George Trenholm

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George Alfred Trenholm

2nd Confederate States Secretary of the Treasury
In office July 18, 1864 – April 27, 1865
Preceded by	Christopher Memminger
Succeeded by	John Henninger Reagan

Born	February 25, 1807 Charleston, South Carolina, USA
Died	December 9, 1876 Charleston, South Carolina, USA
Political party	Democratic
Profession	Politician

George Alfred Trenholm (February 25, 1807 – December 9, 1876) was a prominent politician in the Confederate States of America.

George Alfred Trenholm was born in Charleston, South Carolina. At the age of sixteen he left school and went to work for a major cotton broker, John Fraser & Co. in Charleston. By 1853 he was head of the company. When the Civil War broke out, John Fraser & Co. became the Confederate government's overseas banker and financed its own fleet of blockade runners. Trenholm was appointed Confederate Secretary of the Treasury on July 18, 1864. He fled Richmond with the rest of the government in April, 1865. Due to illness he resigned on April 27, 1865. He was later briefly imprisoned at Fort Pulaski near Savannah, Georgia. [1]

[edit] Trenholm and Rhett Butler

Internationally known shipwreck expert, Dr. E. Lee Spence, of Charleston, South Carolina, discovered the true identity of Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind after discovering and salvaging the wrecks of the richly laden blockade runners: SS Georgiana; SS Norseman; SW Stonewall Jackson; SW Mary Bowers; and SS Rattlesnake. Dr. Spence's archaeological salvage crews collectively recovered over 2,000,000 individual artifacts from these wrecks.

In Dr. Spence's book, Treasures of the Confederate Coast: The "Real Rhett Butler" and Other Revelations, Dr. Spence reveals what the editor's of Life magazine called overwhelming evidence that shipping and banking magnate George Trenholm was the historical basis for Margaret Mitchell's romantic sea captain in her Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Mitchell had falsely claimed Rhett was pure fiction.

Although Life never published the story, it paid Dr. Spence thousands of dollars for the opportunity to use his research, under a contract that agreed they did not have to pay anything if they examined it and did not agree his identification of the real Rhett Butler was correct.

According to Dr. Spence's research, Trenholm had been on the verge of bankruptcy at the outbreak of hostilities, yet by the end of the Civil War. he controlled over sixty large steamers and numerous sailing ships. His amazingly successful blockade running ventures had earned him today's equivalent of well over $1 billion in gold, making him both fabulously wealthy and enormously powerful. His ships sailed out of the ports of Charleston, South Carolina, Wilmington, North Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, and New York City.

Contemporaries described Trenholm as tall, brave and handsome, with the "sweetest smile of any man."

Confederate president Jefferson Davis praised his bravery.

According to Dr. E. Lee Spence, George Alfred Trenholm's life was far more interesting than his fictionalized counterpart, who's exploits were tamed down because Margaret Mitchell was afraid of being sued.

George A. Trenholm's home in Charleston, South Carolina.

Rhett said there was money to be made in both the building up and the tearing down of a country. Even after years of research, Dr. Spence is unsure whether Trenholm was a patriotic hero or a scoundrel who helped lead his country to ruin while his companies were raking in hundreds of millions in profits. The weapons Trenholm and Rhett shipped through the blockade were badly needed and much appreciated by the South. However, both men also speculated heavily in luxuries and other non-military cargoes which used up valuable cargo space that many felt should have been filled exclusively with war supplies. Both then sold their contraband goods at outrageous prices.

Like Rhett, Trenholm had a much loved daughter who died. Trenholm named his finest steamer Georgiana after that daughter.

Rhett routinely insulted the guests at Scarlett's lavish parties. Trenholm threw huge feasts while the rest of the populace was starving. At a time when rats were being sold as food in the Richmond market place, Trenholm flaunted his wealth by sending guests home with baskets of imported delicacies. His servants were dressed finer than his guests (which included President Davis). Rhett told Scarlett he would rather eat a juicy rat than some of the food in Atlanta, and talked of returning to Richmond, Virginia, where fine food could be had for those who could afford it. Among those who frequented Trenholm's palatial home in Richmond was fellow Charlestonian Edmund Rhett who could make a woman feel she was being undressed by his eyes. The Rhetts and the Trenholms were related by marriage.

