Then, after the Justice Department ordered a more thorough review, the FBI said its records were exempt from public disclosure. The rest of the missing money has been said to be the basis for several local fortunes in the Danburg area. A man named Hardy Clemens who was a rich businessman, politician, and farmer bought a few acres of land in Coaling, Alabama on the shores of Big Sandy Creek in 1845. Rawlings included a chapter about the lost Confederate treasure in his 2017 book The Strange Journey of the Confederate Constitution, And Other Stories from Georgias Historical Past, and also mined the legends for his novel The Rutherford Cipher, originally published in 2004. In the Civil War-era movie, Gone With the Wind (1939), Rhett Butler, played by Clark Gable, is rumored to have stolen the treasure. When he is not sitting in front of a laptop, Todd enjoys soaking up everything the Jersey Shore has to offer with his wife, two sons and American Foxhound, Wally. The McGillivray plantation ruins lie 4 miles North of Wetumpka, Alabama. Dr. Clive Cussler a historian attempted to find the wreck of La Bellone in September 1989. Tidball, for his part, decided that the war was over for him, as he was seen a few days later heading north from Georgia, accompanied by a Confederate judge and a paroled army officer. Louinas gold and silver could still be buried under the ground in that old ghost town! He practically owned half of the town of Fort Payne. The question is, what happened? This made Grady think that his uncle was burying the sack full of presumed gold coins in various places in the woods. The Outlaw PresidentJefferson Davis was an unlikely traitor to the United States. Henry refused and was subsequently strung up to a tree and whipped. His wife sold the ferry and went to live with relatives in Georgia. Valued at nearly half a million dollars, the gold was loaded onto wagons heading north, in the custody of U.S. government officials. Confederate gold refers to hidden caches of gold lost after the American Civil War. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. It is said that John Buried $100,000 worth of gold there. If you ever get out to Dauphin Island speak with the natives there and they will tell you about all the history and treasure stories that went on on the island. A member of the society said there is no historical evidence that gold is buried in the area. In the 1939 movie "Gone With The Wind," the Union Army believes Rhett Butler to have the missing Confederate gold, and they threaten to hang him. The Rebel and the Rose"" reveals for the . My Special Bundle Package of digital books and the links to my TV series is loaded with information that will guide you toward treasures large and small. Todd Neikirk is a New Jersey-based politics, entertainment and history writer. She was a cargo ship that held deer hides, beaver pelts, tobacco, and 40,000 crowns of gold and silver bullion and coins. The story begins in Richmond on Sunday, April 2, 1865, when Confederate President Jefferson Davis received an urgent message from General Robert E. Lee while attending a church service. Whatever they had started off with, travel expenses had steadily depleted their coffers by that time. They took a small fortune in gold and silver with them when they fled Richmond, Virginia in April 1865. The Associated Press contributed to this report. 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. Rumor has it that with Lafitte spending so much time at Fort Morgan he could have buried a worth of $10,000,000 there. He immigrated here from Scotland. Until next time Happy Treasure Hunting! While on the route to Columbia the wagons and horses started to get bogged down on the marshy ground 4 miles North of Athens, Alabama. Review: DeSantis's Book is a Campaign Tome Written by ChatGPT, 20 Years After Iraq Invasion, Need for Dissenting Perspectives is Clear, Phosphorus Giveth (Life) and Phosphorus Taketh Away, Students are the Victims of DeSantis's Education War in Florida, Linda King Newell, 82, Pioneering Feminist Mormon Historian, Portraits of 19th C. Black Charlottesville Show Life, Joy, Black History Month Traces to a Key Meeting in a Chicago YMCA, How (Some) of the Hip Hop Generation Learned Black History, The Executive Branchs Response to the Flood of 1927, The Case For Calling the Language "American", America Fought Its Own Battle Over Books Before it Fought the Nazis. Named after one president, Thomas Jefferson, he went on to marry the daughter of another, Zachary Taylor. 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 trapper returned to the Chickasaw camp and married the daughter of the chief but her father had disappeared and no one in the village seemed to know where the cave was that held the treasure. His anger turned to crime and robbing the L&N trains was the outcome. The location was described (by him) as being in northern Alabama, between the towns of Bellview and Booneville, at or near Keel Mountain. 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. His wife gave in again and told the soldiers where another cask was buried. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Some of the Southern leaders . According to local lore, the gold was lost or stolen during the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg . Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Jefferson Davis fled Richmond with multiple wagons filled with gold and silver. Civil War historian William Rawlings explained, People like to believe theres something out there. He was worn out, saddened by the devastation that existed in his part of the state, and the difficulty he and his neighbors were having in restoring their lives and properties. Two trains left from the capital that night. Henry knew he could make a fortune with his ferry because the Perdido River was a popular crossing spot for people going from Alabama to Florida and vice versa. Late that night, two trains departed Richmond heading south. So I can't totally discount the story. The Union soldiers dug up the cask and went and spent the money in Mobile, Alabama. [1] The gold was temporarily stored at the Iron Bank by William H. Young. Supposedly, Nunez buried a treasure of approximately $200,000 somewhere Digging Deeper: Lost Treasures of Oklahoma. Visit here for more information on State laws regarding relic hunting, treasure hunting, and artifacts. The gold and silver coins are said to be buried east of his old homestead. Unable to accept the end of the Confederacy and Northern domination over the South, he collaborated with other disenfranchised leaders exiled in Canada. Simply putting food on the table became an essential concern. Meade, Sheridan, Wright, Thomas and Canby Ordered to Push the Enemy at all Points. "There's been a pattern of behavior by the FBI that's been very troubling," said Anne Weismann, who represents Finders Keepers. Hanson wounded the last Union soldier but he got away. So if you are ever in that area you might want to have your metal detector and shovel ready because there might be something worth finding buried in the ground there. 