Confederate Gold and Silver Read online

  Confederate Gold and Silver

  “War at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible.”

  President Abraham Lincoln

  “What a cruel thing is war . . . .”

  General Robert E. Lee

  “Let us have peace.”

  General Ulysses S. Grant

  CONFEDERATE

  GOLD and SILVER

  A story of the lost Confederate Treasury and

  its missing gold and silvera

  Peter F. Warren

  (A fictional piece of work)

  Copyright © 2012 by Peter F. Warren.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  http://www.readpete.com

  [email protected]

  See the author’s Facebook page for additional information.

  Author’s photo—Peter Warren’s photo was taken at the Caledonia Golf and Fish Club, in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, where he works. In the photo is one of the many Southern Live Oak trees which grace the property. (Photo by Marc Guertin)

  This fictional story, while including some accurate historical facts, also includes conversations, writings (in the form of letters), and dialogues which take place between characters in this book; they are not intended to be real or historically accurate. They are a product of the author’s imagination and are intended solely to enhance the story line. Some scenes, events, and locations within this book have also been created for the same reason.

  WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

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  Bloomington, IN 47403

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  Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

  Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

  Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

  ISBN: 978-1-4497-4278-2 (sc)

  ISBN: 978-1-4497-4279-9 (hc)

  ISBN: 978-1-4497-4277-5 (e)

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2012905738

  WestBow Press rev. date: 07/16/2012

  To My Father

  Frank G. Warren

  We Miss You.

  Contents

  Acknowledgements

  1 The Move.

  2 War Begins.

  3 A New Friend.

  4 Gold On The Move.

  5 A Tree Reveals Her Secret.

  6 Instructions.

  7 Clues Uncovered.

  8 The Mission Begins.

  9 The Discoveries Continue.

  10 Troubles Continue.

  11 Filling In The Pieces.

  12 Tough Decisions.

  13 The Investigation Starts.

  14 The Race to Charleston.

  15 Whom To Tell.

  16 Ambushed.

  17 Looking For Gold.

  18 The Cemetery.

  19 One Down—Two To Go.

  20 Georgetown to Charleston.

  21 Gold in North Carolina.

  22 Charleston.

  23 A Cemetery’s Treasures.

  24 No Way Out.

  25 Strong Black Friends.

  26 The Yankees Are Coming.

  27 The Cannons Reveal Their Secrets.

  28 The Mission Dies.

  29 The Southern States Fight Again.

  30 A Final Tribute.

  Acknowledgements

  Like all of you, the successes I have had in life, if any, are ones which have been influenced by the support I have received from family and friends. Fulfilling my dream of writing this book was one of my successes, and it was accomplished, in part, by the support I have received along the way.

  After developing the storyline for this book, I first proposed my thoughts to perhaps one of the least interested persons in American History that I know. From that first conversation, and through the many early mornings and late nights I have spent writing, typing, and finally editing this book, the support I received from my wife, Debbie, has been amazing. ‘Debra Lynn, I could not have done this without your help, without your support, and without your understanding! Thank you so much!’

  During the time it took to write this book I lost my father to Huntington’s disease; a terrible disease he fought and struggled with for several years. My mother, a hero in my eyes, gave up so much of her life to support and care for my father in his final years. A retired Irish Catholic nurse, my mother was unwavering in her dedication and determination to properly care for my father. Despite the round-the-clock care she gave to him, she always found the time to call me and to support my efforts in completing this book. She, along with Debbie, served as my first two “editors”. ‘Mom, Thank you for the love you have shown to dad and me, and to all of your family. Thank you so much!’

  Many of the characters in this book I have named after family and friends. I have done so both out of my respect and fondness for each of them. To our special group of Southbury friends (some who now live in Florida and one who sadly now lives in heaven), friends like Jane and Steve White, Pete and Kathy Francis, Chuck and Karen Mann, and JD and Sue McAulay, and with a special thanks to one of my closest friends, Stephen T. Cochran, Debbie and I extend our sincere thanks for the friendship and support we have shared with each of you over the years. We have shared so many Friday night dinners together, shared so many vacations and holidays together, shared so many family moments together, and now we share a book together. ‘To my friend Pete Francis, who we all miss terribly, I know somewhere in heaven you are enjoying this book.’

  To my many other personal and professional friends, especially those from the CT State Police Department, and those from NASDEA, I thank you for being part of this book. I also want to express my thanks to Marc Guertin for his assistance with my website.

