George W Hicks

Confederate Gold George W Hicks

"Yeah, I know Benjamin said to hold the gold for the new army," he shrugged, "but the Confederacy's no more.""It's now on board here at Apalachicola, so what'll we tell the others?"Belo thought a moment, "We're supposed to ship the gold crates across the isthmus to Tehuantepec, so we'll stay with the plan.""O; we're not go'n tell Dan about New Orleans?" "No, not yet!" he shook his head. "The Yanks are still after us ... we'll spread some coins around in Mexico and let 'em look that way." He calmed and let out a breath, "We'll decide after that."Mystery and intrigue followed the Confederate gold reserves from the time it left Richmond, much with the presidential train. Earlier other gold crates mainly $20 coins left Richmond under the orders of Secretary of State Judah Benjamin. As a New Orleans lawyer, Benjamin negotiated with Mexican officials, both the emperor and rebel leaders to secure a rail route to the Pacific. In the last weeks of the war Secretary of State Benjamin recalled the arrangements with Mexican officials and secretly shipped gold crates from Richmond to Equator by way of the Tehuantepec peninsula. Now with the Confederacy dissolved where is the gold?