CSA Treasure(s)/Treasury...?

Davis's baggage wagons were already on the way to Yulee's Florida plantation, and the decision to flee the Union with a partial amount of the CSA Treasury through Florida was made here.
 

No worries.
Wasn't your great grandfather a member of Davis's guard during the flight from the Union?
 

No, he was a personal body guard of President Jefferson Davis and a personal body guard of President Abraham Lincoln. He was captured and died in Danville, Virginia and was buried there in the National Cemetery. He has a headstone of a Yankee over his grave. The Yankee never died in Danville, Va Prison. He knew where all the treasures of the Confederate Government were buried and those documents are buried with him.

He was to guard President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre the night Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. The man that tore the pages from John Wilkes Booth's diary replaced him as guard. The guard that replaced him was holding Booth's horse for him outside for the get a way. It was too late for my great great grandfather to catch up with President Jefferson Davis for the flight out of Richmond. He went instead to Danville, Va was executed/died and placed in a Yankee grave with a fictious name on his headstone.
GREAT info...
 

Weren't some of the kegs of Mexican silver dollars buried in that cemetery while Davis and his cabinet along with E S Hutter, James Beverly Ward's cousin, were in Danville?
 

Weren't some of the kegs of Mexican silver dollars buried in that cemetery while Davis and his cabinet along with E S Hutter, James Beverly Ward's cousin, were in Danville?
There is a new show about this story, which I enjoy watching.
 

With all the tales and legends of Confederate gold, what is overlooked is how a newly created country, the CSA, acquired the gold and silver to form a treasury, starting from scratch.
Upon succession, the Confederate government seized the US mints at New Orleans, Charlotte, N C, and at Dalonega, Georgia. The 1861 U S half dollars with the "O" mark, were minted by the Confederacy, and the gold coins of 1861 with the "C" mark of Charlotte were also minted by the Confederacy until they ran out of bullion, and the mint was converted into a hospital.
Several Southern banks were "nationalized" with coffers going to the CSA Treasury.
The Confederacy also sold bonds, payable two years after the ratification of a peace treaty with the US with 8% interest to be paid to bearer.
Southern ladies also donated jewelry for the Cause.
The rest of the CSA treasury was their printed currency.
Loans and credit were secured from British and French banks to buy armaments and other supplies from those nations merchants, but the loan money remained in those countries.
As CSA Major Caleb Huse, who was an CSA Agent in Europe noted," Never before was a government at war supplied with arms, munitions, clothing, and medicines, with so little money as was paid by the Confederacy".
Many British and French suppliers went bankrupt after the War, including several Liverpool shipbuilders, due to non payment by the Confederacy.
http://www.csa-dixie.co/liverpool_dixie/huse.htm
The point to this is that most lost Confederate gold stories are just that. The exceptions being what was captured with Jefferson Davis, what was captured at Washington, Georgia, what was recovered at Yulee's Cottonwood Plantation in Archer, Florida, and a lost 50 lbs of Spanish and Cuban specie cattle payment in southwest Florida.
There may exist small caches scattered about the South, but not the large amounts that have been written about in treasure books and magazines.
----- The actual foundation for the Dahlonga mint is now the foundation for North Georgia Military College Price Hall . The college has since merged into the Georgia University system and is now called the University of Georgia , Gainesville but still holds its strong links to the old North Gerogia Military College.
 

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... The Mexican Silver was buried right after the treasure train left for Charlotte, N. C. with Micajah Clark in charge of it. He replaced Walter Philbrook as Walter was only a clerk. Judge Crump also was aboard to protect the 8 Virginia Bank's interest. The Mexican Silver was buried the night of April 8, 1865, a full two days before President Jefferson Davis left Danville for Greensboro, N.C. President Jefferson Davis was unaware of the burial of the silver Mexican Dollars. There was an Inner Circle of three that was put into place and any of these three could make such decisions. Secretary of the Treasury George Alfred Trenholm and Secretary of the Navy, Stephen Mallory made the decision to cancel the 39 kegs of Mexican Silver dollars...
CSA Capt William H Parker of the Confederate Navy gave an account of his involvement in moving the Confederate treasury, in the July 16, 1893 Richmond Dispatch.
parker,w,h,treas
 

...
Where the CSA got so much treasure I do not know, most of the treasures we have found must have belonged to the KGC because we found tons of it. Before the Civil War in 1859 the banks in nine states that later became the core of the Confederacy had over 59 Million in gold specie. Most ended up in the CSA Treasury as taxes over the four years. The main reason because the CSA would reduce your taxes considerably if you paid in gold and not in paper currency. Then there was cotton shipments all over the world with over 100 countries...
I consider the Confederate Treasury and the assets of the KGC as separate, as well as the gold paid to the CSA blockade runners and that acquired by the Florida CSA "cow cavalry".
The Confederate had many outstanding debts, which the Federal government refused to pay, as mentioned in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, section 4: "all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void".
The United States sued Great Britain over a breech of neutrality by providing arms and warships to the Confederacy-THE CSS ALABAMA CLAIMS- and was awarded damages of $15,500,000 by the Geneva Tribunal, Sept 14, 1872.
 