  And, finally, to the two people who mean the most in life to my wife and I, our sons Brian and Sean. I thank you both for being such a big part of my life. You both will always hold special places in my life. I am so proud of both of you.

  I hope all of you who read this book have children, parents, family, and friends in your lives who mean as much to you as they do to Debbie and me.

  Enjoy your reading!

  Summer, 2011

  1

  The Move.

  “I am a Connecticut State Trooper, a soldier of the law,

  to me is entrusted the honor of the Department . . .”

  Connecticut State Police Department’s Code of Honor

  Many people spend their entire adult life working in careers they do not enjoy. Having such a job has to make your outlook on life not quite as rosy as it should be. Life is tough enough; not being excited about your job as you climb out of bed and put your feet on the floor each morn
ing has to make facing the world much more difficult. For Paul Waring that was never the case. Paul loved his job and for most of his career as a Connecticut state trooper he enjoyed the various challenges a trooper faced each and every day. It seemed to him the public, in their good moments, but especially in their bad ones, had always made his job interesting. He never could have survived a career hiding behind a desk.

  Paul did well in his career and had been promoted several times, the last being to the rank of Major. During his career he had the opportunity to command several different investigative units and had earned a reputation as an excellent investigator. His reputation was also that of being a fair, but a demanding boss. He was someone who had proved he could be trusted to do the right thing for those who worked for him as long as they did what was expected of them. For those who did not perform up to the standards he had set for himself, or to the standards he had set for his subordinates, he was known as someone who quietly could put a boot in someone’s rear end to motivate them. But his staff also knew when they walked away, not only were they just more motivated, they often times walked away looking forward to the next time he gave them the boot. He had that way with people as he always left them with the feeling he was looking out for them. As cops held the public accountable when they broke the law, Paul held his detectives accountable when they were not performing well. On most occasions he looked at it as something that just had to be done. One of his favorite sayings described his feelings about having to address problems at work. “It’s just business, it’s not personal.” The troopers and detectives who worked for him knew he had their backs and this was just one of his ways of looking out for them. They knew a boot in the ass from him sometimes kept the rats from Internal Affairs off their backs.

  Paul was the type of boss who saw the potential in so many of the troopers who worked for him over the years. As two of his sergeants had done for him early in his career, he had done the same for those he had supervised. He spent hours and hours of his own personal time helping them to develop their skills so they could be successful in their careers. He was happy to help anyone. When a kick in the pants was needed he had not been afraid to do that either, but it was always done in private, never in front of others. As Paul was not bashful about telling someone they had screwed up, he was often the first one to pay a compliment to a member of his staff who had accomplished something significant. He always took the time to publicly praise his staff when they solved a particular case and he often stepped to the rear so his troopers were the ones who received the recognition from the state police command staff for a job well done. The troopers and detectives who worked for him knew he often did that for them and they appreciated him for those gestures.

  Giving a kick in the pants to someone was something which sometimes had to be done. Most times it got the desired result. But after Paul had done it to you twice and you had not responded accordingly, he wrote you off and you soon found yourself back on the road, writing tickets and investigating accidents instead of working in an investigative assignment. As a lifelong New York Yankee fan, work was unlike baseball. When it came to work you had two strikes with him and then you were out. Three strikes was never an option for him as he did not have the patience or the inclination to give you that third strike. In his world after the second strike it was over and you had struck out with him. He had the juice to transfer his few problem children back to the road and he did so without any regrets.

  While Paul sometimes needed to motivate certain members of his staff to get them refocused on what they should be doing, no one ever had to kick him in the pants to get him back on track. Hand him any type of assignment which needed addressing, such as a murder needing to be solved, a bank robbery to investigate, a command to take over because it had been underachieving, or a complex narcotics wiretap to run, those were the matters which were never a problem for him to take on as they were the issues he excelled at. He looked forward to issues and problems; it was the mundane police work which bored him. The problem assignments which were handed to him always had the problems resolved by the time he was done. Those assignments were always thoroughly completed as Paul’s work ethic was beyond reproach; so were his ethics in dealing with others. Well, at least most of the time they were.

  Sometimes he stepped on people’s toes, sometimes egos got ruffled, and sometimes it even got physical, but the job always got done. “Get it done; I don’t care how you do it, just as long as it’s legal, ethical, and moral. Just get it done.” That had been the motto he lived by. Whatever the assignment was, Paul and his troops always got it done very well.