All of Atlanta believed Rhett had made off with the gold of the Confederate Treasury. Quite a feat, if he was just the captain of a ship. However he wasn't. By the end of the Civil War, Trenholm was not only the South's most successful blockade runner, he was Treasurer of the Confederacy. When the government gold and the millions in precious jewels entrusted to the Treasury by banks and private citizens disappeared at the end of the war, many (including the United States government) believed Trenholm had stolen it.

After the Civil War, both men were arrested and threatened with execution. Both had much younger women visit them in jail and both tried to comfort them as the women shed copies tears over the prisoner's proposed fate. Both women were from good families and were widows of Confederate officers. Each had reputations for being "fast" but were still received in society. In fact, when Trenholm's lady friend was introduced to the famed novelist William Makepeace Thackeray at a party, Thackeray publicly insulted her by saying that he had been looking forward to meeting her because he had heard she was the "fastest" lady received in society. She returned the insult by saying that they had both been misinformed because she had been told he was a "gentleman."

Both Rhett and Trenholm had purchased guns and ammunition from Yankee merchants who knew they would be used against their own people. It was Rhett's threat of exposing those who had sold him such goods that secured his freedom. Although in jail for high treason, Trenholm's connections in the North were so strong that several Union generals petitioned for his pardon.

After getting out of jail, Rhett asked Scarlett why she had not waited to marry him. He then told her he had a fortune in banks in England. He claimed he didn't steal it and explained his arrangement with the Confederate government. It allowed him to ship government cotton to Liverpool, sell it, deposit the money in English banks, and then use the credit to buy war supplies to ship back through the blockade. Only Trenholm could have made such a claim, as it was an exclusive contract.

The Federal government seized over a hundred parcels of real estate from Trenholm alleging he had converted today's equivalent of billions of dollars in Confederate assets. The confiscated property ranged from waterfront docks to vast plantations. Rhett complained to Scarlett of the impossibility of hiding real estate from the government.

Immediately after the Civil War, both men socialized with Yankee carpetbaggers and were called scalawags, but both eventually were accepted by the Democrats and successfully fought to end Republican reconstruction rule of the South.

Rhett's large contributions to charities were made strictly for social advancement. Trenholm contributed heavily to numerous charities, indiscriminately helping blacks and whites, Southerners and Yankees. He donated to hospitals, churches, and orphanages. Trenholm's benevolence enhanced his personal prestige, his political power, and his commercial ventures. We can only guess at Trenholm's motives.

Both Rhett and Trenholm were Charlestonians and attended the Episcopal church. Both lost daughters they loved. Both were branded as speculators and profiteers, and both owned hotels and invested in railroads associated with scandal.

Many of Trenholm's magnificent antebellum plantations, and stately commercial buildings still stand. His opulent Charleston mansion, Ashley Hall, with its beautiful flying staircase, is now a private school for girls. Just as in the book, Trenholm's home surpassed that of the Governor.

It seemed odd in the book, but Rhett became a banker after the Civil War. Known as the State Bank of South Carolina, Trenholm's bank building is located on the corner of East Bay and Broad Street in Charleston. In fact, Trenholm became known as the absolute master of Southern banking and one of his sons became head of a major New York banking firm and Controller of the United States Currency.

After years of research, undersea explorer E. Lee Spence discovered several of Trenholm's ships that were wrecked while attempting to run the blockade into Charleston. Spence has already recovered millions of valuable artifacts. He is now searching for the Confederate gold that Trenholm (and of course Rhett) were accused of stealing. Spence believes the bulk of the missing gold (along with a vast fortune in jewels) still exists and can be found. Some treasures are hidden on land others in the water.

Note: The above information on the real Rhett Butler was taken from Dr. E. Lee Spence's non-fiction book Treasures of the Confederate Coast: The "Real Rhett Butler" & Other Revelations