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[24]

Without loss of time, though very reluctantly, General Beauregard sent an officer of his staff, Colonel A. G. Rice, Vol. A. D. C., to execute this disagreeable order. On the 14th, from Columbus, Colonel Rice telegraphed as follows:

To Genl. T. Jordan, A. A. G.:
Mr. Young, under instructions from Mr. Memminger, dated 9th of June, refuses to give up the coin. He has telegraphed to Richmond. No reply yet.

A. G. Rice, A. D. C.

Forcible possession, however, was taken of the coin; and the Secretary of War, when applied to for further instructions, ordered that, inasmuch as Mr. Young had been ‘appointed a depositary’ by Mr. Boston, ‘the money be left in the hands of the former, upon his consenting to receipt for it as the depositary of the Treasury Department.’1 This Mr. Young declined to do; and thereupon General Beauregard was ordered by the Secretary of War to turn over the coin to Mr. T. S. Metcalf, Government depositary at Augusta, Georgia; which was done, Colonel Rice taking triplicate receipts, one for the Secretary of War, one for General Beauregard's files, and one for himself.

Thus was the property belonging to citizens of Louisiana, who were then despoiled by the enemy, in possession of their State, taken away from them by the Government of the Confederate States, from which they had a right to claim protection. What became of that coin is, we believe, even to this day, a mystery. It was, doubtless, spent for the benefit of the Confederacy; but how, and to what purpose—not having been regularly appropriated by Congress—has never been made known to the South, especially to the stockholders and depositors of the ‘Bank of Louisiana.’ That institution was utterly ruined by the seizure of its most valuable assets, thus arbitrarily taken from it. It would have been more equitable to leave this coin untouched, or, if not, to take no greater proportion of it than of the coin of all the other banks in the Confederacy.

The movements of the Federals along the coast of Florida kept General Finegan in a state of constant perplexity, on account of the inferior force under him. On the 14th he gave a clear statement of the condition of his district, and asked that

1 See telegrams, in Appendix.

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