But when Union officers caught up with Davis on May 10, near Irwinville, Georgia, he was reportedly carrying only a few dollars with him. They were active in Louisiana, Texas, Florida, and Alabama. Looking For a Top Rated Metal Detector That Wont Cost You Thousands of Dollars but works like a $2000 machine? Davis had nothing on him when he was captured in the end on May 10 in Irwinville, Georgia. In his 1938 book Flight Into Oblivion, the historian A.J. until he found some of the treasures! If you are venturing on to State or Federal lands. Mr. Willismith owned most of the town. Todd Neikirk is a New Jersey-based politics, entertainment and history writer. It would be a great place to find all kinds of history and relics that might still be strewn about by all those army camps. The Mexican coins had been transported to Danville, Virginia, and when the Davis party was forced to move further south, primarily by wagon, the more than 9,000 pounds of silver would have considerably slowed down the procession. Explore Alabama - ALABAMA TREASURE LEGENDS Table of Contents: Alabama Treasure Legends, Legend of the Lost Confederate Gold, Old Flint River Settlement Gold, $30000 in Gold Coin Buried in Bridgeport Alabama, Loot Buried by Levi Colbert in Buzzard Roost Alabama , Rumors of Buried Treasure in Demopolis Alabama (White Bluff), C. Boaz Whitfield One time in Montgomery, in the late '80s, or early '90s, I was finishing some sheetrock in a small business, in sort of a row of businesses in the same long building. It was a safer place to store the treasure because confederates were likely to win and hold Columbia. It was then settled by wealthy plantation owners and then vacated around 1860. buried treasures may be here. In popular imagination, the Richmond bank goldhas become part of the lost Confederate treasure, and there is some truth to that story, Rawlings says. He ended up in prison until the end of the war. In fact, during a recent renovation of Linden Farm by its owner, a document found hidden in a wall confirms Tidballs possession of a portion of the gold. On March 7, 1896, he was in a general store in the town of Atmore, Alabama. From there, I am assuming the Bellview back then is Belleville today, just with a name change. Young refused to release it, but was compelled to do so by force. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. The History Channel even aired a preposterous documentary claiming . Like all armies, the Rebels found they'd not been paid in some time. Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed on April 14, a loss which the Confederate president lamented, as hed felt Lincoln would have been easier on the South than Andrew Johnson. As the $450,000 in gold reserves didnt belong to the Confederacy, it remained untouched. While they fought the commander detailed a couple of men to hide the gold just in case they lost and were captured. Generally, it went like this:An individual or his friends would get a tip or a hunchthat some vacant plotheld the secret wealthand out would come the shovels. Many of these treasures are now on private land or owned by the federal or state government. Wesley Millett and Gerald White are the authors of The Rebel and the Rose. After depositing the Richmond bank funds in a local vault in Washington for safekeeping, Davis continued heading south with his wife, Varina, their children and a few others. Sharps ended up falling off the mills roof when he was doing repairs in June of 1899. If its there Im all for digging it up. The entrance of the town has a historical marker at the entrance that explains the towns history. The evidence is strong that no one else managed to dig up the silver either, quite possibly because of where it was buried in a cemetery area. In April 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and members of his cabinet evacuated the city by train and headed south. The total amount of money and gold that left Richmond with Davis is unknown. [5], George Trenholm, who was Confederate States Secretary of the Treasury for the last year of the Civil War, was arrested after the war and accused of making off with millions in Confederate assets. As such, the Confederate States of America solicited donations from wealthy citizens. He tried to locate the treasure but the landscape had changed so much over the years. Hidden Treasure discoveries can happen anyt . For Semple, as with Tidball, history is mute on the activities of both men. Check it out today its available on Amazon! Finally, in the wake of the treasure hunters' appeal, the FBI said it had located 2,400 pages of records and 17 video files that it could potentially turn over - but that it would take years to do so. When Union troops were on the verge of invading New Orleans, Confederates quickly removed millions of dollars of gold to a "safer" location, the city of Columbus, Georgia. