Confederate Relic Room: Long-lost papers shine a light on Confederacy's financial crisis
On the verge of crisis 145 years ago, the Confederate States of America sought an economic rescue not unlike the one U.S. financial institutions recently got.
Confederate accounts were overdrawn, and credit from overseas investment firms was about to dry up because lenders weren't confident the Southern states could repay their mounting debts.
So, in 1863, Alabama businessman Colin J. McRae was sent to Europe to orchestrate a bailout of the Confederacy.
A record of purchase for small arms ammunition purchased from Eley Brothers in London and sold to the Confederate Army in November 1863. The exhibit of the papers of Colin J. McRae are on display at the Confederate Relic Room in Columbia. Colin J. McRae was a purchasing agent in London for the Confederacy.
In 2002, a trove of documents from McRae's time in England and France was found in the attic of a home in Alabama. The papers revealed the impact of European financing on the Civil War and provided historic details of the Confederate supply chain.
"It's primary material," said Rodger Stroup, the director of the S.C. Department of Archives and History. "That really is so important. It's original materials and not something produced later."
More than 2,500 documents, including 1,000 that relate directly to the Civil War, make up The Colin J. McRae Collection housed at the S.C. Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum.
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Confederate accounts were overdrawn, and credit from overseas investment firms was about to dry up because lenders weren't confident the Southern states could repay their mounting debts.
So, in 1863, Alabama businessman Colin J. McRae was sent to Europe to orchestrate a bailout of the Confederacy.
A record of purchase for small arms ammunition purchased from Eley Brothers in London and sold to the Confederate Army in November 1863. The exhibit of the papers of Colin J. McRae are on display at the Confederate Relic Room in Columbia. Colin J. McRae was a purchasing agent in London for the Confederacy.
In 2002, a trove of documents from McRae's time in England and France was found in the attic of a home in Alabama. The papers revealed the impact of European financing on the Civil War and provided historic details of the Confederate supply chain.
"It's primary material," said Rodger Stroup, the director of the S.C. Department of Archives and History. "That really is so important. It's original materials and not something produced later."
More than 2,500 documents, including 1,000 that relate directly to the Civil War, make up The Colin J. McRae Collection housed at the S.C. Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum.