Mints & Yankees

 

The Moneychanger

On 4 April 1861 the Confederate States seized the US mint at Dahlonega, Georgia. During the 1830s & 1840s  there was a gold rush in northern Georgia and southern North Carolina. With typical government efficiency, the US mint refused for a long time to establish branch mints at Charlotte & Dahlonega. Two German brothers, the Bechtlers, set up a minting operation in Rutherfordton from 1830 - 1852, minting the first gold dollars, $2.50, & $5 pieces. I have heard but not seen proved that in many parts of the South the Bechtlers, being more common that US money, were preferred to it. If the Bechtlers tried to do that today, O'barmer & his trolls would throw 'em in jail. 

On 4 April 1864 at the Battle of Mansfield General Richard Taylor routed yankee troops. Son of Zachary Taylor, Richard Taylor wrote one of the most entertaining and clear-eyed memoirs of the war, Destruction & Reconstruction.

Taylor's victory stopped cold yankee General Nathaniel Banks Red River Campaign in which the northern army committed atrocities like opening fire on civilians out for a Sunday walk. They terrified slaves into leaving their plantations then abandoned them, leaving them in camps to die by the hundreds. It was, I believe, Louisiana Government Henry Watkins Allen who collected depositions from civilians about the Red River Campaign, and published them in book form.

It's one of the few books I have ever had to push away from, sobbing.