I consider the Confederate Treasury and the assets of the KGC as separate, as well as the gold paid to the CSA blockade runners and that acquired by the Florida CSA "cow cavalry".
The Confederate had many outstanding debts, which the Federal government refused to pay, as mentioned in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, section 4: "all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void".
The United States sued Great Britain over a breech of neutrality by providing arms and warships to the Confederacy-THE CSS ALABAMA CLAIMS- and was awarded damages of $15,500,000 by the Geneva Tribunal, Sept 14, 1872.
GREAT info...
 

What is never mentioned, or known, is how much of the Confederate treasury was carried by Benjamin, Breckinridge, and Wood during their escape. After leaving Florida, they all were able to book passage to England.
 

They had more than what Clark gave them.
In Parker's account, Breckinridge was at Washington, Ga, and mentioned that Breckinridge and Wood bought a rowboat for their escape. That "rowboat" was the lifeboat from the USS Columbine that CSA Capt J J Dickinson captured and sunk at Horse Landing on the St Johns River.
River blockade runner, Capt Hubbard Hart was paid $4500 for carrying them down the Oklawaha to Ocala on his riverboat, James Burt.
On the St Johns , before it meets the Oklawaha, Palatka CSA spy, Lola Sanchez was given 500 Mexican silver dollars, what remained in that keg, was buried at CSA Fort Brook at Orange Springs, near Dickinson's Sunnyside Plantation.(Payment for the lifeboat?)
When Breckinridge and Wood reached Fort Dallas (Miami), Breckinridge gave Rose Wagner, daughter of William Wagner, sutler for Fort Dallas, a $20 gold coin.
After overtaking a Cuban fishing boat and sailing to Cuba, Breckinridge and Wood stayed with Lola Sanchez's relatives, then made contact with CSA Agent in Cuba, John J Helms.
Contrary to Parker's account, Benjamin escaped from the Gulf coast at Ellenton, with help of McKay and Hendry of the CSA Fort Meade "cow cavalry" with Archibald McNeil sailed him to the Bahamas.
 

There have been rumors of Confederate gold buried at the Marshall Plantation on the Oklawaha River, but I have never been able to substantiate this tale. While the Marshall's were part of the Abbeville, SC Marshall family were the decision to escape through Florida was made, the Ocala plantation was run by Elizabeth DeBruhl Marshall after her husband, a CSA officer, was killed at the 2nd Manassas. This plantation supplied the Confederacy with cotton, sugar, and whiskey, which was carried by river blockade runner, Hubbard Hart, and was raided and looted by the Union 3rd Colored Infantry on March 10, 1865.
CSA Capt J J Dickinson and his cavalry chased the Union raiders back to St Augustine (Fort Marion), and recovered most of the looted goods.
 

There have been rumors of Confederate gold buried at the Marshall Plantation on the Oklawaha River, but I have never been able to substantiate this tale. While the Marshall's were part of the Abbeville, SC Marshall family were the decision to escape through Florida was made, the Ocala plantation was run by Elizabeth DeBruhl Marshall after her husband, a CSA officer, was killed at the 2nd Manassas. This plantation supplied the Confederacy with cotton, sugar, and whiskey, which was carried by river blockade runner, Hubbard Hart, and was raided and looted by the Union 3rd Colored Infantry on March 10, 1865.
CSA Capt J J Dickinson and his cavalry chased the Union raiders back to St Augustine (Fort Marion), and recovered most of the looted goods.
Marshall Plantation...? Look for an Acacia Tree, on a MOUND of EARTH (covered up Well); SOMETHING was thrown into it by slaves... they threw dirt over it. @ 4' from top, slaves were killed and thrown into well; REBELS "topped off" well, mounded it & planted a Sprig of Acacia to "mark the spot". (Legend).
 

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Great information. Thanks ECS. Most historians don't even mention Florida's battles and skirmishes during the Civil War. I am glad historians in Florida keep up with the research.
That may be because with the exception of the coast to coast Union blockade and the occupation of Florida's coastal port cities, the Union conducted interior raids of looting and burning of the civilian populace who were supplying the Confederate Cause. Most of these raids were repelled by the CSA Florida Cavalries, local militias, many composed of old men, boys, and women, Florida Crackers who lived through three Seminole Wars.
The only major battle was Olustee at Ocean Pond, which was a sounding defeat for the Union.
...and Tallahassee was the only Confederate State Capitol NOT taken during the War of Northern Aggression.
 

...and Tallahassee was the only Confederate State Capitol ---EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI--- NOT taken during the War of Northern Aggression.

Sorry, had to.

TWO Confederate state capitals never fell - Tallahassee, Florida & Austin, TX.

Going one step further-

If my memory serves me correctly, Florida didn't have its congressional presence restored until June or July (?) of 1868...

Texas' congressional presence was restored in March of 1870... And (all jokes aside) it was a decision made in haste - Texas hadn't actually fulfilled the readmission criteria at that point due to required revisions of the Texas State Constitution, the US Constitution, and the Reconstruction Acts of 1867.




~Tejaas~
 

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In 1868, Ocala, Marion county ,Florida was placed under Federal Marshall Law due to citizens resistance to Reconstruction, caused by the killing of a freeman tax collector in Flemington.
 

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