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Buried treasure in Alabama may be located in ghost towns. The FBI initially claimed it had no files about the investigation. I guess this happened more often than we would think. Every legend that has any long-term staying power has a modicum of truth in it, and certainly this one does, says William Rawlings, an author of numerous nonfiction books and novels about Southern history. The FBI says it came up empty at the rural Pennsylvania site where Civil War gold is rumored to be buried. January 6, 2022 / 11:11 AM (Published 1865)", Last Sighting of the Lost Confederate Gold in Georgia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Confederate_gold&oldid=1130607928, A series of western adventure novels written by, This page was last edited on 31 December 2022, at 01:37. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 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. And peoples imaginations take over from there.. The phrase "Lost Confederate Gold" has a romantic ring. Davis and His Gold. Bill Kirby has reported, photographed and commented on life in Augusta and Georgiafor 45 years. The rumor is that the gold was buried under the name of a confederate general between two false generals in a cemetery. Many of the accounts were published in the papers of the Southern Historical Society, in an effort to dispel rumors that Davis took the money for himself and his family. These were enormous-sized boxes measuring from 3 deep x 2 wide x 4 long. I doubt very seriously that any of the phantom confederate gold myths are real. The former assistant to Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory returned to Winchester, Virginia, where he built an elaborate house, Linden Farm, and became a prominent citizen. JavaScript is disabled. They left Richmond with a bunch of money, and when [Davis group] was captured six weeks later, they didnt have it. Three children and two men drowned but the rest of the passengers were saved by a brigantine sailboat that was nearby. [3][4], Davis did in effect take with him $528,000 in gold and silver bullion (some of it in Mexican silver coinage) when he fled the city on 3 April 1865 by train. In the other were cash and gold reserves and jewelry, estimated to be worth around $1 million. Long story short it is said that Levi Colbert buried some of his savings from the inn and ferry operations in what is now Colbert County Alabama. Then check out 14 Lost Treasures of Wisconsin. The townspeople decided to defend Newton but were worried that if they got defeated that the towns treasury would be looted. 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 . When he was captured, he had his wifes shawl over his shoulders. Many of these treasures are now on private land or owned by the federal or state government. No one else knew where the box was buried and it hasnt been found to this day. Around that time (and probably because he could no longer finance his travels), he finally began to realize there was nothing to be gained for the South, that the Fenian army was more rhetoric than substance and was ill prepared to precipitate war between the U.S. and Great Britain. Another sci-fi production, 2012s Alcatraz television show, also featured the gold, with its characters realizing the treasure was buried beneath the prison back in 1960. At the time no one questioned his integrity or his simple explanation. So what happened to that missing Confederate treasure? Having his ferry there solved this problem. Most if not all of them take place well into the war, and by then the confederate had serious cash flow issues. Those two boxes of gold could still be buried deep in that bog near Athens, Alabama. One day a Union Officer became privy to Henry Nune and his buried treasure. On March 7, 1896, he was in a general store in the town of Atmore, Alabama. In the Cumberland mountains of central Tennessee a small Confederate detail had hidden the gold in a mountain cache. He ended up in prison until the end of the war. From lost confederate Civil War gold to lost Indian gold to plantation owners and their lost treasure we have a little bit of everything in these stories. In my opinion the Lost Confederate Gold myth is just thata myth. In the 1939 movie "Gone With The Wind," the Union Army believes Rhett Butler to have the missing Confederate gold, and they threaten to hang him. The story goes that when she was forced to leave she had so much gold and silver her horses couldnt carry the load so she was forced to bury the gold and silver where she stood. Treasure hunters in the area believe his house was located at the following coordinates: N 3030 38 W 872651 which is close to U.S. Highway 90 bridge that now crosses the Perdido River. The true value of the treasure that left Richmondheld under the guard of Confederate Navy Captain William H. Parker and the young midshipmen in his commandwill likely never be known. A town was named after her that once was one of the largest towns in Randolph County Alabama. The first carried Davis and other Confederate officials, along with the governments most important documents and other archived materials. According to Rawlings research, they split what remained of the treasurys funds with a second group they planned to meet in Florida. The FBI has long insisted the March 2018 dig came up empty, but the agency has consistently stymied the Paradas' efforts to obtain information. On one was Davis, officials and important documents. 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. So with Jesse James spending time and hiding out, its only natural that many believe that he would have buried treasure in and around these areas of Alabama. 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