Confederate States' Money

The postcard shows a $20.00 Confederate States of America, 6th Issue, bill issued April 6, 1863.  The note has the Tennessee state capital building in Nashville and Vice-president Alexander H. Stephens of Confederate States.

The poem below the bill shows the title “The Lost Cause.”  The actual title is “Lines on a Confederate Note.”  The words are attributed to A.J. Jones.  The author is actually Major Sidney Alroy Jones of Aberdeen, Mississippi, who served as a staff officer under General Stephen D. Lee.  Jones was editor of the Aberdeen Examiner before the Civil War.  The last verse is missing from the card and it sums up the confederate lament to the lost cause which scholars have at one time or another described as a conflict of civilizations, a blundering generation, the collapse of the political party system, and a host of other explanations including failure, guilt and human limits.

            Keep it, it tells our history o’er
From the birth of our dream to its last
           Modest, and born of the angel Hope
     Like our hope of success, it passed.

No series no.  Published by Theo Buerbaum, Salisbury, N.C.

Source: 

Slabaugh, Arlee R. Confederate States Paper Money Iola, WI: Krause Publications, c2000.

Lost Cause www.civilwarhome.com/lostcause.htm

Lines on a Confederate Note
http://www.civilwarpoetry.org/confederate/postwar/note.html

Theo Buerbaum

The materials in this collection are made available courtesy of Rowan Public Library for use in research and private study. Images and text may not be used without prior permission from Rowan Public Library, Edith M. Clark History Room.

postcard