All the Confederate officials would board the first train, while the second train would hold special cargo. If you are venturing on to State or Federal lands you should know the laws of that State. Many of these treasures are now on private land or owned by the federal or state government. The attack happened in March of 1865. The wreck is still there and its treasure is waiting to be recovered! The abandoned town of Demopolis can be found near the Tombigbee River, close to the intersection of routes 80 and 43. One day a rebel soldier came by and Hansen decided to lead him to the lost treasure so they could possibly retrieve it. They loaded the two boxes of treasure onto two wagons and headed for Columbia. Here's how this gold war began, according to a Pittsburg Post-Gazette article about a 1983 story in Lost Treasure magazine. Please enter valid email address to continue. This guard consisted of mostly young navy midshipmen from a training ship on the James River and some of them were only twelve years old. Confederate Soldiers Buried Gold: Gold Coins It's the site where the treasure-hunting group, Finders Keepers, says as much as $55 million in lost Union gold could be buried. Moving to the southwest, Parker and the wagons zigzagged across the South Carolina-Georgia state line several times to evade capture. In the waning days of the war, in April 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis fled Richmond with a trainload of what was left of the Confederate treasury . (Note: specie describes money in the form of coins, usually gold or silver, as opposed to paper money. He didnt even tell his son. In the 1966 Spaghetti Western film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the . Hansen then used the horses to trample the boxes deeper into the mud. 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. Portions of it are believed to be in Greene & Morgan Counties of Georgia. C.E. It was an E-mail he sent to someone and it found it's way to being an article on several sites. The Chief agreed but he had other intentions as well. Union soldiers happened by and demanded that Hansen and his men unload the cargo in their wagons because they became suspicious that the cargo in the wagons might be guns and ammunition. Dr. Clive Cussler a historian attempted to find the wreck of La Bellone in September 1989. The most famous lost Confederate ship, the H.L. First published on January 6, 2022 / 11:11 AM. Its still hidden in a limestone cave called Red Bone. With Union troops closing in on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, in early April 1865, President Jefferson Davis and the rest of his . We are situated in a flat, cotton friendly region which once hosted the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians. Rocky Springs, MS 39086, USA. His wife sold the ferry and went to live with relatives in Georgia. Your email address is safe, and unsubscribing is easy. I have also researched the legend of Keel Mountain, I agree the O.R. 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. As the men transporting the money neared Athens, Alabama, the wagon became stuck in a muddy "bog hole." An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Searching for more lost treasure? A message was sent to the Justice Department seeking comment on the suit, which asks a judge to order the FBI to immediately turn over the records. Now only Hansens one friend knew about the treasure but his friend was arrested and charged with harboring a fugitive. I have hunted the area with only minor finds but there was alot of activity in the area. Then check out 14 Lost Treasures of Wisconsin. A second scholarship, known as the Sylvester Mumford Memorial Fund, was to be awarded to students from Brantley County who attend Georgia College, then known as Georgia State College for Women. Standing a discrete distance away and watching were Dennis and Kem Parada, owners of Finders Keepers, who still believe well, you known their name. The phrase "Lost Confederate Gold" has a romantic ring. If you ever dreamed of finding a treasure hidden by an outlaw, gangster, or a wealthy person, but was not sure where to start. After leading the South for four years, he had high hopes to escape the country and rebuild a new Confederacy. Another treasure tale about hidden Confederate gold has the Confederacy moving money to Columbia, Tennessee. One version had all but Connor getting killed by robbers. 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 . The treasure was secured in the false bottom of a carriage. JavaScript is disabled. In April 1865, the Civil War ended for most Americans. Because it was in a state park, they were told to stop looking. 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. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Here is an OP that I posted on it a couple of months ago, to include sharing a couple of photos of one of the coins that he was paid on 4 May 1865, once they crossed the Savannah River and Breckinridge was more . The first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the Hunley didn't . 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 . After a rest stop in St. Marys PA, they headed towards Driftwood. January 6, 2022 / 11:11 AM In 1720 there was a trapper that came to the Chickasaw village. All the merchandise including the gold and silver bullion and coins sank with the ship. A battle took place on one of his plantations in central Alabama in October 1779 and the plantation was destroyed. De Soto and his army of men some 600 plus came to the Sacred mountain City of the Cherokees. In his early years, he was a sailor with the pirate Jean Lafitte. 'The Curse of Civil War Gold' follows Michigan-based Kevin Dykstra in his 8-year mission to find the lost confederate gold of the Civil War. They searched and searched for months coming up empty-handed so the trappers friend gave up and went back to Fort Rosalie. This little island has been cut off from the outside world until just recently when a bridge was built that goes from the mainland of Alabama across the Mississippi Sound to Dauphin Island. 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. Worth roughly $100,000 in 1865, when it disappeared, it would be a small fortune in today's dollars--around one million dollars. The troops were trying to keep the gold and silver away from Union soldiers. It was in Washington that the bulk of the treasure was captured along with Jefferson Davis and his staff. The treasure may be buried near what used to be his house on the Alabama side of the river. In the Civil War-era movie, Gone With the Wind (1939), Rhett Butler, played by Clark Gable, is rumored to have stolen the treasure. 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 area was then abandoned around 1830. 1. 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. According to local lore, the gold was lost or stolen during the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. The Confederacys Ferrous Stonewall in a Far East Civil War. The gold and silver coins are said to be buried east of his old homestead. Captain Kelly's Buried Gold. Hardy Clemens died in 1863 leaving no trace of where he hid his treasure. 