Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1886-09-17


United States Treasury Departmental Relic
OF War Times.
There Is very interesting bureau in
the treasury department about which the
public knows but little, writes a Washing
ton correspondent of the New York Com
mercial Advertiser. Over little green
balze door In the third story is printed in
gilt letters the word captured" There
Is something suggestive of piracy in this
and beneath 1t Is Il warming not to enter,
| pushed the door open the other day.
There was nothing worse within than
three or four desks, and as many more
ld-mannered clerks. This is the bureau
OF captured and abandoned property"
When the government appropriates other
peoples property here is where it goes.
Where's the plumbers" l asked of a
very knowlng-locking man who occupied
a big desk in the middle of the room,
We'll. there isn't very much these
times" he replied. "Only stray gun or
an anchor or two fished up ont of New
York harbOr. Folks don't abandon prop
erty much nowadays" and he looked
about him with an air of one who feels
his occupation gone. But | have seen
the day" he added, when abandoned prop
erty meant something. What do YOU say
to Pickidg up whole plantation! We've
done 1t and had two or three at a time
worked on shares. Sometimes we've got
a mule or two, or few hundred bales of
/ cotton. That was in '63 and '64 or there
! abouts. When the southern people fled
/ before the advance of the union army
this bureau was formed to take charge of
valuable property they left behind OF
course, they left their plantations, and
cor ,a+I H., i
and plate, besides large stores of grain.
tobacco and cotton. We got the stores.
but unfortunately, very little of the Jew
elry.
There is doubtless an impression in
the south that there are many valuables
IN the treasury taken from southern
homes. This is a mistake. What we got
was cotton, grain, rnd tobacco. OF these
| products We got and sold about S26,OOU,-
| 600 worth. We made Il rich harvest in
Louisiana. Georgia, Alabama, and South
Carolina. The people fled before the
army, leaving everything. We came on
behind and picked up what they had left
Sometimes when they did not abandon
| their property we cOntiScated it; that is
all that might give aid or comfort to the
enemy. But we got only the heavy things.
All that could be easily carried off was
| gone before We could get it. Our object
was to save all personal property and
valuables, and they would have been re-
| stored to their owners III time; but the
| plunderers generally put their hands in
| first, and 1t was impossible to keep up
with them. There was an organized
search among the troops for captured
property. but there was seldom any
| found. This plunderers always managed
tn all bn, Z
Ii fell under the eye of some superior
officer that anything valuable was ever
| saved.
In South Carolina the wealthy people
had placed their iewelry and plate in the
! bank. In one of the banks there were
| several large boxes of the bank officers
were trying to get to a place of safety,
when they were discovered by the sol
diers, and all the valuables captured.
! But out of 1t all the government officials
| got no more than one box, which was of
no great value All the rest was spirited
away by the captors, and the owners pro
badly think the government has it. This
was the only Occsion upon which the gov
ernment ever got any jewelry or plate
and the value of all we now have in the
treasury. | should estimate it to he
aboutS2,50O This is all we can account
for all the valuables the southern people
lost. We were supposed to take charge
of all the personal property picked up on
the battlefield. | venture to say we never
! found dollars worth. People in the
south think that cur vaults are rich with
treasures. They're mistaken.
1t has been declared that General But
ler's famous captured silverware was in
the treasury vaults. General Bntler said
himself that he turned it over to the pro-
per authorities and accounted for it spe-
cially in bis report to the war department.
Not one spoon of it is in the treasury.
Nor does the government know anything
| of it. No reference to it in any way
whatever is made in Gen Buffers accounts
at the war department. Further explana-
tion is necessary from some other quar-
ter.
''In the box we have, continued the
abandoned prOpertyman, there is very
little silverware. 1t is mostly jewely, all
Old-fashioned. Old style watches, rich
cameo sets, odd old rings with peculiar
settings, evidently family relics; minia-
lures set in gold and gems, diamond
rings, and all sorts of odd and peculiar
| trinkets. The greatest value of most of
them lies probably in their associations.
Some of them have probably been in fam
lilies for generations. The owners of
quite number have asserted their claims
and got their property but what we have
now will PROBABLY never be claimed.
Anyone who will come and describe his
property can get it. That's the reason
we keep it so close, where no one can see
it. We have to keep quiet and not give
any information that might assist any
one to establish a claim either to this to
or to money for captured stores. The
only other captured things of value We
have in the treasury vaults are the swords
of Gen. Twigg. One of these, you know,
is worth about S25,OOO. They are of gold
and jewels. The family have long tried
to get them, but probably never will"