In some parts of the South, cotton was stored in brick warehouses. In other more rural areas, the warehouses were wooden. But either way, it was the cotton bales that smoldered for days.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram of April 7, 1914 noted “R. F. Spearman of Greenville had been chosen special counsel for the Department of Justice to represent the government in claims arising in Texas during and after the Civil War for confiscation of cotton.” This raised a few flags in my mind. First of all, I knew what government confiscation of cotton meant, but why fifty years after the Civil War? And who was this R. F. Spearman? My search revealed some interesting answers.
First of all, the United States Court of Claims processed thousands of Civil War claims from the South. The most valuable to genealogists are the Southern Claims, allowing Southerners loyal to the United States the right to claim losses of crops or livestock. But there were many other claims, including those covered by the Abandonment and Captured Property Act of March 1863. That law exempted individual ownership of cotton from confiscation, but allowed it for any cotton knowingly belonging to the rebel government or convicted traitors. Confederate cotton, as it was called, was auctioned to the highest bidder, which meant Northern buyers who came South immediately after the war. The proceeds of the sales went straight into the United States Treasury.
Immediately after General Robert E. Lee surrendered, the New York City Chamber of Commerce met to present the argument that Northern Merchants were holding over $150,000,000 in uncollected personal debts of Southerners. They argued that rights of claimants (Southerners) and mortgage creditors (Northern merchants) should be protected. It was a matter of expediency, according to their statement.
The U. S. Supreme Court ruled that cotton was a proper subject for captures and not protected by the general rule of international law, which condemned the seizure of private property on private land. This set off a series of lawsuits that continued for at least fifty years. The enforcement of confiscation acts was capricious at best. Accusations of theft and fraud were rampant.
One of the most numerous causes of these suits was known as Confederate Cotton fires. Beginning as early as January 1865 with General W. T. Sherman’s arrival in Columbus, South Carolina, warehouses holding cotton began to mysteriously burn. There was very little means to identify the owners of stored cotton. Southerners claimed it was Union officers and the Federals believed Southerners were breaking into the warehouses, hauling off most of the cotton, then setting fire to the remaining bales. Suddenly the fire alarms went off and everyone tried to put out the blaze. But bales of cotton do not blaze like a grass fire; they tend to smolder and burn slowly. As late as 1914 the U. S. Department of Justice and descendants of Southerners were still at it.
Robert F. Spearman (1862-1932) was a Greenville attorney for many years. He served as County Attorney before he was appointed Special Counsel for the Justice Department in the Cotton Confiscation hearings. He later became attorney for the Federal Land Bank in Houston in the 1920s. There is even more about Mr. Spearman that will fill up another article soon. I have learned he was a very interesting and influential man.