Civil War and Reconstruction in AlabamaFleming, Walter L. (Walter Lynwood)
History
Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama
Fleming, Walter L. (Walter Lynwood)
Alabama -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865; Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) -- Alabama
The First Special Agency reported that in Alabama it had seized cotton
(after June 1, 1865) in the counties of Greene, Marengo, Perry, Dallas,
Pickens, Montgomery, Sumter, and Tuscaloosa, during October, November, and
December, 1865, and January, 1866. This agency had, before June 1,
1866,[784] shipped 5697 bales to the government agent in New York, who
sold them for $750,702.68, and had made charges of $209,338.58 for
freight, fees, etc., $35 a bale. The Ninth Agency, under the notorious T.
C. A. Dexter and J. M. Tomeny, gathered cotton from the counties of
Dallas, Marengo, Sumter, Montgomery, Wilcox, Lowndes, Barbour, Butler,
Tuscaloosa, Macon, and Mobile. This agency had thirty-six collecting
agents, and turned over to the government only 9,712 bales, which sold for
$1,412,335.68, with fees and charges amounting to $540,962.38.[785]
Most of the government cotton was consigned to New York agents and sold
there.[786]
The army quartermasters at Mobile received 19,396 bales of cotton, of
which 6149 were delivered to Dexter and 9741 were, it was claimed,
destroyed by the great explosion. Dexter turned over to the government
only 7469 bales and Tomeny 7732, other agents accounted for enough to
bring the total up to about 30,000 bales. Dexter sold $823,947 worth of
other property.[787]
The Freedmen's Bureau in Alabama was supported for two years by the sale
of confiscated property, of which no accounts were kept. The army also
sold cotton and other confiscated property and used the proceeds.
"Abandoned" cotton netted to the Treasury $2,682,271.69. After June 30,
according to Treasury records, 33,638 bales (worth $7,650,675.93, but
netting only $4,886,671) were illegally seized. It is this money which is
still held because the former owners once subscribed to the Confederate
Produce Loan. "Loyal" claimants, 22,298 in number in 1871, were asking
damages, to the amount of $60,258,150.44. When Congress, on March 30,
1868, called into the Treasury all proceeds of captured and abandoned
property, it was found that Jay Cooke and Company had $20,000,000, which
they had been using in their business for years. The cotton agents and
others interested lobbied persistently in Washington against legislation
in behalf of claimants, fearing investigation and exposure.
The statistics given in the public documents are often those for the whole
South, but usually only for Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Seldom
can the figures for Alabama be separated from the others. Alabama lost
more from the invasion of Treasury agents than any other state, since in
1865 she had more cotton and other property, and many more agents visited
her soil. The United States Treasury received only a small fraction of the
confiscated property, and most of the proceeds of that have been released
to people who were willing to commit perjury in order to get it.[788]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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