The Lost Confederate Treaure
(This article originally appeared in 3
parts in Splash Magazine in
2005. I
have reproduced it here as written.)
Part
I
The facts seem simple enough: On April 2, 1865 the Union Army faced
tattered and battle-weary Confederate soldiers defending Richmond, Virginia
under the overall command of General Robert E. Lee. Realizing that his lines could not hold and
that the fall of the Confederate capital was imminent, General Lee sent an
urgent message to President Jefferson Davis that the government must evacuate
or face certain capture. Late that night
a special train carrying the President and Members of the Confederate Cabinet
departed Richmond for Danville, Virginia.
Although the news was bleak, it was the hope of all on board that the
struggle could be continued.
Shortly after midnight a second train
departed the Richmond station following the fleeing government south. On board were all the hard currency reserves
of the Confederate States of America guarded by a group of young midshipmen
from the Confederate Navy who had scuttled their vessel in the James River. Amongst the official records of the
Confederacy were many—some say hundreds—of crates and barrels containing gold
and silver coins, bullion, and a substantial amount of fine jewelry donated to
the Cause by women across the South. In
addition there was more than $450,000 in gold from Richmond bank reserves,
taken to keep it from falling into the hands of the invading Yankees.
By the end of the day on April 3, 1865
Richmond lay in ashes as occupying Federal troops had fanned out across the
city looking for stragglers. Over the
ensuing weeks, Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse,
Lincoln was assassinated, and the dwindling band of Confederate fugitives
continued to work their way south, hoping to escape west beyond the Mississippi,
or perhaps overseas to Cuba or Britain.
When Jefferson Davis and his ragged group were finally captured by
members of the Fourth Michigan Calvary near Irwinville in south Georgia on May
10th they had only a few dollars in their possession. The fabled riches of the vast “Confederate
Treasure” were not to be found.
Lincoln’s assassination was widely but
erroneously assumed to be the terrible result of a covert Confederate
plot. The Northern press, rightfully
outraged as such a horrific event, had screamed for retribution against Davis
and other government officials. Fuel by
vitriol in the press, rumors of the amount of gold and silver carried away by
the fugitives grew to millions and millions of dollars. The knowledge of the fact that the treasure
did leave Richmond with Jefferson Davis and was not with him when he was
captured led to wild speculation as to its fate.
Over the years stories of “The Lost
Confederate Treasure” have become ingrained in American culture and
folklore. From movies to books to the
internet, stories and guesses abound as to “what really happened.” The Clint Eastwood classic, “The Good, The
Bad, and the Ugly” revolves around a search for missing Confederate gold. Dozens of cities and counties across the
South and even further afield each have their own unique story as to where the
treasure is “really” buried accompanied by—of course—logical reasons as to why
it hasn’t yet been found.
Rumors and speculation aside, the truth
is that the exact amount of the gold and silver carried south by the fleeing
government is not known. The destruction
and disorder that accompanied the fall of the Confederacy led to the loss of
most of the records that could have been used to establish a more exact
figure. The best estimates hold that the
hard currency actually held in the Treasury at the end of the war was only
about $327,000, a paltry sum for a government even in 1865. As many officials testified after the war
when accused of somehow having knowledge of the treasure’s disappearance, the
Confederacy was nearly broke. The
reverses of the last two years of the war combined with the effective Federal
blockage of southern ports had nearly drained the treasury dry. Assuming that this sum is in the range of
accuracy, this amount together with the Richmond bank gold, plus jewelry and
other valuables would suggest that the actual worth of the “treasure” was in
the range of one million dollars.
So, what happened to it? Did the leaders of the Confederacy steal it
as some have alleged? Was it buried in
some secret location to be dug up by future generations? Or did the treasure suffer a more mundane
fate? Why do rumors of “lost Confederate
gold” persist even today, spurring on generation after generation of treasure
hunters? Parts II and III of this
article in the next issues of Splash! will attempt to answer those questions
and others.
