Confederate Gold and Silver (58 page)

“You have nothing to worry about, Holly. In fact, you and the other girls, like many others, will soon know what it is we are putting into these boxes, but until then you will have to keep guessing. Now, can I have the keys for the boxes and the use of one of your private rooms? We have to transfer a few items from these packing boxes into the safety deposit boxes and we need some privacy.”

Handing Paul the keys, Holly then signed them into the bank’s Safety Deposit Room. “Holly, just one more thing before you leave. Jayne is going to stay with these boxes for a couple of minutes while I fetch the rest of them from our van. One of our friends will be joining us as well. His name is Chick Mann, just for your record keeping and all. I’ll be right back.”

In a small room the bank had designated as their Safety Deposit Room, one which afforded privacy for the renters of the bank’s safety deposit boxes, the three of them filled the secure metal drawers with the coins and bars they had found in the cemetery. Some of the smaller plastic containers fit perfectly into the metal drawers, but the larger containers had to be emptied so the coins could fill some of the voids caused by other containers. Emptying a few of the small containers also allowed them to place more loose coins into the boxes. It took some time, but eventually they filled each of the ten safety deposit boxes to near capacity with what they had found.

When they had completed the transfer of the coins and bars to the safety deposit boxes, Paul waved to Holly to get her attention. She had returned to her desk while they had worked in privacy behind closed doors. She walked to where he was waiting for her so they could return the safety deposit boxes to the bank’s secured vault. After the vault had been opened, Paul and Chick struggled to lift the heavy metal drawers back into their respective slots. Holly could not help but notice how heavy they were to lift. “What in heavens name do y’all have in there? Wait, I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know. Don’t tell me! Forget I asked!”

After securing the safety deposit boxes in the vault, Holly handed Paul his set of keys. Then she initialed each of the Safety Deposit Box Access Cards for the boxes he had rented. The records noted what time they left the vault area for the day. As she walked with them to the bank’s lobby, Holly jokingly asked Paul if he wanted her to contact the bank’s Myrtle Beach office to see what they had available for similar size safety deposit boxes.

“That’s a good idea, Holly. Call me when you find out and I’ll tell you what we need.” She had only been joking with Paul, but hearing the response she had gotten from him, she knew he had not been.

“Are you really serious about needing more? Do y’all really need more of them?”

“Yes, ma’am, the big ones preferably.”

As they walked out the bank’s front door, Holly was left standing alone in the bank’s lobby. She had but one thought as she watched them walk across the parking lot. “What in the world is going on here I wonder?”

******

Outside of speaking with Duke on the phone that evening and telling him about their discovery, Paul focused his efforts on catching up with his sleep. He was so tired he quickly fell into a deep sleep. He dreamt of nothing that night, not even of the rest of the gold and silver which was still out there waiting to be found.

The next afternoon, Paul played a round of golf at
The
Links
with Chick and Bobby Ray. It was hard not to talk about what they had found, but they made a promise to each other not to talk about the gold and silver. It would be a day to just relax and have fun. They each struggled with their golf game, but they enjoyed the sun and each others company, as well as a few beers as they made their way around the course in Pawleys Island. They almost made it through the entire day without talking about it, but that would have been impossible for them to do.

After finishing a rather unremarkable round of golf, they sat in the shade on the clubhouse porch enjoying a couple of afternoon cocktails. Each of them had struggled not to break their promise, but it was Chick who finally started talking about what they had found.

“I know we promised not to talk about this, but where do we go from here?”

“Home, I guess.” Bobby Ray never passed up the opportunity to fit a joke into a conversation.

Chick gave Bobby Ray a frown as they each relaxed in oversized green wicker rocking chairs on the side porch of the clubhouse. “You know what I mean, Bobby Ray. What’s the next part of this adventure for us?”

Setting down his half empty glass of Jack and Coke, Paul looked over at his friend who was working at adding up their golf scores. “Bobby Ray, anyone asking questions about this down at the Sheriff’s Office?”

“No, not really. They all know you and I are buddies, but no one is asking me any questions and I ain’t been asking any either. I’m trying to fly below the radar if you catch my drift.”

“Good idea, Bobby Ray.”

After they each had one more Jack and Coke, they walked to their cars and prepared to head for home, agreeing to meet for lunch the following day at the diner. Carrying his Nike golf bag as he walked back to his truck, Paul made a mental note that he had to give Steve a call. “Gosh, it’s been over two weeks since I spoke to him. I need to call him.”

Opening the door to his truck, Paul turned to see Chick was changing his shoes in the parking lot. “Chick, it’s up to you about Pete, but try and get Jayne down to lunch tomorrow. I want her opinion on where we go from here.”

******

The following morning Chick phoned two of his friends who taught United States history at two different colleges in North Carolina. Like him, they also had a passion about the Civil War. They were both far more versed in certain areas about the war than he was. He called to ask them what they each knew about the legend of the missing Confederate treasury.

To his surprise, Chick found both of them believed the treasury had actually been moved out of Richmond during the war. Perhaps even more to his surprise, and independent of each other, he learned neither of them believed in any conspiracy theories about the money being stolen by Union troops, crooked Southern politicians, or by those charged with moving it. Each of them was of the opinion the money was still out there, probably buried for some unknown reason by those who were charged to get it to Atlanta, Mississippi, or to wherever.

Professor Jeffrey Brandau had attended college with Chick and had become a well respected Civil War author, lecturer, and researcher, prior to joining the staff at the University of North Carolina. Over the phone he told Chick his opinions. Brandau believed the treasury was still likely buried somewhere between lower North Carolina and Georgia. “I know for a fact from my research the money did exist and that it had been moved out of Richmond before the Union army advanced on the city. From what I’ve learned, it was comprised mostly of gold and silver coins. It may have also included some crudely made gold and silver bars, and perhaps even some Mexican currency, but I’m not positive on all of that. I do know the South had been selling cotton to Mexico during that period of time so it would be safe to bet the treasury included some type of Mexican currency.” Brandau pressed him on why he was calling about the Confederate treasury, but Chick easily avoided answering the question by moving on with the conversation.

