In 1841, Poe published "A Few Words On Secret Writing" which influenced the military cryptographers of that time period, and , those of the Confederacy, including CSA Sec of State Judah P Benjamin.
During the War of Northern Aggression, many Southerners buried their valuable possessions in iron cooking pots to keep them from Yankee looters- there are many legends concerning lost Confederate gold buried in iron pots.
Then there was the story about the hidden treasure of Robert O Willis that appeared in the April 16,1879 Lynchburg Virginian, the newspaper where Beale pamphlet printer, John William Sherman, was sub-editor.
Willis placed $65,000 of gold, silver, and jewelry in iron pots and hid them in a Kentucky cave.
The description of Willis's discovered treasure does have a very familiar ring to it.
There was no reason to publish a pirate treasure story in 1885 Virginia with all the tales of the lost Confederate treasury, which was composed of gold and silver bullion and specie and jewelry donated by Southern ladies for the cause.
That gave rise to the theory that the Beale Papers was a cover story for the lost Confederate gold that disappeared in May 1865 from Danville, Virginia.
James Beverly Ward's, copyright holder and publisher of the Beale Papers, first cousin, CSA Major Edward S Hutter received a Confederate code book from Benjamin in Danville during that month of May.
Now there in NO mention of New Orleans or Louisiana in the Beale Papers, that connection is pure speculation based on the Thomas Beale who fled there from Virginia after a duel with James Beverly Risqué, Ward's grandfather.
No one has ever established if this Beale or any Beale is the Beale character of that dime novel pamphlet...
...and there is a major difference between a historical document and an ephemeral dime novel job pamphlet that sold for 50 cents.