Part
II
As recounted in Part I of this
three-part series, the mystery of the “Lost Confederate Treasure” is one of the
most enduring of Southern Legends. When
President Jefferson Davis and the Cabinet fled the besieged Confederate capital
of Richmond, Virginia on April 2, 1865, they carried with them nearly a million
dollars in gold, silver and jewelry.
Part of this hoard was all that remained in Richmond of the hard
currency assets of the rapidly collapsing Confederacy. Part of it was the gold assets of the
Richmond banks, taken in order to keep them from falling into the hands of the
seemingly unstoppable Northern forces.
When President Davis and his family were captured in south Georgia some
six weeks later, he had only a few dollars with him. What happened to the treasure?
Although the fall of Richmond and the
government’s flight south was a crushing blow, many—including President
Davis—were unwilling to admit defeat.
The plan was to withdraw to a safer area, reestablish the Government,
and continue the struggle. Barely
avoiding Federal marauders, the train carrying the President and members of his
Cabinet arrived in Danville, Virginia late in day on April 3rd.
The “treasure,” meanwhile, was
transported on a second train guarded by Midshipmen from the Confederate
Navy. In the chaos of impending defeat,
it was an attractive target for would-be hijackers and other outlaws. It was heavy, consisting dozens of boxes and
crates of gold and silver coins, some bullion, plus an unknown amount of
jewelry donated to the Cause by southern women.
One commander described it as “a very troublesome elephant.”
Over the next the next four weeks,
Davis and other members of the government pushed steadily south, pursued by
troops from the north and avoiding the areas in their path under Federal
control. The treasure train followed a
similar route, from Danville south to Charlotte, North Carolina, then on to
Chester, South Carolina. Transferred to
wagons then back on rail cars then back on wagons, all the while under heavy
guard, the precious cargo passed through Newberry and Abbeville, South
Carolina, arriving in Washington, Georgia on April 19th. When the threat of its capture became too
great in Washington, the treasure was once again loaded on wagons, moved first
to Augusta and then back across the Savannah River to Abbeville before
returning back to Washington by May 3rd.
While Davis and the government fled
south, two events that would forever change the course of American history took
place. On April 9, 1865, General Robert
E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at
Appomattox Courthouse. Only five days
later John Wilkes Booth, a Southern sympathizer, shot President Abraham Lincoln
at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC.
Many in the north, rightfully enraged
at Lincoln’s death and fueled by wild speculation in the Yankee press assumed
that the dying Confederacy, and Davis in particular, was behind a plot to
topple the United States government.
Lincoln, whose policy was one of reconciliation with the South after the
war, was succeeded by Andrew Johnson who called for vengeance. Calls went out for Davis’s summary
execution. A hundred thousand dollar
reward was placed on his head, exceeding in comparison to the wages of the day
the twenty-five million dollar reward offered currently for Osama Bin Laden.
During these weeks of flight, expenses
for lodging and provisions as well as payment to the accompanying troops
steadily drained the resources of the Government’s funds. A sample of known expenses includes $39,000 paid
to soldiers in Greensboro, North Carolina, $108,000 paid to escorting troops
near the Savannah River, about $40,000 paid for soldier’s provisions in Augusta
and Washington, Georgia. According to A.
J. Hanna, author of Flight Into Oblivion, by early May 1865 only about a hundred
thousand dollars remained in treasury funds.
By the fourth of May, the Confederacy
obviously defeated, President Davis and the few remaining members of the
Cabinet with him made the decision to disband the government. Some $86,000 was given to a trusted officer
to be smuggled abroad and held in Confederate accounts. Davis planned to make it to Florida, then
perhaps west by boat to Texas where he would continue to lead the fight for
Southern independence. With his wife and
children, he headed south toward Macon with a small band of guards. A second group of core supporters split off
and planned to meet up with him near the Florida line. Between them, they carried what remained of
$35,000 in gold that had been allotted for expenses of the President and
Cabinet some weeks earlier. It was all
that was left of the government funds.
On May 10th just south of Irwinville,
Georgia and not far from the Florida line, the fugitives were surprised and
captured in an early morning raid by troops from the Fourth Michigan
Calvary. They had with them only a few
dollars. The fabled “Confederate
Treasure” had disappeared. Or had it
simply all been spent?
