Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 39.djvu/36

 24 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Thinking it likely that these documents might throw some additional light upon the subject and that they would be of in- terest to you, it occurred to me to send them for such use as you may see fit to make.

Yours very respectfully,

W. E. R. Byrne.

The Last ConfederxVte Payroll.

In April-May, 1865, while President Davis and cabinet, with Gens. Braggs, Breckenridge and others, and some twenty-five hundred troops, were between Abbeville, S. C, and Washington, Ga., Gen. Toombs' home, I (as a bonded quartermaster), was ordered to receipt for the gold and specie estimated at about $150,000, then in the wagon train with the president. This gold had been brought from Richmond, Va., in special charge of a company of naval cadets, as I was informed. The enemy was still around us. Our own boys had become demoralized about this gold. They said if they didn't take it, the quarter- master or the Yankees would. That was one time it was not pleasant or safe to be a quartermaster. Discipline was gone. But Gen. Breckenridge, in his mature manhood, was equal to the occasion. In an old Kentucky hunting jacket, he appeared before the men, now almost a mob. He told them they were Southern gentlemen and Confederate soldiers. They must not become highway robbers. They knew how to die bravely; they must live honorably.

He promised them an orderly distribution of enough of the gold to help each one on his way, whether to his home or to the trans-Mississippi department, where good fighting might yet be done. The men were readily controlled and became quiet and content.

Gen. Bragg, a few of his stafif and I, then went to the "gold train" (which we usually tried to conceal). Under Gen. Bragg's directions each of us took about a quart of gold coin and tied it