Ep. 54: They’re Robbing the Treasury!
Wise About Texas
Ken Wise
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 June 2018
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In June of 1865, Texas was in chaos. Robert E. Lee had just surrendered the Army of Northern of Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War. But without a government or functioning economy, it was every man for himself. Many former Confederates were heading for Mexico, while others tried to bring order to chaos. A few dozen men decided they’d get their money the old fashioned way–they’d steal it. But they weren’t satisfied with small potatoes, they were going big. The were going to rob the Texas treasury.., Learn more about the coldest case in Texas in the latest episode of Wise About Texas.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Howdy and welcome to Wise About Texas, the Texas History Podcast. I'm your host Ken Wise and want to thank you very much for |
| 0:14.6 | tuning in today for a little bit of Texas history. I'm releasing this episode in the |
| 0:19.2 | summer of 2018 and it has been a scorcher. In other words the situation is normal down here in Texas, but I hope you're staying cool wherever you are. |
| 0:28.0 | For this episode, we're going to go back to a difficult time in Texas history right at the end of the Civil War. |
| 0:35.0 | After Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865, |
| 0:41.0 | it took a little while for the news to reach Texas, and in fact, the fighting continued. |
| 0:47.0 | The economy of the Confederate states was not very good, and as the war progressed, it got even worse. Confederate money wasn't worth much. |
| 0:54.8 | The situation was similar in Texas. Texas was impacted a bit less by the Civil War |
| 1:01.1 | but still in a very significant way and the financial situation was dire |
| 1:06.0 | I mentioned the fighting continued even though the country was collapsing and the last battle of the Civil War was called the Battle of Palmino Ranch. |
| 1:16.5 | That's P-A-L-M-I-T-O-P-M-I-T-O-P-M-E-T-O, Palmeto Ranch near Brownsville. |
| 1:20.3 | Now some historians contend that this battle doesn't count for various reasons but in the history business that's not unusual |
| 1:36.1 | It's commonly thought of as the last battle of the Civil War the point is once, once the Civil War ended, things were slipping into a state of confusion due to the situation with the government and the situation with the economy. |
| 1:41.8 | Basically, the Confederacy was a land without a government. with the economy. Things in Texas quickly descended into chaos. |
| 1:55.0 | During this confusion, a gang of former Confederates decided it was time to get rich quick. |
| 2:02.0 | They'd do it the old-fashioned way. They'd steal it. |
| 2:07.2 | And not just a little bit. These guys wanted the whole load. They were going to rob the Texas Treasury. On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee, the greatly respected former U.S. Army officer and |
| 2:27.0 | general of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, rode to the courthouse at Appamatics, Virginia, |
| 2:32.4 | and surrendered his forces to Union General Ulysses Grant. |
| 2:35.8 | The Civil War, for all intents and purposes, was over. |
| 2:39.4 | But that answered only one very narrow question, which is when the combat would end. |
| 2:47.0 | The fighting was just beginning. |
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