CSA Treasure(s)/Treasury...?

Salvor6 said:
Here is a new twist to the CSA Treasure story:

Confederate gold treasure may be in Lake Michigan

I never heard of this one before. The two researchers really did their homework on this. ECS, what can you tell us about Colonel Robert Minty?
Click to expand...
Salvor 6, neither have I, so I had to research this tale.
I am not so sure about their homework, it appears to mostly piece together lore.
US Col Robert Horatio George Minty, 4th Michigan Cavalry was NOT court marshalled in 1864, but was honorably mustered out, April 15, 1865. Minty did not capture Jefferson Davis, but members of his 4th did capture Davis and nephew CSA Capt John Taylor Wood. After the War, he returned to Michigan, was involved with a railroad there, but never returned to Georgia, and was NEVER involved with the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad.
http://civilwarcavalry.com/?p=451
Marauders did steal part of the treasury at Chennault's Plantation (read earlier post on this thread) in Washington, Wilkes count, Georgia. The Atlantic & Gulf Railroad does pass through Washington, Georgia.
Davis was captured at Irwinville, Irwin county, Georgia- Lincoln county is located in NE Georgia on the South Carolina border, but does have a town named Chennault.
The article on the Lake Michigan Confederate Gold Bullion, relates that at a coin show a "piece of gold" was identified as from the Confederate treasury. How?
On another post on this thread relates the missing gold & silver bars that disappeared from Dalonega, Lumpkin county, Georgia that did have Confederate assay marks, but was no where near 2 million dollars worth.
With all the misinformation in this Michigan tale, I believe this is lore based on an earlier tall tale.
Thanks for lead, I do enjoy the research journey.
 

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ECS said:
Salvor 6, neither have I, so I had to research this tale.
I am not so sure about their homework, it appears to mostly piece together lore.
US Col Robert Horatio George Minty, 4th Michigan Cavalry was NOT court marshalled in 1864, but was honorably mustered out, April 15, 1865. Minty did not capture Jefferson Davis, but members of his 4th did capture Davis and nephew CSA Capt John Taylor Wood. After the War, he returned to Michigan, was involved with a railroad there, but never returned to Georgia, and was NEVER involved with the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad.
http://civilwarcavalry.com/?p=451
Marauders did steal part of the treasury at Chennault's Plantation (read earlier post on this thread) in Washington, Wilkes count, Georgia. The Atlantic & Gulf Railroad does pass through Washington, Georgia.
Davis was captured at Irwinville, Irwin county, Georgia- Lincoln county is located in NE Georgia on the South Carolina border, but does have a town named Chennault.
The article on the Lake Michigan Confederate Gold Bullion, relates that at a coin show a "piece of gold" was identified as from the Confederate treasury. How?
On another post on this thread relates the missing gold & silver bars that disappeared from Dalonega, Lumpkin county, Georgia that did have Confederate assay marks, but was no where near 2 million dollars worth.
With all the misinformation in this Michigan tale, I believe this is lore based on an earlier tall tale.
Thanks for lead, I do enjoy the research journey.
Click to expand...

AGREE!
 

"We fight because you're here"!-CSA soldier

While the men were off to serve in the Confederate army, farms, plantations, and towns in the Florida interior were defended by local home guards, composed of grandfathers, young boys, and sometimes the wives of the departed soldiers.
While he Union occupied the coastal towns and had gunboats patrol the Atlantic, Gulf, and Florida's major rivers, that would conduct loot and burn raids in the interior. Aware of this Northern Aggression policy, Floridians would hide or bury their valuables in caches. Most remained hidden during the Federal occupation of Reconstruction.
September 27, 1864, US Gen Alexander Asboth with a force of 700 Union cavalry departed Pensacola to raid Marianna in their drive to take Tallahassee. About 200 of Marianna's home guard barricaded the streets and half off the first assault, killing many of the Yankee raiders.
On the second assault, Asboth's troops won the day, and began looting the town, taking all the slaves for Union conscription, 200 cattle, 400 horses, all the stored food they could find, wagons, and 81 of the home guard as prisoner.
Although this was a defeat, the grandfathers, boys, and women of the home guard, prevented the Union from taking Tallahassee, which is the only Confederate state capitol that was not captured during the War.
 

ECS said:
The Iron Bank of Columbus was managed by William H Young, who was a friend of Confederate Sec of the Treasury, Christopher G Memminger.
There are two different tales concerning the Iron Bank of Columbus.
The first claims the gold and silver from the CSA occupied US mint in New Orleans was shipped to the Iron Bank for safe keeping. On Oct 11, 1862, CSA Gen PGT Beauregard removed the gold & silver by force from Young's Iron Bank.
This story is suspect due to the fact that Memminger had the New Orleans gold & silver shipped to CSA Assayer Guirot at Dahlonega, Georgia-it was received June 1862 and crated and shipped on Oct 1,1862 to Augusta, Georgia.
It never arrived.
The second story involves James H Wilson's Raiders attack on Columbus, Georgia, April 16, 1865, 7 days after Lee's surrender. Wilson destroyed and burned anything of use to the Confederacy, and as the story goes, thought that the remaining Confederate treasury was hidden at Young's Iron Bank because of Young's friendship with Memminger.
Between April 12 and April 19, the treasury was shipped from Chester, SC to Marshall's White Hall Plantation in Abbeville, SC, and by May 3,1865 it had made its way to Chennault's Plantation in Washington, Ga, where $250,000 was stolen by armed men, and by May 24, the Union army recovered the rest.
Jefferson Davis's two treasure and baggage wagons made it to David Levy Yulee's Cottonwood Plantation in Archer, Florida, and what was carried by CSA Sec of State Judah P Benjamin, CSA Sec of War John C Breckinridge, and Davis's nephew, CSA Capt John Taylor Wood during their flight through Silver Springs/Ocala ,Florida and out of the country.
Click to expand...
Breckinridge and Wood stayed at the Ocala home of CSA Brig Gen Robert Bullock, who was related to Theodore Roosevelt's Georgia born mother.
 

Lake Michigan CSA GOLD was PROBABLY heading to CSA/KGC in Canada... dunno.
 

With all the tales and legends of Confederate gold, what is overlooked is how a newly created country, the CSA, acquired the gold and silver to form a treasury, starting from scratch.
Upon succession, the Confederate government seized the US mints at New Orleans, Charlotte, N C, and at Dalonega, Georgia. The 1861 U S half dollars with the "O" mark, were minted by the Confederacy, and the gold coins of 1861 with the "C" mark of Charlotte were also minted by the Confederacy until they ran out of bullion, and the mint was converted into a hospital.
Several Southern banks were "nationalized" with coffers going to the CSA Treasury.
The Confederacy also sold bonds, payable two years after the ratification of a peace treaty with the US with 8% interest to be paid to bearer.
Southern ladies also donated jewelry for the Cause.
The rest of the CSA treasury was their printed currency.
Loans and credit were secured from British and French banks to buy armaments and other supplies from those nations merchants, but the loan money remained in those countries.
As CSA Major Caleb Huse, who was an CSA Agent in Europe noted," Never before was a government at war supplied with arms, munitions, clothing, and medicines, with so little money as was paid by the Confederacy".
Many British and French suppliers went bankrupt after the War, including several Liverpool shipbuilders, due to non payment by the Confederacy.
http://www.csa-dixie.co/liverpool_dixie/huse.htm
The point to this is that most lost Confederate gold stories are just that. The exceptions being what was captured with Jefferson Davis, what was captured at Washington, Georgia, what was recovered at Yulee's Cottonwood Plantation in Archer, Florida, and a lost 50 lbs of Spanish and Cuban specie cattle payment in southwest Florida.
There may exist small caches scattered about the South, but not the large amounts that have been written about in treasure books and magazines.
 

George Franklin Thompson, a former Union officer, was sent to Florida to report on the efforts on Reconstruction. In Thompson's report, he mentions the "regulators" of Marion county who resisted the imposed occupation, and Marion county was later placed under martial law. Thompson's disdain for Southerners is clearly expressed in his report. No Confederate treasure in this, but it is well worth the read.
A Journey Through Florida, 1865-1866
 

When one looks at the events at the Marshall Abbeville, SC during the flight and the Marion county Marshall Plantation, Yulee's partner Pearson at Orange Springs and his Benjamin cousins in Ocala and why Judah P Benjamin, John C Breckinridge, and John Taylor Wood traveled down the Oklawaha River to Silver Springs to stay at CSA Gen Robert Bullock's house in Ocala. It should become obvious, from Thompson's report concerning "regulators", why Marion county was put under Federal law in 1867, and the connection to the KGC in the resistance to Reconstruction.
 

I have mentioned Hart's James Burt, the riverboat that carried Benjamin, Breckinridge and Wood to Silver Springs down the Oklawaha. The photos on this link are of the Lucas Line Metamora, another narrow inboard paddlewheel that plied the twisting Oklawaha,and sank where the Silver River meets the Oklawaha in 1903. The docks shown at Silver Springs would have been similar to what the escaping Confederates saw minus the railroad, which was built 20 years after the War.
Metamora Steamboat
 

Where the Metamora sank on the Oklawaha, it was 1 mile west of the Marshall Plantation and Holley's Farm and gristmill that the Union raided and burned, March 10, 1865, and is about 14 miles south of CSA Fort Brook, where a half filled keg of Mexican silver dollars from the CSA treasury was buried.
The photo gives one glimpse of what the Okawaha looked like in 1860's, and much, but not ll, loos the same today.
 

Franklin, I am referring to all the "$250,000 in gold lost by CSA paymasters" that appeared in "50"s and "60"s treasure magazines.
 

franklin said:
... There is still some of the $25,000 in gold hidden along the railroad tracks in Gainesville, FLa and there is a trunk of Jefferson Davis still buried on the David Levy Cottonwood Plantation...
Click to expand...
...and some passed through Ocala when Benjamin, Breckinridge, and Wood traveled down the Oklawaha on Hubbard Hart's JAMES BURT riverboat to the Silver Springs landing. Hart received $4500 in gold for aiding their escape during Mat 1865, and what it curious, the JAMES BURT was never seen again.
Was it scuttled with more gold onboard?
 

The JAMES BURT was an inboard paddlewheel steam powered riverboat, 17' wide 60' long with a 3' depth, piloted by CSA Col Hubbard Hart, a successful Confederate river blockade runner. The SILVER SPRINGS, piloted by Capt Richard J Adams, another HARTLINE riverboat also ran the blockade
The north flowing Oklawaha joined the north flowing St Johns River below Union occupied Palatka.
Intelligence on Union gunboat movements was provided by CSA spy, Lola Sanchez, who resided in Palatka.
When Hart carried Benjamin, Breckinridge, and Wood down the Oklawaha, Lola Sanchez was given 500 Mexican silver dollars from a keg, what remained in the keg was buried at CSA Fort Brook on the Oklawaha at Orange Springs. Once Breckinridge and Wood reached Cuba, they stayed with relatives of Lola Sanchez.
Hart continued he riverboat company after the War, with newer riverboats, including the Haiwatha, which carried visitors to Silver Springs, including Harriet Beecher Stowe and US Grant.
Below are more Oklawaha riverboat photos. Note the one labeled the SILVER SPRINGS shown at Silver Sprigs is not that boat. The RR seen in the photo was built in 1885 by Union Gen Joshua Chamberlain, CSA Brig Gen Robert Bullock, and Judah Benjamin's and David Levy Yulee's Ocala cousins, Solomon and Simon Benjamin.
Silver Spring Steam-boat
Marion Steamboat
Ocklawaha Steamboat
 

Many of the Florida Confederates that served, had also fought in the Seminole Wars, and had learned guerilla tactics from the Native American enemy. The first use of land mines (IED's) was at Fort King (Ocala).
US Capt Gabriel Rains set explosive traps around the fort, April 1840 and is considered the father of land mines.
This was improved upon by the Florida Confederate into naval mines, which they placed into the St Johns River.
On April 1, 1864, the Union side paddlewheel riverboat, MAPLE LEAF, was returning to Jacksonville from Palatka, when it hit a Confederate naval mine at Mandarin Point, ripping out its bottom, sending her into the muddy bed of the St Johns. The MAPLE LEAF remained there with the river mud preserving all that was on board.
http://www.mapleleafshipwreck.com/Book/Chapter2/chapter2.htm
Also included on that link is an account of CSA Capt JJ Dickinson and his cavalry capturing and sinking the USS COLUMBINE on the St Johns. The lifeboat recovered from the COLUMBINE was used by Breckinridge and Wood during their escape from the Union.
Many of the recovered items from the MAPLE LEAF are displayed at the Mandarin museum on the ST Johns:
http://www.mandarinmuseum.net/events/maple-leaf-anniversary
 

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franklin said:
... Then there was the specie train that went south with Secretary of the Treasury Micajah Clark. There is still some of the $25,000 in gold hidden along the railroad tracks in Gainesville, FLa and there is a trunk of Jefferson Davis still buried on the David Levy Cottonwood Plantation...
Click to expand...
The RR tracks were those of Yulee's Florida railroad than ran from Fernandina to Cedar Key, and probably would be near Waldo (NE of Gainesville)where CSA Capt J J Dickinson maintained a camp for his raids against the Union at Crescent Lake, St Augustine, and Jacksonville to the east, and Otter Creek and Cedar Key to the west.
 

During the War of Northern Aggression, the Village of Crystal River's, Kings Bay, was employed as a loading base for the Confederate blockade runners, which was an inland terminus of Crystal River from the Gulf of Mexico.
When the Union USS HATTERAS raided and burned Yulee's RR depot and docks at Cedar Key, Jan 15, 1862, the CSA blockade runner, FANNY, escape by sailing south to Crystal River, finding refuge at Kings Bay.
The Confederates were well aware of the need to keep this blockade port open, and on June 29, 1862, lured the USS BEAUREGARD to the mouth of Crystal River with a schooner sailing from the Gulf into the river.
US Capt David Sterns, left W H Melson as acting master of the Beauregard, and with seven men, followed the schooner in his ships longboat. Behind him, Melson noted another schooner had entered the river, but Melson was ordered not to bring the Beauregard into the river.
As Sterns' longboat approached Kings Bay, Confederate men and women of the village opened fire from both sides of the river. killing Union sailors, Edgar Lee, Charles Asten, Charles Glover, Francisco Ransome, and William Thompson, Sterns was wounded, and died shortly after his capture. Two of the Beauregard's survived the attack, a Freedman who was hung, and another who swore an oath and joined the Confederacy.
June 4, 1863, the USS FORT HENRY captured several Confederate barges at the mouth of Crystal River, and on June 25, the USS SAGAMORE captured the British FROLICK loaded with cotton bales and turpentine, but no Union vessels entered Kings Bay until April 11, 1865,(nine days after the falloff Richmond) when the USS SEABIRD captured CSA sloops FLORIDA and ANNIE, loaded with cotton, at Kings Bay.
 

Sherman W Adams was assistant paymaster on the Union USS SOMERSET, and kept a record of the ships blockading activities.
The letter by CSA Major M Whit Smith, 3rd Floid Vuntr Infantry, was seized at Cedar Key, and mentions Silver Springs resident, CSA Col Thomas J Pastuer .
Letter 2 mentions the destruction of the Confederate Salt Works at Cedar Key.
http://www.chs.org/finding_aides/kcwmp/exams/AdamsS.html
Calvin Shedd was a Union soldier, station first at Fort Jefferson, 65 miles west of Key West in the Dry Tortugas (Dr Mudd served his prison sentence here), then was sent to Fort Marion (Castillo de San Marcos) in St Augustine.
The letters he wrote his wife contain many details of activities during the War.
The Calvin Shedd Papers
 

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