RECOVERY OF THE GREAT SEAL OF THE
CONFEDERACY.
By WILLIAM B. SMITH, City Editor of the
Richmond Times Dispatch.
The Great Seal of the Confederate States of America, the existence of which has been shrouded in mystery for nearly a half century, has been acquired by Eppa Hunton, Jr., Thomas P. Bryan and William H. White, and deposited in the Confederate Museum at Richmond, where it occupies the most prominent place among the interesting collection in the Solid South Room. It has been fully identified by the English makers—its authenticity proved beyond question and its possession traced step by step to the State Department clerk who bore from Richmond on the night of the evacuation the emblem of sovereignty of that government which, though lasting but four years, has written its record high on the page of history.
The story of the removal of the Great Seal from Richmond, its secret preservation through many years, with every person acquainted with its whereabouts pledged by the most solemn Masonic oaths ever to conceal all knowledge of it, and its final return to Richmond, the Capital of the Confederate States of America, forms an interesting contribution to the after-history of the Confederacy. Through voluminous records of the Library of Congress at Washington, the seal was traced to the possession of Rear-Admiral Thomas O. Selfridge, United States Navy, retired, who, for a consideration of $3,000 agreed to part with it on the understanding that it would be brought back to Richmond and placed in perpetual care of some suitable institution.
Following its acquisition in May, 1912, the seal was sent to England in the personal custody of J. St. George Bryan and
