Confederate gold in North Carolina

[GoldCoinHunter]

gldhntr that is so cool that you have studied this for so long--you're the expert on the subject. Do you think the treasure will ever be found? Do you think it's still there?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Dirtfishin]

Great Story Placerman!! Hope you find more info.... I be on the lookout!

Also, don't forget that ball could of traveled downstream aways during flooding.

Kat

 

[Selma Hunter1]

Gentlemen -

Lest folks take the O.R.'s too seriously please understand that the OR's contain much in the way of error, both as to factual recitations of events and placename errors. These records are a consolidation of various records pieced together over a period of years subsequent to the war and in many cases the materials incorporated into the record were simply the very one-sided and frequently self-serving reports of some very affected men.

For the most part, the records are useful and serve as a guide to events - from ONE PERSPECTIVE or another. Please bear in mind that "truth" is a recitation of "fact" well colored by "perspective". This is the same psychological phenomena we see and hear about frequently when two eye witnesses recite versions of a "truth" that, upon examination, are mutually exclusive. Both parties are telling the "truth", but the facts get battered beyond recognition in the telling. So we are left to take what is in the record with a grain of salt, and continue with our search for a more accurate "truth".

I'll cite examples if you wish, but if you are a SERIOUS student of the war and have researched the records to any extent you already have discovered this for yourself. If not, well, I know about some beachfront properties in Birmingham you might want to invest in...... (LOL)

IMHO,

 

[old gringo]

placerman,
sent you a PM.

 

[CWnut]

You must also remember that in the closing days of the CW looting was rampant by both armies as well as civilians and many, many caches were hidden with the intentions of later retrieving them--good luck Placerman on your endeavour.....

 

[jimfnc]

He said that the train left Richmond for Greensboro. Why would they head towards Greensboro? And then why would they move towards McLeansville to bury the loot? Was that town even in existence at the time?

(I'm no Civil War historian but have spent a fair amount of time reading multiple accounts of his stay in Greensboro (I live here)). Jeff Davis and his government (with many train cars of documents (and the treasury money) had to leave Richmond because it was close to being taken. The rail line to Danville and then Greensboro was one of the main lines. To go any further east would run into Sherman, approaching Raleigh,NC. No doubt Davis came here and stayed a number of days. He was not entirely welcome here, but it was a junction of railroads, telegraph, a good place to communicate from. He was trying to salvage some part of the South, and forge a consensus of how to carry on. Lee had not yet surrendered.
There are differing accounts whether they left Greensboro for Charlotte NC by train or wagon, with some stories saying the gold was stored at the Charlotte Mint. It seems definite that some gold and silver was used to pay soldiers at several points in the trip, who had not been paid,(to stop potential riots). There is surviving paperwork supporting this. And there is no doubt a short while later Davis was captured near Irwinville Georgia, but no sign of the gold. I think the historical research on the final days is far more accurate than the "treasure stories". But there is no one definitive account of where the gold went, and it certainly is possible it went in several directions.
The story about pots of gold around McLeansville is totally unrelated and "earlier" if true. McLeansville was a large machine shop for the railroads, heavily used in the Civil War.
An interesting read is "An Honerable Defeat" - The Last Days of the Confederate Government by William Davis.