The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1912-06-20
GREAT SEAL Of
The CONF: E|DERACY
Secret Of Its Disappearance
Has Just Been Told,
BOUGHT !. BY VRG|NIANs.

y ls +
Relic Of Civil War Traced From Colo
mel Pickett to Rear Admiral SeIfridoe.
Traditions Revived by Its Purchase
For $4,000.
The great seal of the Confederacy,
after being lost for forty years. has at
last been found. r..
Rear Admiral Thomas o. Selfridge,
o. S. NJ, retired, came into possession
of the historic silver disk in 1872.
when he acted as the representative of
the United States government in
transaction by which the government
obtained various Confederate state pa
pers and other mementoes for $4,000.
Acting as agent for the government,
Rear Admiral Selfridge, then a young
lieutenant, went to Canada and got the
Confederate souvenirs from Colonel
John T. Pickett, who was souvenir
hunter, and in connection with his law
practice here made business of buy
ing and selling papers and documents
connected with the Confederacy.
From the time of it's disappearance
the seal was not heard from until re-
Gently traced to the possession of Rear
Admiral Selfridge. This deduction
was made by Gaillard Hunt, chief of
the division of manuscript in the libra
~ Of congress. In looking over the
Pickett papers he noted the absence
Of the great seal. Inquiry was made
Of Colonel Pickett's son, and it was
learned that the seal had been pre-
sented by his father to Rear Admiral
Selfridge. The rear admiral said that
the seal was in safe at his residence.
1867 Kalorama road, in Washington
Said to Have Been Buried.
The state of South Carolina has a
tradition that the great seal was
buried in a we'll in Abbeyville follow
ing the last meeting of the Confeder-
ate cabinet
James Jones, formerly bodyguard of
Jefferson Davis. who is now living in
Washington, at the age Of ninety, is
confident that he buried the seal in
Georgia, having received it from the
hand Of President Davis At that time
the injunction of secrecy was laid upon
him by Mr.. Davis, said Jones.
For fifty years the people Of the
south have specialized over what had
become of the seal after the evacua-
ton of Richmond by the Confederacy.
Its disappearance and the mystery sur.
rounding have been subjects of en-
thralling interest at all gatherings Of
the gray veterans, and many theories
of it's whereabouts have been put for
ward and had their share Of believers
At the last general reunion. in Macon,
Ga, it was suggested that the seal had
been buried in the cornerstone of the
Confederate monument in that city.
There was even talk of removing the
stone
Little Doubt as to Commences.
There is little doubt Of the genuine
ness of the seal that now reposes in a
vault Of the Jefferson hotel in Rich
mond, Va. having been purchased
from Rear Admiral Selfridge for So 900
by Epps Hunton. Jr.; William II.
White and Thomas P. Bryan, all of
Virginia. 1t will be sent to the Eng
lish firm of engravers who originally
made the seal to have. its genuineness
verified. The contract of sale contains
a provision that if it is not pronounced
real it may be returned.
Whether any credence is to be placed
In the gossip that the great seal left
Richmond in 1865 hidden in the hustle
Of Mrs. Walter J. Bromwell, wife Of an
ofceholder Of the Confederate state
department, it has had an interesting
history. ...
Following the fall Of the Confederacy
the seal, with a number Of state papers
and other documents, was removed
from Richmond by Walter ]. Brom-
well, clerk in the state department
under judah P. Benjamin. The seal,
according to tradition, had been in
trusted to Mrs. Bromwell. .t.-..
In looking through the archives of
the library Of congress in connection
with the researches for material to be
used in history of the civil govern
ment of the Confederacy Judge WAL
ter A. Montague. formerly member
Of the supreme court of North Caro-
lima, discovered that the seal had come
into Admiral Selfridge's possession