Professor Timothy Baughman, of the University of Wilmington, had met Chick through a series of Civil War lectures they both had attended a few years back. Through their mutual interests in the Civil War and in the game of golf they had become good friends. While speaking with Baughman, Chick learned he had some similar thoughts as Brandau had regarding the treasury. The only difference was Baughman was of the opinion those who had been charged with moving the money south from Richmond had hidden the money for a certain reason. “They probably buried it because they were being chased by others, perhaps it was even by Union or Confederate soldiers who wanted to steal the gold and silver.” He told Chick his thinking was whoever had buried the money could not find it when they went back to retrieve it. Baughman was also of the opinion that whoever had buried the money perhaps had been killed during the war before they could get back to where they had buried it. “Chick, we likely will never know the whole story, but I do know I’d like to be there when the money is found.” He also told Chick he felt the money had been buried or hidden somewhere north of Georgia. “That would have been a tough trip to make and I doubt the money ever made it as far south as Georgia. While I know the Confederacy was afraid of Union troops capturing it, I’m quite sure that never happened. I’ve always felt it never made it to Georgia. My guess is it’s in your neck of the woods, likely the Charleston area, but who knows where it might be. Somebody is going to find it by accident some day I suspect.” As they talked, Chick mentioned to him what Brandau’s opinions were regarding the missing treasury. Baughman ended their conversation by telling him he felt his theory about the missing treasury was the more likely scenario than the one their mutual friend had previously shared with him. “Unfortunately for Jeff, his golf game is as bad as his knowledge of the Civil War is!” Chick laughed when he heard this as he knew Baughman was joking with him regarding their friend’s opinion of the missing money.

Later, as they ate lunch at the diner, Chick told the others about the conversations he had with his two friends. “They both felt something likely happened along the way and the money had been buried for one reason or another. In fact, they both still think it’s out there someplace.”

Paul had listened as Chick summarized what his two friends had told him. Halfway through his BLT, Paul told him what he thought about his friends read on the missing Confederate treasury. “Chick, you know some pretty smart guys, especially that Baughman guy. The money was out there just like they said. Perhaps your buddy is correct. Maybe the rest of the missing gold and silver is in Charleston. Who knows though?”

As they ate their lunch, Paul handed each of them copies of the letter Francis had written to President Davis. “Look at the wording in his letter. It’s obvious he was trying to give Davis some clues about where he left the money. We just have to figure out the clues no one else has ever had. It’s simple really. All we need to do is figure out what he was trying to tell President Davis and then we go and find the rest of the treasury.”

Chick smirked at Paul’s attempt to minimize the difficulty of the problem they were now facing. “If only it was going to be that easy.”

Several minutes later, and after a few more bites of her turkey club sandwich, Jayne pointed out one of the obvious clues the letter contained. “The letter, if it’s real, was apparently written in Charleston as it shows the date and the location at the top of the page. But then it confusingly speaks of him trying to get back to Charleston. Which is it? I think we need to focus our efforts in Charleston as the letter also speaks of a warehouse there, one on the King Street road. I think we need to hit those clues hard.” She was soon pleased to hear Chick agreed with her.

“I agree, I think we need to start there also. Besides what my friends told me on the phone this morning, I think, as Jayne has already pointed out, that Charleston is the place we should start. It was a Confederate stronghold and it had a busy harbor. Perhaps he was trying to get the rest of the money there so he could ship it further south. But let me ask you one question. If the letter was written in Charleston, why does he say they are going to ride north into South Carolina if he is already there?”

“That’s a good point, Chick. I think it’s just one of several clues he has left for someone to figure out. But I think we already know what he meant by that one clue. I believe he was trying to tell President Davis or whoever read the letter that he had buried some of the money north of Charleston, probably the money we have just found in the cemetery.”

Chick thought for a moment about the clue and about Paul’s response to his point. “Yeah, you are probably right. I missed that one. That’s what he was doing, especially when he also talks about leaving the money with the Allston children. I totally missed that one.”

Paul then told them which clue had him stumped. “I am with both of you that Charleston needs to be the next place we start looking. What I cannot figure out from the letter is when he talks about the
‘battered
and
broken,
these
strong,
solid
black
friends
of
ours,
who
have
served
us
so
well
since
Fort
Sumter.’
The obvious thought is that he was talking about black slaves, but I’m not so sure the slaves served the South well enough for him to have trusted them with the treasury, at least what was left of it. I’m not convinced he was referring to slaves. What do you think he means by this section of his letter?”

Jayne had not been able to get past thinking Francis was talking about slaves with that one reference. “Paul, I think he is referring to slaves in his letter. Many slaves remained loyal to their owners during the war, even after Lincoln emancipated them. Remember, not every slave owner was a bastard as it is often portrayed these days. But I have to admit, this section of the letter has got me also.”

Paul looked at Bobby Ray who was sitting in the corner of the booth eating his lunch, but adding very little to the conversation. “How about you, Bobby Ray? I’m dying to hear your thoughts on this.”

Putting down his bacon double cheeseburger, Bobby Ray paused a moment to wipe his face with his napkin before answering the question. “I’m with y’all so far, but I’m totally convinced the money is in Charleston myself. We’ve got us some work to do down there, but it’s there, I’m telling y’all that right now. That one clue y’all been talking about ain’t yet convinced me he was talking about leaving the money with slaves.”