Chester, S.C., End of the War-- Part 3: The Provisional and Permanent Constitutions of the Confederacy

Not only was the treasury of the Confederacy on the train, but also many important documents including both the  provisional and permanent Confederate Constitutions and the Great Seal of the Confederacy.

The Constitutions were recovered and kept safe by Felix Gregory  DeFontaine, who later sold them to museums.  The provisional one ended up in the Confederate Museum in Richmond, Va., and the permanent one  is now owned by the University of Georgia.

--Old Secesh

Chester, S.C. At the End of the Confederacy-- Part 2: A Railroad Connection and Confederate Treasury

In 1865, with the fall of Columbia, S.C., and destruction of its rail yards, Chester was the  southern-most town that could be reached in the dying Confederacy.  It became a bustling town with an arsenal and four hospitals taking care of wounded soldiers coming in almost daily by train.  Many died and were buried in nearby cemeteries, most notably Evergreen.

In March and April, there was a huge influx of refugees.

On April 13, 1865, Chesterville's Southern railroad Station (on Lancaster Street) became the end of the line for the Confederate treasury train from Richmond.

Boxes of gold and silver, guarded by the midshipmen of the Confederate States Naval Academy and others were then loaded onto wagons and shipped south.

--Old Secesh

Chester County and Chester (S.C.) At the End of the War.

In an earlier blog yesterday, I mentioned that the midshipman of the Confederate States Naval Academy, guarding the Confederate treasury in April 1865 as the government fled south (also with Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis) and they went to Chester (called Chesterville back then) before moving on to Abbeville, S.C..

I found a lot of good information about Chester at the Southern Fried Common Sense & Stuff blog.

As Sherman left the wreckage of Columbia, S.C., he decided on a feint toward Charlotte to the north, while his real destination was Fayetteville and then Goldsboro, North Carolina.  This took him toward Chesterville.  His main force went north to Winnsboro, 25 miles south of Chester before turning so he never actually entered Chester County, although scouting parties and his bummers did.

THE HANGING OF BURRELL HEMPHILL

In front of the  Hopewell Reformed Presbyterian Church in southern Chester County is a small stone monument  for Burrell Hemphill, a slave of Robert Hemphill who owned 2200 acres.  When Union forces passed through, the Hemphill family fled and left Burrell in charge of the estate.

Burrell buried the family silver in  the woods but was caught by Union bummers on his return.  He refused to tell them where he had buried the silver.  This angered them and they dragged Burrell to a spot near the church and hanged him and then lowered him several times, then rehanging him again but he continued to refuse to tell them.

He eventually died from the torture.  The Union soldiers then used his body for target practice.

--Old Secesh

The End and the C.S. Naval Academy-- Part 2: On the Move Southward to Augusta

From April 3 to 9, Lt. Parker and his cadets were at Danville, Virginia, and then moved south to Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 10 and then to Charlotte on April 13.  Here the Confederate treasury that they had been guarding was placed in the Charlotte mint temporarily, but taken out as the Confederates  moved to Chester, South Carolina.

There the use of the train was abandoned and the treasury put on a wagon train, with gold packed ins small boxes and  and the silver in kegs.  The group, along with First Lady Varina Davis and her children, they traveled to Abbeville, S.C., by April 15 and stayed until the 17th and then  to Washington, Georgia, on the 19th and Augusta on the 20th.

By then, the midshipmen, Parker and the wagon train were in a serious situation.  They had no idea where President Davis or any member of the Treasury Department were.  They were helped thy the fact that they had joined a company of men under Captain Tabb back in Charlotte. But, there were bummers from Sherman's army and looters in the area.

But, he was able to secure  the treasury in the vaults of a bank in Augusta, and they remained in Augusta until after the surrender of Johnston.

--Old Secesh

The End of the Confederacy and the Confederate Naval Academy-- Part 1

Even though the Confederate States Naval Academy (CSNA) is Navy, I will write about it here as the cadets at the end of the war were land-based.

From Wikipedia.

In the spring of 1865, as the fall of Richmond grew more likely, Secretary Mallory made the decision to relocate the school further into the interior of what was left of the Confederacy, North or South Carolina or even Georgia.   Lt. Graves was sent to find a suitable site.    Nowhere was found and Superintendent  William H. Parker rented a warehouse in Richmond and the midshipmen made preparations to sink their school ship, the CSS Patrick Henry as an obstruction in the James River.

On the afternoon of April 2, as Richmond was being evacuated, Lt. Parker received orders to report to the quartermaster of the Confederate Army and to escort President Jefferson Davis, his party, the Confederate  archives and treasury south.  Parker took 50 of his midshipmen for this task and left  Lt. James W. Billips and 10 more to set fire to and destroy the Patrick Henry.  They succeeded in this, but never succeeded in catching up with the others.

The main group guarded the train with the treasury, consisting of $500,000 which was to be used setting up  a new government seat in Danville, Virginia.  Midshipman Raphael Semmes, Jr. was detailed to the staff of his father, Admiral Raphael Semmes.  Midshipman Clifton Rodes Breckinridge was detailed to the staff as an aide to his father,  Confederate States Secretary of War, John C. Breckinridge.

--Old Secesh

The Confederate Treasury-- Part 2

In 1861, Christopher Memminger proposed a direct tax on mostly real estate and slaves as he wanted slave owners to bear the brunt of the war's costs. Both were to be taxed at one-half of a percent.

This proved to be a fiasco and sentiment against it ran high. Resistance was especially high by the states. After all, the Confederacy had been formed under the premise of state sovereignty and here was the central government asserting itself. The opposition was there even with the risk of losing the war.

Since the tax didn't work, and with the ever-more crippling Union blockade hindering sale of the Confederacy's "White Gold," cotton, the fledgling country began to rely more and more on printing money.

As the quantity of currency increased, its valued declined rapidly. "Its inevitable depreciation greatly undermined the Southern war effort."

Stuff I Didn't Know. --Old B-R'er

The Confederate Treasury-- Part 1

A very interesting article from the March 14th New York Times Opinion page "Money for Nothing" by Ben Tarnoff.

This is a subject I knew little about other than so much Confederate money was printed during the war that it essentially became worthless. Mr. Tarnoff went into some detail on Southern finances.

On March 9, 1861, the Confederate Treasury was given authority to print $1 million in notes. From this small amount, huge increases were made. With the Civil War still a little over a month away, a Northern firm, the National Bank Note Company of New York, was contracted to print it. That is definitely an interesting arrangement.

President Jefferson Davis appointed Christopher Gustavus Memminger of South Carolina to run the treasury. He didn't have much to work with. Gold bullion had been obtained when the federal mints at New Orleans and Dahlonega, Georgia, were seized, but beyond that, there wasn't much to back up currency.

More to Come. --Old B-R'er