According to William West Bradbeer who wrote," Confederate and Southern State Currency" in 1915."The Lost Cause" was written on the back of a Confederate note, in March of 1865 by Major A.L.Jonas of Mississippi.The bill was given to Miss Annie Rush, of New York City, at a levee held at Richmond,VA.in honor of Confederate officers, at the end of the war. Through Miss Rush, the now famous poem, was published in the Metropolian Record of New York under the caption "Something to good to be lost".Major Jonas was accorded official recognition as the true author,by the Daughters of the Confederacy, at their convention held at Norfolk, VA. in 1907.At the same time the honor of reading the poem at the convention, was conferred on the author's daughter,Miss S.L. Jonas of Memphis,Tenn..

The Lost Cause.

Representing nothing on God's earth now,

And naught in waters below it;

As the pledge of a nation that passed away,

Keep it dear friend, and show it.

Show it to those who will lend an ear

To the tale this trifle will tell,

Of Liberty born of a patriot's dream,

Of a storm-cradled nation that fell.

Too poor to possess the precious ores,

And too much a stranger to borrow;

We issued to-day our "promise to pay."

And hoped to redeem on the morrow.

The days rolled on, and weeks became years,

But our coffers were empty still;

Gold was so scarce, the Treasury quaked

if a dollar should drop in the till.

But the faith that was in us was strong indeed,

Though our poverty well descerned,

And this little note represented the pay

That our suffering veterans earned.

They knew it had hardly a value in gold,

But as gold our soldiers recieved it;

It gazed in our eyes with a promise to pay,

And every true soldier believed it.

But our boys thought little of price or pay,

Or of bills that were overdue,

We knew if it bought our bread to-day,

'Twas the best our poor Country could do.

Keep it, it tells all our history o'er,

From birth of a dream to its last;

Modest, and born of the Angel Hope

Like our hope of success,IT PASSED.

As you might know most,not all, Confederate treasury notes were payable ,"Two years after the ratification of a treaty of peace" and had little or no backing.

Seems another claim to be looked into. My wifes family is from Lamar,MO..Good luck!