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. Mobile Bay was not permanently closed to blockade-runners until Adm. David G. Farragut's fleet ran past Fort Morgan into Mobile Bay on August 5 . Virginia Hill / flickr. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates. The lost confederate payroll and The fabled lost confederate treasury. The Rebel and the Rose"" reveals for the . Here are a few of the gems and buried treasure in Virginia that we managed to dig up. Hardy grew his small acres of land into whopping 9000 acres by 1850. Martha Mizell Puckett, the author of Snow White Sands, had failed to include footnotes, references or even a simple bibliography to support the presence of gold in Brantley County. It may not display this or other websites correctly. The two wooden boxes full of Confederate gold fell out of the wagons and sank quickly into the mud. More Controversy on the Roswell Affair: An Alien Accident? Today the town has only two homes standing that are in use. La Bellone was a French merchant ship that was in the area of Dauphin Island to pick up merchandise from the French Colonials in Louisiana. The balance of the captured treasure was assembled and loaded into wagons for transport to Washington, D.C. The treasure was suppose to be hidden under the foundation in the creek at the old Lucille grist mill, so one moonless night he employed the help of his . By the end of the war, nothing remained in the coffers of the Confederate treasury except for its incalculable amount of debt. The Army sent Pinkerton detectives disguised as prospectors and lumbermen to clandestinely look for the gold, but they obviously never found it. Rutherford B Hayes Presidential Library & Museum, William McKinley Presidential Library & Museum, On Trees and Forests: Correcting Historys View of J. Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln on Emancipation Proclamation Day, January 1, 1863, General Burnside of Burnsides Bridge Fame Faced Infamy at Fredericksburg for Lack of a Bridge. Mr. Willismith owned most of the town. It may not display this or other websites correctly. On March 15, 2018, two days after the dig began, a plane in Siberia lost 3.4 tons of its nine-ton cargo of gold and silver when the cargo door . Long standing stories tell of $100,000 of gold and silver was put into two boxes by Confederate troops in 1865, and then thrown into the swamp. 28. but where did the money come from? $15,000 in silver dollars. You must log in or register to reply here. You must log in or register to reply here. Near Athens there may be a Confederate treasure. Hansen and some other Alabama citizens raised quite a bit of capital in the form of gold and silver bullion and coins. The Stolen Lost Confederate Gold: A Historical Analysis of Duluth, Minnesota's Development Abstract: This paper explores the historical claim that Duluth, Minnesota was built using stolen lost Confederate gold. There's a book out called " Confederate Gold" I haven't read it but it may give some clues. Just imagine if you were the one to discover all this loot! So the gold could have been buried anywhere, or perhaps in different locations. There are many different stories of where on his plantation the gold was hidden. But, the first story sounds very familiar with a post I put on Treasure Legends-"swamp gold." Confederate Gold - New Georgia Encyclopedia. Perhaps the best-known tale of lost treasure in Virginia is the legend of Beale's Treasure. The war, and its various aspects . So with no luck finding the treasure he packed up and moved to California. Here's how this gold war began, according to a Pittsburg Post-Gazette article about a 1983 story in Lost Treasure magazine. The Confederate escort unit got away, but when they reported to whomever they were supposed to report to in the east and were asked about the gold shipment, they told him about running into some yankees and that it had been hidden to keep the yankees from getting it in case they were killed or captured. Railroad Bill real name Morris Slater was a black train robber, murderer during the late 1800s. Do the Finders Keepers have a right to it, even though they didnt do the final digging? Dictionary of Banking Terms.). A very prosperous merchant before the war, Mumford had established a cotton plantation near Waynesville. Eventually the responsibility for the treasure was passed on to the Secretary of War, John C. Breckenridge, who then placed Brig. So as you can tell it was a great hiding spot for soldiers. He would then bury the wine casks in various areas around his homestead. Lachlan McGillivray was a wealthy fur trader back in the mid to late 1700s. President Davis pleaded with Lee to form defense lines for just one more day and informed his cabinet that Richmond was to be evacuated and that they would take the Confederate treasury with them. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. Heirloom Seal of the Realm. Legend of the Lost Confederate Gold. It is said that he would only accept gold coins as payment for the ground corn and flour that he sold. circa 990-995. Bushes envelop the pig farm, and the cemetery is wooded over. Of particular note, Wayne J. Lewis researched the connection between the Confederate gold and the Mumford estate due to his personal interest in the legend. I hope you have found this article of interest and if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them in the comments section below. Egill Skallagrmsson 's silver. Still lost: King Kamehameha's burial chamber. Two treasure hunters are hot on the trail of $2 million worth of Confederate gold bullion that went missing in the 1800s. Chilton County has gold in Coosa River, Blue Creek, Mulberry Creek and its tributaries, and Rocky Creek. Navy Captain William H. Parker was placed in charge of the second train and, knowing that the special cargo was comprised of gold ingots, gold double eagle coins, silver coins, silver bricks and Mexican silver dollars, he gathered the only available personnel to provide a military guard. Mar 7, 2019. JavaScript is disabled. The crew members that survived and made it to shore said there was a million dollars worth of gold and silver aboard. After a long day traveling Hansen ended up at a friends home. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. The story of this lost treasure dates back to 1540 when the Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto was in this part of the New World. rjcox / flickr. google037df74da6aab727.html There are a few instances of the plantation ruins that still remain to this day including the spring where the cotton gin was. 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. Civil War shipwrecks in Alabama were concentrated mostly in and around Mobile Bay. Dauphin Island held many camps over the centuries including a British army camp, a Spanish army camp, a Federal army camp, and a French army camp. History, that is to say old rumors, tells us that a giant cache of gold was buried within walking distance of my house. The question that I pose. With the Davis party was a navy paymaster, James S. Semple. Having his ferry there solved this problem. The townspeople decided to defend Newton but were worried that if they got defeated that the towns treasury would be looted.