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Jean Lafitte the French Privateer and Pirate is said to have spent a considerable amount of time visiting Fort Morgan, Alabama. With Union troops closing in on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, in early April 1865, President Jefferson Davis and the rest of his government fled southward, allegedly carrying with them a considerable amount of gold, silver and other coins. The first carried Davis and other Confederate officials, along with the governments most important documents and other archived materials. Union soldiers were invading the countryside around Sherwood Forest, the Tyler plantation, and the safety of her young children was paramount. In the movie, the characters are hunting for $200,000 worth of gold that is rumored to be hidden in a cemetery. Finders Keepers filed a federal lawsuit against the Justice Department over its failure to produce documents on the FBI's search for the legendary gold, which took place nearly four years ago at a remote woodland site in northwestern Pennsylvania. He was a war hero, fighting in the Mexican-American War of the 1840s, and looked set for a long, happy career as a statesman. Hanson wounded the last Union soldier but he got away. He immigrated here from Scotland. Legend of the Lost Confederate Gold. His nephew Grady tried to find the gold caches that his uncle had presumably buried in the woods. The townspeople decided to defend Newton but were worried that if they got defeated that the towns treasury would be looted. They fought with the Indians and ended up taking their gold and jewels and then going onto Alabama. The two wooden boxes full of Confederate gold fell out of the wagons and sank quickly into the mud. CBS News affiliate WTAJ-TVreported members of the Elk County Historical Society say they believe the gold is just an old wives' tale. Unable to accept the end of the Confederacy and Northern domination over the South, he collaborated with other disenfranchised leaders exiled in Canada. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. In 1720 there was a trapper that came to the Chickasaw village. The rest of the missing money has been said to be the basis for several local fortunes in the Danburg area. The area was then abandoned around 1830. Late that night, two trains departed Richmond heading south. La Bellone didnt make it and sank near the entrance to Mobile Bay near Dauphin Island. The FBI initially claimed it had no files about the investigation. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. The legend states that DeSoto and his men cant to the Bay of Espiritu Santa which is now Tampa Bay Florida. I would think that they would have USED the gold before burying it. He practically owned half of the town of Fort Payne. One account has the gold being stolen in the far south area of Brooks County where local lore has it the train was attacked by . Near Athens there may be a Confederate treasure. Everyone thought Bob was bonkers . One theory suggests it was stolen by the Michigan Cavalrymen. Morris started robbing trains because he was angry with the Louisville and Nashville railroad because a brakeman found him on a train ride that was headed for Mobile that he didnt pay for. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. January 6, 2022 / 11:11 AM In the 1938 book, Flight Into Oblivion, by A.J. The lost gold also played a key role in the legendary 1966 Western film, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He would then bury the wine casks in various areas around his homestead. During the months he was trying to stay ahead of his would-be captors, Danville became an encampment for the Union army. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. google037df74da6aab727.html There seems to have been a great deal of attention placed on finding the "Lost Confederate Treasure" which has spanned the last 154 years since the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis on 10 May 1865 at Irwinville, Ga., which brought the Civil War to a close. That is a crazy amount of money even by todays standards. His work has been featured in psfk.com, foxsports.com, politicususa.com and hillreporter.com. Under the headline"What Became of the Confederate Gold," Moses told the newspaper a small portion of it went to buy food for returning soldiers, while the bulk of about$40,000was turned over to the federal authorities. In Semples mind, if the U.S. could be drawn into a war with Great Britain, the North would need the South and would ease up on letting the former Confederate States back into the Union. With them was the remainder of the Confederate treasury, including crates of gold and silver coins, gold bullion from Richmond bank reserves and jewelry that had been donated to the Southern cause. In the Civil War-era movie, Gone With the Wind (1939), Rhett Butler, played by Clark Gable, is rumored to have stolen the treasure. Going to war can be incredibly expensive. Captian Seigneur de Beauchamp was able to get her anchored in the harbor without any damage. Over the course of the next two years, he traveled between the U. S. and Canada in clandestine activities, often using the alias Allen S. James, his travels financed with the Confederate gold. Before you knew it,others hurried to the scene and began to dig, and another gold rush was under way. It is said that some of those wine casks of gold and silver coins are stilled buried near his home. I did not know of this event until I had moved to California, but I have retired and have relatives and land in the area. Semple did seem to disappear into the night, for he had to avoid the attention of both the enemy and paroled Confederate soldiers looking to confiscate horses and wagons in returning to their homes. Simply