The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-13


encampment of Confederate troops, the
Santee Mounted Rifles, and found that
we were safe within the Confederate
lines From there we had to walk to
Charleston, distance of y miles, over
a heavy. sandy road, and by the time
we reached the city we were as worn
and bedraggled specimens of human
ity as it would be possible to find
We were warmly welcomed by the
people of Charleston, who insisted on
regarding the men of the Seabrook as
heroes, and by Major Evans, who had
arrived before US. The latter advanced
US money for our immediate needs for
what we had had been lost in making
our escape from the boat. We were set
to work almost Immediately in the
printing office of Evans & Coggswell,
which still stands in Broad street,
Charleston, but after short time we
were removed to Columbia, the capital
of the state. where most OF the work OF
making Confederate paper money was
carried on for the remainder of the
war.
There were three establishments in
Columbia devoted TO this business.
One was that of Evans & Coggswell,
of which firm our friend Major Evans
was the senior member. They had
70 hand presses in their Office and
printed notes of small denomina-
lions. ones and twos. besides the thou
sands of cotton" bonds which the Con-
federacy issued. The second was that
of Heating & Ball, where ten presses
were kept busy running off copper
plate impressions of the large denomi-
nation notes-100 and 500. The third
establishment was that OF Colonel
Blauton Duncan, where II Autograph
presses turned ont the notes of the
middle denominations-5. 10. 20, etc,
The total capacity of all these presses
per week, including the printing of
bonds, came close to the 100,OOO,O00
mark and during the latter part of
so and all of SO, they were kept going
at nearly top speed Colonel Duncan's
office, being the one with which 1 am
most familiar, will perhaps, serve to
illustrate the whole work.
Each press was manned by three
workers-one printer and two negro
slave helpers. The printers, of whom
there were about - in the town. We're
nearly all Englishmen, as were the de-
| signers also. The paper was all manu-
! featured in England and was stamped
at the mandatory with the mark
of the Confederacv, a small palmetto
| encircled bv the words Treasury De-
partment, c. S. A." but the stones
/ from which the bills were printed were
prepared in Columbia by the men
! brought over for that purpose. The
]
/ 16X1S inches, larSe enough to contain
! eight bills. It was necessary to take
several impressions for each sheet to
| get in the different colors and the
/ sheets were passed on from printer to
! printer until COMPLETED, and then were
shipped away TO Richmond to be
! signed. Of course il was impossible
/ for the register and secretary of the
/ treasury TO sign all these. a large
/ force of clerks was employed for this
work and after time some of them
We're stationed in Columbia where the
signing process could go on more
rapidly.
The rate of pay was very liberal, as
/ will be seen from the price-list APP
pended to the rules and regulations.
! This rate was in addition to the $40
I in gold which the Englishmen were
paid. and as good workman could
run off 5000 impressions a week and
! the Confederate bills were worth at
this time about 20 per cent of their
face value, the earnings of all the men
/ were high, much higher than they
would have been at home in London
and Glasgow.
"One effect Of the efforts of Major
, Evans and his associates was a great
! improvement in the quality and dura
bility of Confederate bills. The differ
! ence between the early notes, printed
Oh one sue u IllllSl Ud=lEI Will
/ crude design, and those of a later date
on tough Daoer and with a design
that was ineligible if not artistic, was
I very striking and lessened the count
| erfeiters chance by some 100 per cent
As . matter OF fact, there were less
counterfeiting of Confederate bills than
is usually supposed. The northern imi-
tations were wretched productions and
I in the south there were few facilities
for such work.
A second. no less important, effect
! of the change was that it enabled the
printers to keep pace fairly well with
the Confederate legislators who were
( authorizing new issues of treasury
notes every few days until. as Presi-
dent Davis said, they had flooded the
country with a mass of paper cur
/ Iency at least three times the amount
required by its business needs" The
value of these notes ranked lower and
lower, the printing presses were made
to turn faster and faster, because it
took more and more notes to buy a
/ certain amount of war supplies abroad
"a retroactive policy which in itself
! proves the desperateness of the situa-
ton.
Although the men enga ged in the
production of this money acted as con-
tractors. their position was ouasi-of-
fetal and corresponded more nearly to
| that of government officers. Military
discipline was enforced in all the Of
fees and strict attention to business
was required as the following copy of
the rules enforced by Colonel Duncan
I shows:
RULES AND REGULATIONS.