she walked over to the table to get the beer for him. Still staring at Paul, she reached under the table feeling for the bucket of beer. Touching the bucket, she instinctively reached for its handle and then tried to pull it out from under the table. “Gees, what do you have in this bucket, rocks?” She could not budge it.
“Here, honey, let me help you.”
Almost like they had rehearsed it, Chick quickly grabbed the half full bottle of Jack Daniels off the table so it didn’t spill as Paul stood up and lifted the small folding table up and out of the way. As he did, Donna’s eyes fell on the five full buckets of gold and silver coins the table had hid from her view.
“I, I thought you said . . . .”
“Donna, we didn’t say a thing. You assumed we hadn’t found anything because we had put on our gloomy faces to trick you. From how it played out it looks like our little devious plan worked! We thought we would surprise you with what we found. From the look on your face, I’m guessing we did do that. So, what do you think?”
Donna still stared at the coins as Bobby Ray and Chick, fueled by fatigue, beer, and Jack Daniels, laughed uncontrollably like two school boys who had played a dirty trick on a friend. Pete, who had not drank nearly as much as Chick and Bobby Ray, sat somewhat amused by what he watched unfold in the garage.
Regaining her composure, Donna turned her attention first to Bobby Ray who had been laughing the loudest at the joke they had played on her. “Bobby Ray, you son of a bitch! You think giving me a heart attack is funny? Just you wait. And Chick, you went along with these two fools on this? You ain’t ever going to be my friend! And you, telling me a lie to make me feel sorry for you and then pulling this stunt on me, well . . . .” She stopped herself in mid-sentence as a more important thought had entered her mind. “Whose money is this anyways? Is it ours?” The anger Donna feigned at each of them had only made them laugh louder than they had been, but when she asked them whose money it was, her question then made each of them laugh even louder. Her kneeling down to examine the coins made them completely lose it. Their laughter was uncontrollable for several moments.
Donna ignored their laughs and looked at coins by the handful, closely examining the types of gold and silver coins she now held. The dates minted on the coins were ones she had never come across in her banking career. Most of the types of coins she was looking at were ones she had also never seen before. “If only these coins could talk, telling us where they had been and who had owned them. Wouldn’t that be amazing?”
The comment Donna blurted out now caused the others to quiet down and reflect on what she had just said. They each seemed to realize if the people who had handled the coins from the time of the Civil War could talk to them or if just Captain Francis and his men could talk to them about what life was like during that period of time, perhaps they all would have a better appreciation for what life blesses us with these days.
“OK guys, I liked you better when you were laughing and drinking. I did not mean to throw a damper on the party with my comment. So what are the plans for all of these coins?”
Paul had been smiling as he watched Donna examine the coins and now he put his beer down on the table. Reaching behind his chair, he showed her the last bucket of coins. It contained the few handfuls the other buckets could not hold. “Well, to start with, after you feed us with one of your famous home cooked meals, we are going to bag these coins up and get them ready to take to the bank tomorrow. Chick is going to spend the night in one of the guest rooms and tomorrow morning we will get the coins to the bank. Don’t be mad, but I did not want to get you mixed up in this and draw any attention to you when your husband went into your bank asking for seven safety deposit boxes. So I called Kristy Thomas and asked her if they had any large safety deposit boxes available. When I told her I needed seven of them, she asked me if I had just robbed a bank. She doesn’t know why we need them, but she saved us seven of them. We just hope we can get all of these coins in them.”
Donna had gotten up to get a glass of wine and now sat down on a chair Pete had gotten for her. He placed it next to the buckets of coins so she could look at them while they all talked. “I cannot image what these coins are worth in today’s market. My goodness, it has to be millions!”
After Donna had been told about the discovery of the coins and about all of the other details regarding the discovery of the remains of three Confederate soldiers, a story which lasted until most of the beer had been gone through, she served her guests one of her special meals in the garage. The pizza which was delivered from Pizza Hut never tasted as good as it did when it was eaten with several pails of gold and silver coins sitting next to them.
******
The following morning, after the coins had been safely stored away in the seven safety deposit boxes of the Murrells Inlet National Savings and Loan, Paul went home and began the hunt for the next portion of the missing Confederate treasury he hoped to find. He started by reading and rereading the letter Captain Francis had written to President Davis. He was confident this letter contained the clues he was looking for, clues which would hopefully direct him to the rest of the missing money. But despite knowing the remainder of the missing money had apparently been hidden in two separate locations in South Carolina, some with the children of the late Governor Allston, Paul continued to struggle in his attempts at deciphering the hidden clues within the letter. Despite his lack of any immediate success, he read and reread each line of the letter over and over again, hoping to pull the clues he desperately needed from the words Francis had written.
After reading the letter several times, Paul thought a Google search of Governor Allston might be a means to unlock some vague clue hidden within the Francis letter. Easily finding Allston’s name when he Googled it, he learned Allston had served as South Carolina’s governor during the years of 1854 to 1858.
From his search for information, both on his computer and from a trip he made later in the day to the Socastee library, Paul found an additional wealth of information on Governor Allston. It was information beyond what he already knew about the governor. Besides being governor, he also learned Allston had been a well respected businessman, both prior to and after the Civil War. Allston had also served in both the South Carolina Senate and the House of Representatives. Paul also learned Allston had been a West Point graduate, serving as a colonel in the South Carolina militia for a period of time.
Paul’s research also showed Allston, who had been born in 1801, had fathered nine children before he died in 1864. He had been buried in Prince George’s Courtyard in Georgetown, South Carolina. The information regarding Allston helped him learn about his background, but his search went cold regarding the whereabouts of Allston’s children. Sitting at a table in the library, he could feel his frustration rising. “But which of his children had the gold and silver been left with? And what happened to these children? What did Francis mean when he wrote ‘they are resting comfortably with the money’? Why can I not figure this out?”
After returning some of the books he had been reading to the library cart so they could be placed back on the shelves, Paul again focused his attention on the part of the letter regarding the children of Governor Allston. Despite his short time living in South Carolina, he had recognized the Allston name when he first read the letter, realizing the name must have belonged to a prominent family from years gone by.
Over the course of the next several days, sometimes with Donna accompanying him, Paul made visits to the greater Georgetown area, including a visit to the grave site of Governor Allston. He hoped those visits might lead him to clues regarding the whereabouts
of the governor’s children. He also made a visit to the Allston family estate which was now open to the public to visit. They also made visits to the historical societies in several adjoining communities around Georgetown. During these visits he continued to learn more on Allston’s life, but learned little else regarding the governor’s children. Despite his efforts he came away without the one clue he needed to get him started. Paul did not know what the clue was he needed, but he believed it would only take one to make the other clues become obvious. He knew breaking those clues would lead him to at least some of the still missing Confederate treasury.
When his search had finally frustrated him enough after several days, Paul knew he needed a break from his hunt. After sleeping late on Sunday morning, Donna and Paul enjoyed a leisurely brunch at an Eggs Over Easy restaurant in Murrells Inlet. They had eaten breakfast at this local chain of restaurants on a couple of other occasions. It was a nice way to spend a lazy morning. After brunch they stopped to pick up the morning paper, a few groceries, and then headed home, planning on spending a casual day doing nothing.
When they returned home, Paul noticed the light was flashing on their answering machine. “Hey, y’all, it’s Sara, your favorite realtor. Stephen and I are going out on the boat this afternoon. Want to join us for some beers and fun? Call me on my cell if you want to join us. I’m headed out to pick up some adult beverages and I want to make sure I get enough. Call me back. See ya!”
Confederate Gold and Silver Page 37