Most valuable missing assassination relic

[RJNorton]

Did Benjamin take any files along with him into exile to England?

Roger, I don't know how accurate it is, but there is a page on Benjamin's escape here. I've visited the Gamble Plantation a few times (one of the places along Benjamin's route) and once asked your question. The guide said she didn't know.

Quoting from the article cited above:

"Among his golden rule was to destroy any and all correspondence or anything that might aid or enlighten a person who shouldn't be enlightened.

In April 1883 Benjamin wrote,

"I have never kept a diary or retained any copy of a letter written by me. No letters addressed to me by others will be found among my papers when I die. With perhaps the exception of Mrs. Jefferson Davis, no one has many letters of mine; for I have read so many American biographies which reflected only the passions and prejudices of their writers, [for] that I do not want to leave behind my letters and documents to be used in such a work about myself"