putting food on the table became an essential concern. As fate has it the 3 men that buried the gold ended up dead after the attack. There is also a story of a cross embedded with jewels that were put in a well by pirates that never came back to claim it. The Confederate States of America were formed prior to Abraham Lincoln taking office in March 1861. A rich man named Hansen was a Confederate sympathizer who wanted to financially help the Confederate economy that was falling apart at the end of the Civil War. I got the Keel Mountain story from a treasure hunter in west Tennessee, and it was a small, one-paragraph statement. Semple was drawn to Julia, and she to him, by circumstances of war and the aftermath. He wanted to trap game on the tribal land so he asked the chief permission. Frank W. Pandozzi is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, Clickbank, and MyTopo affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, mytopo.com, and clickbank.com.Please visit my Affiliate Disclosure below for more information. Digging Deeper: Lost Treasures of Oklahoma. Treasure hunters who believe they found a huge cache of fabled Civil War-era gold in Pennsylvania are now on the prowl for something as elusive as the buried booty itself: government records of the FBI's excavation. The lack of discussion in these books is not surprising. You see people didnt trust the banks back then because they were often robbed and the insurance programs of the Federal Government were not that good. The whereabouts of his home are under debate. Some believe it was stolen by the Union soldiers who arrested Davis, while others speculate it was hidden long before his arrest, with the aim of keeping it out of the Norths hands. The leaders of the Confederate States of America we running for their lives 154 years ago. He also owned two plantations outside of what was called Savannah now central Alabama. She questioned whether the agency is "acting in good faith.". It may not display this or other websites correctly. Bill Kirby has reported, photographed and commented on life in Augusta and Georgiafor 45 years. They ended up in a large cavern and when they took the blindfold off of the trapper he saw that the cave was filled to the ceiling with gold and silver bars, coins, and jewels. ANCIENT VOICES: Ditlihi's Journey Into The Truth Of Ancient Treasure In The Southwest. Levi Colbert who lived from 1759 to1834 was the bench chief of the Chickasaw Nation. Plus, as others have pointed out, gold weighs alot. In 1865, the Confederate government crumbled and its leaders fled through Georgia, pursued by federal authorities. It was an E-mail he sent to someone and it found it's way to being an article on several sites. Much of the mystery was engendered by Union officials, who greatly inflated the value of the Confederacys treasury to several million dollars. So many of them buried their gold and silver for safekeeping. His anger turned to crime and robbing the L&N trains was the outcome. Back in the 1800s that made for a huge town. But on May 10, when members of the 4th Michigan Cavalry captured Davis group near Irwinville, Georgia, they had only a few dollars with them. The Confederate gold, again, showed up in the 1994 sci-fi movie, Timecop. His train, however, encountered some expenses. I am sure some of your readers are from that area and are familiar with the Prattville, Montgomery area and of course, the Alabama River. The Ghost Town of Old Cahaba located on route 22 approximately 14 miles southwest of Selma, was used as a Confederate Fort during the Civil War. The gold became a lost legend. Henry refused to tell the soldiers where the treasure was and was beaten again. Apparently in 1865, $100,000 of gold and silver was put into two large metal boxes by Confederate troops, and then thrown into the swamp. The location was described (by him) as being in northern Alabama, between the towns of Bellview and Booneville, at or near Keel Mountain. Hanna, The Long Surrender by Burke Davis in 1985, and in 2001, An Honorable Defeat: the Last Days of the Confederate Government by Williams C. Davis, the mystery of the disappearing gold was unresolved. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. They loaded the two boxes of treasure onto two wagons and headed for Columbia. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Most importantly, Davis only has a few dollars on him when he was captured, which led to a long-running question: where did all the money and gold go? With the Davis party was a navy paymaster, James S. Semple. The town of Louina lasted from 1834-1902. He also contracted pneumonia and had an infection that contributed to his death. He was then valued at $300,000 which made him a wealthy man, to say the least! Sharps had a nephew named Grady Sharps who witnessed his uncle go into his 100 acres of forest that he owned south of Whites Mill. Some of the add-ons on this site are powered by. He enjoys sports, politics, comic books, and anything that has to do with history. From Harper's Weekly The federal Branch Mint at Dahlonega had $23,716 in gold and silver when it was taken over by the Confederate States of America in 1861. A member of the society said there is no historical evidence that gold is buried in the area. Halleck stated that Richmond bankers estimated specie valued "from six to thirteen millions" were travelling south from Goldsboro, NC in wagons. But this time Henry died from being beaten. In the other were cash and gold reserves and jewelry, estimated to be worth around $1 million. There are many lost treasures and legends of Alabama and I encourage you to visit this state and enjoy the rich history that Alabama presents. Ultimately, he took refuge in the North at the home of Julia Gardiner Tyler. I guess this happened more often than we would think. Posted on December 5, 2020 December 31, 2020 by Terry W. Platt. There are many different stories of where on his plantation the gold was hidden. This small island holds many lost treasure stories. Dr. Clive Cussler a historian attempted to find the wreck of La Bellone in September 1989. Hanna, The Long Surrender by Burke Davis in 1985, and in 2001, An Honorable Defeat: the Last Days of the Confederate Government by Williams C.. Having his ferry there solved this problem. The trek south of the Confederate government has been well documented in a number of first hand accounts written several years after the war. Morris was formerly a skilled circus performer and had an athletic build which made getting on off trains a breeze. In June 1863, President Lincoln ordered two wagons with false bottoms to carry anywhere from 26 to 52 gold bars weighing 50 pounds each from Wheeling, West Virginia, 400 miles north to Pennsylvania to pay the Union troops . They filled two wooden boxes full. Finders Keepers asked the Justice Department for expedited processing, which can be granted in cases where there is widespread media interest involving questions about the government's integrity. Have fun in your search for Alabama treasure. Whatever they had started off with, travel expenses had steadily depleted their coffers by that time. Please do not use this website if you disagree with any of the terms outlined here.Thanks for visiting!Thank You,Frank W. Pandozzi, Website Owner. In any case, caches of the silver coins have reportedly been detected at several locations in the Danville search area. Clemens owned many slaves so he was worried they would tell any soldiers that came by where the buried treasure was. Its fate has remained a mystery for more than 150 years, fueling a wealth of local legends in the South and elsewhere, and even inspiring Hollywood movies like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) and Sahara (2005), based on the book by Clive Cussler. He returned to relative obscurity in his native Virginia, near where he was born in New Kent County, and turned his attention to earning a living. near a point where route 90 crosses the river. Valued at nearly half a million dollars, the gold was loaded onto wagons heading north, in the custody of U.S. government officials. Possibly, the fact that almost 1,400 Union soldiers, former prisoners warehoused in the town, had died of smallpox, dysentery, and other diseases and were buried nearby, could also have discouraged random digging. You must log in or register to reply here. Hansen and the two soldiers went on their way dressed as farmers. In 1872,The Chronicle put that question to the man in charge Col. Raphael J. Moses, the former Confederate quartermaster. There were , also, over 2000 Tallassee Carbines hidden and never recovered. Jefferson Davis, a Congressman from Mississippi and former Secretary of War, was named its president. There are stories that the Islanders tell of buried pots, jars, and treasure chests full of gold and silver. your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable. Federal soldiers were eventually able to round up some $140,000 of what was taken. Visit here for more information on State laws regarding relic hunting, treasure hunting, and artifacts. Henrys wife gave in and told the soldiers where one of the wine casks was buried. (The fleeing Confederates also carried about $450,000 in Richmond bank gold, but wouldnt touch those funds, as they didnt belong to the Confederate government.). ; Official from Secretary Stanton. So I can't totally discount the story. And such rumors werent confined to the South. If you are venturing on to State or Federal lands you should know the laws of that State. So with no luck finding the treasure he packed up and moved to California. Most if not all of them take place well into the war, and by then the confederate had serious cash flow issues. The various narratives of the disbursement of the treasury end in Washington, Georgia on May 4, 1865, when two Confederate Navy officials, James A. Semple and Edward Tidball, were entrusted with $86,000 in gold. The Confederacys capital city was initially located in Montgomery, Alabama, but soon changed to Richmond, Virginia. In April 1865, the Civil War ended for most Americans. Millions of dollars' worth of gold was lost or unaccounted for after the war, and its possible location has been the source of speculation of many historians and treasure hunters. The Outlaw PresidentJefferson Davis was an unlikely traitor to the United States. What Confederate Money (paper notes) that they had was burned at Washington, Ga. in the middle of town by Brig. Knowing that he was wealthy and owned half of the town the legend has it that the gold could be buried anywhere in Fort Payne. 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