  One of the last investigations Paul conducted was an Internal Affairs investigation which the Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety personally directed him to handle due to the sensitivity of the matter at hand. He argued with the commissioner over being handed this assignment, but he had lost the fight. He was now forced to take on an investigation he wanted no part of. This investigation involved the Governor’s office, the media, and a fellow member of the state police department who was alleged to have been involved in some minor criminal activity. The subject of this investigation had come up through the ranks with Paul and was a somewhat friend of his.

  The allegations made against this fellow command staff member had been suspect from the beginning, but by the time the investigation had been handed to Paul they really stunk. They continued to stink the entire time he investigated the case as the media whipped the sensational allegations onto the front page of several Connecticut daily newspapers for weeks. When his lengthy investigation was completed he had justified enough of the facts, which others had summarily dismissed early on, that his investigation helped to clear the false allegations made against his friend. But as he had done so many times before, Paul had not been content enough to just clear his friend; he kept investigating when others would have been content enough to stop there. His persistent efforts at digging at the other facts of the investigation led to new evidence being discovered. This evidence resulted in another senior command staff member and two other state employees being charged with several criminal violations, as well as with several administrative violations. The investigation had been an unpleasant one to conduct as no cop likes to have to investigate another cop, but for Paul it had been “just business” as usual, even though his thorough investigation had brought him some personal satisfaction in the end.

  During the criminal trial following his investigation, Paul was present on every opportunity he could be. During the trial’s closing arguments, and later during the sentencing phase, he listened as the presiding judge, and the Senior Assistant State’s Attorney who had prosecuted the case, both made strong comments publicly criticizing the state police commander Paul’s investigation had identified as being complicit in a variety of serious criminal activity. To make matters worse, when Paul’s report was obtained under a Freedom of Information request the media had made, the report identified Major Thomas Barlow as the person directly responsible for conducting unauthorized criminal investigations on several state employees. Part of those unauthorized investigations also included Barlow illegally accessing state police computer files for personal use and falsely obtaining copies of the employee’s financial records. Barlow had also participated in a variety of questionable off-duty activities during the same time these unauthorized investigations were being conducted. Paul’s reports detailed all of these transgressions in significant detail. Both the criminal conduct and the administrative violations were clear violations of the State Police Administrative and Operations Manual regarding personal conduct.

  Barlow then made the additional mistake of commenting publicly on the results of the investigation. In doing so he lied to the media, blaming others for the crimes and violations he had been accused of. Paul knew there would be hell to pay over the investigation’s findings because of Barlow’s close relationship with the governor, but he did not care as he
knew it would be well worth it. Plus it had been the right thing to do. Sitting in Hartford’s Superior Court, Paul had a thought about Barlow just before he was sentenced. “Payback can be a bitch!” He then listened as an obviously upset Judge James Washington berated Barlow in open court for his criminal conduct and falsehoods. Paul had never cared for him as he thought he was a two-faced publicity hound, but he had not gloated when Barlow was found guilty of the charges against him. He did allow himself to take a little pride in his own work when Barlow was finally dismissed from the state police a week after the criminal trial had concluded. It was really more personal satisfaction than gloating, but whatever it was he was pleased Barlow was finally gone from the ranks of the state police.

  Paul’s efforts in investigating this matter received many favorable comments from within the state police and from several Connecticut newspapers as the investigation had shown that cops can police themselves. However, because the governor did not like his association with Barlow being mentioned in police reports or in the newspapers, Paul was soon transferred to an administrative assignment that he was totally unprepared for. It was a transfer he never saw coming.

  The one thing Paul could never tolerate in his career was administrative bullshit. Now his new assignment, one which required him to attend the same boring and repetitive meetings each and every month listening to the ass kissers who agreed with every decision or with every new worthless program the commissioner and his civilian staff dreamed up, gave him heaping doses of administrative bullshit. During these meetings he often found himself daydreaming and wondering what cases his detectives were working. When he did pay attention during these meetings it was not for long. “No wonder nothing ever gets done at headquarters. All of these morons are sitting in meetings all day instead of being in touch with the troopers in the field. They are the ones who are doing the real work.” Paul had always tried not to invoke the mentality others in the field had when they referred to headquarters types of people, but now he found himself mixed in with them. “Guilty, but through association only and not for much longer!”