James Semple, a Naval Officer, ended up with the lions share of it. How he used it is a matter of some dispute. He is one of the more interesting characters of the war.
Virginian, James Allen Semple, was truly one of the most mysterious figures of the Civil War. (There is no known image found of him anywhere). Semple, operated as a somewhat shadowy figure providing covert services, who nonetheless remained dedicated to the Confederacy throughout the war and beyond. He sometimes used the alias, 'Allen S. James', which was also his second legal name.
Before the Civil War, Semple served as a U.S. Naval officer on various vessels. At the start of hostilities he was commissioned as a paymaster in the Confederate Navy and in Oct. '64 got promoted to Chief of the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing for the Confederate Navy Department ( an equivalent rank to a brigadier general), under Stephen Mallory. In this role, Semple mixed within the highest circles of government and made many contacts.
Semple was highly regarded and trusted by Mallory, who knew him to be competent, resourceful and reliable in performing these roles.
Semple accompanied Davis and his cabinet (who took the Confederate Treasury assets with them) in their evacuation from Richmond on April 2, '65.
Along the evacuation route, and on Mallory's recommendation in a May 4 cabinet meeting at Washington, GA, Semple was assigned the task of secretly transporting the vast bulk of Confederate Treasury gold coins and bullion (worth $86,000) remaining in the wagons to the coast and then out of the country, to be deposited in a secret foreign bank account. Given Semple's past experience and personal qualities, thought he was the ideal choice for this task.
Supposedly:
Semple moved the entrusted cargo of a little over 300 pounds of gold by carriage, with the aid of the chief clerk of the Confederate Navy Department, Edward M. Tidball, for the journey to the east coast. (A false floor was built in the carriage for the journey). Semple and Tidball intended to travel on the back roads to Augusta, enroute to the port of Savannah for shipping the gold out of the country. But with the growing presence of Union soldiers observed at Augusta, apparently Semple decided to divide the gold there. Semple sent Tidball back to his home in Winchester, VA, with $27,000 in gold coins weighing 100 pounds .Another part of the gold, $25,000 in gold bullion weighing about 90 pounds, was placed in the care of a local civilian commissary agent who worked for the Confederate Navy Department, William F. Howell. After making these dispersals, Semple continued in his carriage to Savannah with about $34,000 in gold coins weighing about 123 pounds hidden below the false floor. The exact reason why Semple chose to divide the gold in this way at Augusta is unclear.
It's uncertain what Tidball did with his portion of the gold, but he managed to return to his home in Winchester with the specie. Apparently, he purchased a tract of land in the area on which he built a large home shortly after the war. Hidden personal papers found at his home listed his assets at Feb. '66 as including $27,000 in gold coins from the Confederate Treasury. (There is no evidence that Tidball ever returned this gold to Semple - he appeared to have kept it for his own uses).
Apparently, Howell and his family later moved to Canada with the gold bullion he retained, and he used some of the gold to settle and start a business in Montreal.
When Semple arrived in Savannah with the left gold, he found the dock areas heavily guarded by Union soldiers. Realizing the impossibility of shipping the gold from this port without being detected, Semple placed the gold he possessed with various unnamed friends that he trusted in the vicinity for temporary storage.
After Savannah, it appears that Semple's movements were vague. Over the next few months he went underground traveling across Alabama and southern Georgia, often using a disguise and his alias to avoid capture. Soon afterwards, he would later travel to recover some of the disbursed gold from Howell in Canada and also visit New York.
It seems that Semple deposited what remained of the gold with various sources in Montreal, Savannah and New York.
It appears that in the period of about two years following the end of the war, Semple had already disbursed most of the gold in paying for his own extensive travel and accommodation costs, as well as for providing large funds (whether by gift or loan) to his estranged wife, Letitia Tyler Semple, and also his close friend, Julia Gardiner Tyler.
To conclude. While Semple's activities, especially immediately after the war, may have been interpreted as secretive and perhaps mysterious, thought his disbursements of the Confederate Treasury gold were largely accountable and not so mysterious.
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