Civil War Gold Hoax was an 1864 hoax perpetrated by two US journalists to exploit the financial situation during the United States Civil War. 1864 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... A hoax is an attempt to trick an audience into believing that something false is real. ... ... The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 until 1865 between the northern states, popularly referred to as the U.S., the Union, the North, or the Yankees; and the seceding southern states, commonly referred to as the Confederate States of America, the CSA, the Confederacy...

On May 18, 1864, two New York City newspapers, the New York World and the New York Journal of Commerce, published a story that President Abraham Lincoln had issued a proclamation of conscription of 400,000 more men into the Union army. At the time, there were fierce battles taking place between Union and Confederate troops in Virginia and the public took it to mean that the war was not going well for the Union. Share prices fell on the New York Stock Exchange when investors began to buy gold, and its value increased 10%. May 18 is the 138th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (139th in leap years). ... 1864 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, and is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture. ... The New York World was a newspaper published in New York from 1860 until 1931. ... Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was the 16th President of the United States (1861–1865), and the first president from the Republican Party. ... New York Stock Exchange (June 2003) The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is the second largest stock exchange in the world. ... General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ...

During the day a number of people, one of them former Union commander General George McClellan, became suspicious of the fact that the proclamation had been published in just two newspapers, and went to the offices of the Journal to determine the source. Editors of the paper showed then an Associated Press dispatch they had received early in the morning. George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 - October 29, 1885) was a Major General of the Union Army during the American Civil War. ... Associated Press logo This article concerns the news service. ...

Before noon, the Associated Press issued a statement that the dispatch had not come from them, and at 12.30 PM the State Department in Washington DC sent a telegram to verify that the proclamation was "an absolute forgery". By then, however, the stock market had already been affected. ...

Further investigation revealed that the dispatches had come though a young courier just after the night editors had gone home. The timing had been perfect - the night foreman had had to make a decision as to whether to include the proclamation in the next day's paper or not. Night foremen in various other newspapers had tried to verify the message, and when they found out that not every paper had received the message, they decided to delay it pending further proof. Only foremen for the World and Journal of Commerce had added it.

President Lincoln was enraged when he heard about the case: he gave an order to close the two papers down and had their editors arrested for suspicion of complicity. Soldiers seized the two offices and, for some reason, the office of the Independent Telegraph Line. Lincoln eventually had the editors released.

Detectives tracked down the culprits. They found the messengers and questioned them. On May 21 they arrested Francis A. Mallison, a reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle who informed on his city editor Joseph Howard, who was also arrested. Howard came quietly and confessed. May 21 is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). ... The Brooklyn Eagle, also called The Brooklyn Daily Eagle was a daily newspaper published in Brooklyn, New York from 1841 to 1955. ...

Howard had bought gold on margin May 17 and started the ruse because he knew that any news of a delay in the war would cause a rise in the price of gold when investors wanted to transfer their savings elsewhere. He had forged the two AP dispatches and had them sent to various city newspapers in an appropriate time. The next day, during the furor, he had sold his investment and profited immensely. May 17 is the 137th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (138th in leap years). ...

Howard spent only three months in prison and was released on August 22, 1864. With perfect irony, at that time Lincoln had to issue a call for 500,000 more soldiers. August 22 is the 234th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (235th in leap years), with 131 days remaining. ... 1864 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...