"He [Breckinridge] ordered the head of the Bureau of War [Robert Kean] to store the archives in some safe place in Charlotte, and to stay with them until the Federals occupied the town, at which time he was to turn over the records to the officer in charge. At all odds, the archives were to be protected against destruction."

This could have been the Train that Dickert was talking about that Johnston found abandoned and ordered to be guarded. I am pretty sure that the Archives didn't get from Richmond to Charlotte by wagon. Union Cavalry would have caught such a wagon train in the hussle of the collapse of the Confederate Army around Richmond unless these papers were sent to Charlotte way before the fall of Richmond. But that seems unlikely since Davis was trying to keep up appearences of "business as usual" as much as possible, during those fast days.

I wonder if Kean may not have contacted Johnston about these Archives? Dickert being only a Captain at the time would not have known of such communications between Johnston and Kean.