He was trying to get to Texas to continue the fight.
The fake story that he was dressed in woman’s clothes has made it to the northern media and gained currency.
His baggage train with part of the treasury ended up in Archer, Florida at David Yulee Levy's Cottonwood Plantation. What remained of the treasury was buried and then dug up. All the Union troops found was empty holes, when they arrived at Cottonwood Plantation. That treasure then disappeared into the mists of history.
There are some who think that treasure was buried in Fowler's Bluff on the banks of the Suwannee River, and then partly recovered around 1890 Eberle J. Baird.
After digging what he claimed was a treasure at Fowler's Bluff on the banks of the Suwannee, Baird disappeared, He then reappeared much later in Gainesville and built Baird hardware. He claimed it was Jean Laffite’s treasure, but some think it was the Confederate treasury that disappeared after being delivered to Cottonwood.
What's interesting is that Baird seems to have had an abundance of 1860 double eagle gold coins. Hence the conjecture that what he dug up was contents of the Confederate treasure train. There have been efforts since the 1890's to recover addition chest(s) at the site. Reports say that there is at least one chest that keeps sinking deeper towards the Florida aquafer. The last effort was about ten years ago here in Levy County.