Read Online Confederate Gold and Silver by Peter F. Warren - Free Book Online

might have been less, and perhaps the poor decisions might have not been made if General Robert E. Lee, the commanding general of the Confederate army, had not lost his ‘right arm’. General Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson had been killed earlier in the year, having been accidentally mortally wounded by his own men. But many factors turned the tide in this significant battle and Jackson could not have controlled all of those factors which in the end worked against the Confederacy at Gettysburg during that hot July in 1863. While Lee would accept the responsibility for all that went wrong, it was not the fault of one man they had been turned back. It was far more than that.
    Despite their courage, and despite their desire to stay and fight another day, the decision was made to begin an orderly withdrawal south, back across the Potomac River, and back into the relative safety of the Shenandoah Valley. As the Confederate army withdrawal took place, the long gray line of the Confederacy stretched for miles and took weeks to complete before they reached safety. As they withdrew, and despite their best efforts to protect their rear guard, both armies clashed in several small skirmishes and battles as the Confederate army moved back south.
    As the Confederate army moved south through Maryland after crossing over the Potomac River, the Union army continued to inflict losses on the Confederacy. Among those losses was the death of Brigadier General J. Johnson Pettigrew. Despite surviving Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg, Pettigrew was killed during the Battle of Falling Waters. His death was another the Confederate army could not afford.
    At the Battle of Manassas Gap, at Fairfield, at Boonsboro, and in other places, the Confederate army would lose another five thousand soldiers. Their losses at Gettysburg, of both the battle and of men, and their additional losses of men during their withdrawal, did not directly lose the war for the rebel army. Their losses also did not cause them to lose their will to fight, but those continuing losses did have a significant adverse effect on their ability to sustain an army large enough to fight in many future battles.
    After their withdrawal from Gettysburg, the Confederate army would again fight bravely despite being ill equipped in many battles. They would fight at the Second Battle of Fort Sumter, at the Battle of Chickamauga, at the Battle of Five Forks, at the Battle of Atlanta, and at over one hundred and fifty other locations before they agreed to surrender at Appomattox Court House in 1865.
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    As Lee’s army moved south, the President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, soon learned of the defeat of his army at Gettysburg. Davis would then learn of another devastating loss to the Confederacy when news of General John Pemberton surrendering his troops in Vicksburg to General Ulysses S. Grant reached him. The additional news of Port Hudson, on the Mississippi River, also falling to the Union army contributed to the bad news that would reach Davis. The news of those losses was crippling to both the South and to President Davis. He, like others, soon began to fear Richmond, the Confederate capitol, would be next to fall to the advancing Union army. The pressure placed on him to protect Richmond, and to protect the assets of the Confederacy, was enormous. Among the principle assets he had to take steps to protect was the treasury of the Confederacy. Money needed to continue their fight against the Union.
    In the early days of the war, the Confederacy had seized the United States mint in New Orleans and had taken possession of a large amount of gold and silver coins. Those coins were estimated to be worth in excess of six million dollars at the time they were stolen. Additionally, the Confederacy also seized bonds and bank notes which led to approximately twenty million dollars in total assets being seized from the mint and from a nearby state bank depository. That