Hayes Lowe
More details...long
Mon Jul 16 11:26:32 2001


It is interesting to note that at the time of President Jefferson Davis' capture in May 1865 his party was in possession of all the remaining Confederate funds which amounted to $85,000 in gold, $36,000 in silver, $35,000 in silver coin, and $700,000 in Confederate currency. Confederate Finance and Supply
by W. Power Clancy

©1998 The Cincinnati Civil War Round Table


Much of this account is based on the first person [or at least is in concordance with it] that I mentioned earlier. This is regarding the remainder of the treasury that had not been paid out to the soldiers in Georgia:

In May 1865, one of the last events of the Civil War happend in Arther. A month after Lee surrendered his army in Virginia, a number of high ranking government officials were still trying to make their way south, carrying with them important state documents and the remains of the Confederate treasury, in hopes of eluding Federal troops and setting up a government in exile in either the Bahamas or Cuba. On May 15, a wagon train carrying about $25,OOO in gold coin--all that was left of the Treasury--and personal baggage of Jefferson Davis, crossed into Florida. They made slow progress, having to stop frequently to elude Federal patrols and bush-whackers.
Finally they arrived at Cotton Wood plantation on May 22 at which time they learned from Mrs. Yulee that Jefferson Davis had been captured near Irwinville, Georgia on May 10th. Their camp that night on the grade of the Florida Railroad was, according to one of the men there, a gloomy one. During the night they discussed what they should do. In the morning, after the bitter debating was over, the ten men that formed the wagons' guard decided to split the treasure equally among themselves after laying about a quarter of it aside for Mrs. Davis. Each man received about 400 gold sovereigns, or about $1,940. They also allotted themselves $55 each for traveling expenses and another $975 was paid out to their scout Howard, Jefferson Davis' bodyguard, Staffin, and five black servants who had traveled with the wagon train.
Mrs. Yulee tentatively agreed to hide Jefferson Davis' trunks and bags as well as the secret government papers, She asked a Lieutenant Purviance to help her son hide the chest where it could not be found. Purviance later reported, "I informed her that I
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thought I could bury it in Charlie's stable; Charlie was a Cuban Poney[viz] that was kept apart from the other horses in a log cabin stable, to himself. That night, after all the people were gone to bed but Mrs. Yulee, I turned the poney out of his stable, and dug a pit in the middle of his stable, and went with the wheelbarrow to the House, and took the trunk and buried it". Two other chests and another trunk containing papers and personal items were hidden by Wickliffe, Yulee's fifteen year old son, in a cow barn that same night.
David Yulee returned home the next day and advised the wagon train's guards to seek paroles, return to their families and resume civilian life. Several of the men did just that and left the next day, getting paroled in Waldo, Baldwin or Jacksonville. One, Captain Clark, remained near Cotton Wood for about a week to make sure the Federals hadn't found their trail and were chasing them. He hid his share of the money at the end of that week and went north.
David Yulee was arrested in Gainesville a few days later. He had already made plans that should he be arrested his wife and family were to return to her father's home, that of former Governor Wickliffe of Kentucky. Also, expecting that he would be arrested soon, Yulee had ordered that the baggage be dug up and transported to Waldo, where it was entrusted to M.A. Williams, a Florida Railroad agent.
In the meantime, one of the black drivers of the treasure train had informed the Yankees of the whereabouts of the wagons at Cotton Wood. Captain O.E. Bryant and a detachment of in several skirmishes against Sherman's army in his advance from Vicksburg to Chattanooga. He was under General Joseph Wheeler in Georgia and the Carolinas and fought several skirmishes with the Calvary unit. At the close of the war Mr. Ganey was with the Calvary escort of President Davis when he came south from Richmond. When the treasury fund of the Confederacy was divided by President Davis in Georgia, he received for his services a twenty dollar gold piece and five Mexican silver dollars.
AN EARLY HISTORY OF CRENSHAW COUNTY
Compiled by
Joe R. Sport, Superintendent
Crenshaw County Schools

A differerent first person article [different from the one that I have mentioned] regarding the dispersement of some of the gold and silver can be found here: http://www.aotc.net/Selma.htm