In the next installment of this series
we will look at what happened to the gold from the Richmond banks, and some of
the reasons that the legends surrounding this fabled treasure have developed
over the years.
Part
III
Today, more than a hundred and forty
years later, the mystery of what “really” happened to the gold and silver that
remained in the Confederate Treasury at the end of the Civil War continues to
intrigue historians and treasure hunters alike.
As detailed in Parts I and II of this series, President Jefferson Davis
and other members of the Confederate government fled Richmond, Virginia on
April 2, 1865, only hours before the capital fell to Yankee troops. Accompanying them on their escape south was
nearly a million dollars in gold, silver and jewelry. Part of it belonged to the Confederate
Treasury. The other part was the gold
reserves of the Richmond banks.
During the next six weeks Lee
surrendered at Appomattox and Lincoln was assassinated. Davis and other members of the rebel
government were touted by the northern press as war criminals. Huge rewards were offered for their
arrest. When Davis was finally captured
in south Georgia on May 10th, his small party of fugitives only had a few
dollars with them. What happened to the
treasure?
The answer to that question, like the
fabled hoard itself, has two parts.
First, only about half of it actually belonged to the Confederacy. With so many records lost in the final days
of the war, even the exact amount is uncertain.
Estimates range up to more than a million dollars, but a more generally
accepted figure is about half that. Of
this amount, there is reasonably good documentation that most of it was spent
in support of the failing government and its troops. The truth, however unexciting it may seem, is
that at the end of the war The Confederacy was nearly broke. The wild speculation in the news of the day
was just that, speculation. There was no
“Confederate Treasure” to go missing, only groundless rumors.
So why are there persistent legends
about the “Confederate Gold”? Even
today, why do movies like “Sahara” (based on the book of the same name by Clive
Cussler) continue to attract audiences with their story lines about the “true”
fate of these fabled riches? Perhaps the
answer lies in the old adage that underlying most legends is a grain of
truth. And the truth—in this case—refers
to the fate of the gold reserves of the Richmond banks.
It should be remembered that the bank
gold was technically not part of the “Confederate Treasure.” In the mid-nineteenth century before today’s
highly regulated banking system, most banks were privately owned. They issued notes and currency backed by
physical gold reserves. In fact, the
link between the value of the US dollar and the price of gold was abandoned
only in 1971. Unlike the estimated value
of the specie from the Confederate Treasury, the Richmond bank gold’s worth was
more accurately recorded as approximately $451 thousand. It had been left for safekeeping in a
Washington, Georgia bank vault after the fugitive government split up in hopes
of eluding Federal capture. Only days
later it was in the hands of occupying Northern troops.
On May 24, 1865, a group of five wagons
loaded with the Richmond bank gold set out on their long journey north. The gold was now the property of the United
States government. At the end of the day
they made camp near Danburg, Georgia on the grounds of the white-columned home
of Dionysius Chennault. That night,
troops guarding the gold were attacked by a group of men said to be locals,
paroled soldiers, freed slaves and others.
When the sun rose the following morning, more than a quarter million
dollars in gold was missing, having been carried off in any way possible by the
unknown attackers.
Occupying Federal troops reacted
harshly. The area was under martial law,
and tales of home invasions and torture in the search for the stolen gold were
common. Chennault and his family were
arrested and taken to Washington, DC in hopes of finding the whereabouts of the
gold, but supposedly they knew nothing of its fate. In the end, roughly $111 thousand dollars was
recovered, leaving some $140 thousand to disappear into the local economy. Rumors persist to this day of wealthy local
families who trace their fortune to that night.
The stories of lost Confederate
treasure seem to be more legend than fact.
Stories based on a bit of truth that change and grow with the passing
years as they are passed down from generation to generation. They may be myths, but in the South so much
of the so-called history of that turbulent era has been enshrined in that
form. Sometimes we believe what we want
to believe. As for me, I’ll take my
metal detector, a faded map, and the hope that somewhere out there….