[552]The above are examples of the receipts taken. About sunset I took leave of General Duke, with two wagons containing coin and bullion, and a little iron safe in my ambulance, he giving me an escort of twenty or thirty men, whose silver dollars were jingling in their saddlebags. Before reaching town I was halted by Major R. J. Moses to turn over to him an amount of specie which President Davis, before he left, had ordered to be placed at the disposal of the Commissary Department to feed the paroled soldiers and stragglers who were passing through, to prevent their being a burden to a section already well stripped of supplies. I went through the wagons, removing to my ambulance the gold coin and gold bullion, and turned over to Major Moses the wagons and silver bullion, and all of the escort except about ten men. The amounts stated on the boxes footed up $40,000, but Major Moses claimed that possibly some of their contents might have been disturbed. I opened the most of them, finding the contents intact, but as a compromise wrote the following receipt:May 4, 1865Received the within sum from M. H. Clark, Acting Treasurer.John C. Breckinridge, Secretary of War.
Washington, Ga., May 4, 1865
Received of M. H. Clark, Acting Treasurer C. S., twenty (20) boxes of silver bullion, supposed to be worth in coin from thirty-five to forty thousand dollars, upon requisitions of the Quartermaster-General and the Commissary General of Subsistence.To this Major Moses added:
It was after dark when I reached Washington, and failing to find General A. R. Lawton, Quartermaster General, and General I. M. St. John, Commissary General, I made the following endorsement on the receipt:The same having been delivered in Washington, Ga., uncounted, to be counted and weighed before two officers and certified to, a copy of certificate to be forwarded to Judge Reagan.
This property was turned over to Major R. J. Moses by verbal order of Hon. John H. Reagan, acting Secretary of the Treasury, and in his presence the proper requistions were promised to be furnished by Generals Lawton and St. John, which promise was not fulfilled.
