CONFEDERATE TREASURY MEXICAN COIN

The Confederate Treasury included a large quantity of Mexican silver 8 reales coins. At the war's end the Treasury was shipped south from Richmond by rail, and along the way Confederate notes were redeemed for silver coin at the rate of 70 to 1. The remaining coins were paid out to escorting troops. Some of the coins were kept as souvenirs of the war and later engraved.

Website visitor Chelius H. Carter of Fredericksburg, VA passed along images of a coin he recently purchased with accompanying documentation stating that it had been paid to a soldier in the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry. Thanks - very interesting! Can anyone add further information? Links to earlier E-Sylum articles are included below, and some of those mention references. -Editor

I was looking for information to further document the use of Mexican silver coinage to pay off Gen. Joseph Johnston's Army of Tennessee and it's pretty clear that $38,000 - from your article's read ($39,000 in other documents) in Mexican silver coin was left in Greensboro, NC for that purpose on or about 08 April 1865.

The rest of the renowned "lost Confederate treasury" is a subject of almost mythological proportion; I was only interested in documenting the path of what was paid Johnston's troops, following their 26 April 1865 surrender.

I recently purchased one of these coins, issued to Sgt. Samuel Milton Taylor, a soldier in the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry. Accompanying the coin is a 1907 written documentation of the piece from his family (transcribed in type on a protective envelope in the 1970s).

Number 620
This is a Mexican Dollar which was paid to Samuel Milton Taylor by the Confederate Government at Greensboro, N.C. at the time of the surrender of Gen. Joseph R. Johnson in May, 1865. He was paid $1.50. He spent the 50 cents on his way home (Cheek's X Roads, Tenn.) and kept the Dollar as a Souvenir. Presented to F.W. Taylor 2nd.; brother of Samuel Milton Taylor, by his sister, Mrs. S.Ellen Folsom.

The photos were not clear and when I received this piece, I immediately noticed a significant detail the Seller had missed...on the worn area of the Mexican eagle's breast - a St. Andrews Cross (Confederate battle flag) was incised thereon - presumably by Sgt. Taylor.

From my read of your articles for the Numismatic Bibliomania Society, I thought this piece and its history might be of interest.

"You have their transcription correct (note his family mis-spelled Gen. Johnston's name). As to the "Number 620" - yes, I will assume it was an old estate sale lot number.

"What I can tell you thus far in researching this man's where-abouts is that Sgt.Taylor enlisted in the 16th Tennessee (we'll assume Cavalry) and I believe it was later consolidated into the 2nd Tennessee Regiment of Cavalry, charged with protecting Knoxville, TN from U.S. Gen. Burnside's advance in the fall of 1863; Taylor was captured in the cavalry's rear-guard action, as they were withdrawing to join Gen. Bragg's forces for the coming Battle of Chickamauga. and he was sent to Camp Douglas, near Chicago, IL.

"I pondered the family's story (hence questioned the Seller)...as to HOW he was able to get from Camp Douglas (near Chicago) to Greensboro, NC...even if he was released in early April.

"A friend, Dr. Anthony Hodges, dug into his 2nd Tennessee History and in Fold3 for me and determined that Sgt. Taylor had indeed been exchanged and transferred to Point Lookout, MD by 14 March 1865 and was in the correct part of the country with a paroled prisoner's pass (eastern seaboard) and had plenty of time to re-join his old unit, the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry...just in time to surrender again."