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- Feb 5, 2017
Tracking the Lost Silver of the Benjamin F. Hoxie
Emerging Civil War welcomes back guest author Neil P. Chatelain Throughout the Civil War, the Confederate navy’s commerce raiders captured hundreds of Union merchants. A major task of these raiders…
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The Hoxie sailed from California in January 1863, making a brief stop at Mazatlán, Mexico before continuing south, around Cape Horn, destined for Falmouth, England. Shipped on the clipper was a large amount of bullion. Estimates vary, but the Hoxie carried anywhere between $100,000 in silver on the low end to as much as $8,000 in gold bars, $500,000 in silver bars, and another $500,000 in silver ore. There is no clear evidence as to where the silver originated, but one newspaper account suggests it was from Mexican mines. The bullion was shipped under the firm F. Huth and Company in England, bringing the question of neutral rights into question as well.[2]