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CSA Treasure(s)/Treasury...?

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David Levy Yulee, along with his cousin, Judah P Benjamin were both US Senators before the Secession, as well as Jefferson Davis and John Slidell. Yulee built the FLORIDA RAILROAD that began at Fernandina crossed the state in a southwest direction that terminated at Cedar Key. He was part owner in the slave trader, WILLIAM GASTON, Captained by George Claghorn, Pearson's machine shop in Orange Springs, near J J Dickinson's SUNNYSIDE PLANTATION.
At the beginning of the WAR, Cedar Key served as a major shipping port for the blockade runners who supplied the Confederacy and the port where cotton was shipped to England as goods payment for the loan deals negotiated by Benjamin and administered by Confederate agents, Slidell and the Bullock brothers.
Because of importance to the Confederacy of Cedar Key and the Florida RR, they both were targeted by the Union with coastal blockades and occupation.
On January 15, 1862, the USS HATTERAS entered Cedar Key just as Confederate blockade runner schooner STAG was setting sail.
The Hatteras fired upon the Stag, whose captain ran the schooner aground setting fire to it while he and his crew escaped.
Observing what was happening to the Stag, the runner FANNY escaped and sailed south to the safe harbor of King's Bay, Crystal River.
Setting anchor, the crew of the Hatteras looted the schooners ANNA SMITH, WYFE, & AUCILLA cargo of cotton and turpentine , then burned them to the waterline.
The Hatteras crew then looted the town and railroad warehouses, the haunted hotel at that time was a grocery mercantile store, then burned the depot and warehouse buildings, 7 boxcars, and tore down the telegraph. The USS Hatteras then departed, having completed their mission.
While the Yulee's depot and railroad terminus was destroyed, Cedar Key still had its Confederate sea salt works and continued to supply the CSA with this valuable commodity.
Then ended on October 3,1863, when the crew of the USS SOMERSET burned the boilers and caldrons and left Union troops to occupy Cedar Key.
Yulee had a costal plantation, MARGARITA at Homosassa which supplied the Confederacy with syrup, molasses, and sugar from a stream-driven sugar mill. During May 1864, Union troops invaded Margarita, destroying the sugar and obligatory looting and burning Yulee's house on nearby Tiger Island.
Yulee's COTTONWOOD PLANTATION at Archer was the only remaining property of his that remained free of Union occupation or destruction during the War of Northern Aggression in Florida.
 

In south Florida, "cracker cowmen", supplied the Confederacy with beef and sold cattle to Cuba, accepting Spanish and Cuban gold coins, which were coordinated by CSA COMMISARRY AGENT, CSA Capt James McKay at Fort Meade.
The cowman, CSA Capt William P Hooker (Lesley's Co C), Moses Barber, and Jacob Summerlin were escorted on their cattle drives by the CSA "COW CAVALRY" Company's of Fort Meade.
Summerlin built docks and cattle pens at Punta Rassa, and Barber laid a corduroy road on pine trees over the swamp and marsh that led to the Punta Rassa docks.
US Capt Henry A Crane of US Fort Meade was determined to stop this cattle trade and issued "death warrants" against the cowmen and the cow cavalry. James D Green, was born and raised among these Florida settlers and cattlemen, was a Confederate but deserted to the Union, and Crane made a Green a Lt and deployed him on looting and burning raids against his former neighbors.
March 1864, CSA Capt John Riley, a blockade runner, loaded 400 head of cattle of Summerlin's that were delivered by CSA Capt John Lesley and the 2nd CSA Cow Cavalry, with $12,000 in Spanish and Cuban specie.
As they departed on Barber's corduroy road, they were attacked by Union troops led by deserter Green.
Capt Lesley handed CSA Pvt James Lanier Jr the 50lb bag of gold coins and instructed him to ride into the swamp and hide the gold while he and the others would lead Green and the others off in another direction. Lanier, as most of all the of the homestead familes knew the old Seminole War trails and this where he rode his horse.
When Lanier returned to Fort Meade, he reported to CSA Capt James McKay that "he buried the gold in a hummock beneath a marked tree near where two creeks met", a could find it upon returning to the location.
April 1864, the rains came and US Capt Crane ordered an attack on Fort Meade, led by US Lt Green. On the way, Green looted and burned the Lanier homestead, killing 75 yo James Lanier Sr, and on April 7, 1864 fought and routed the CSA Cow Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bowlegs Creek, where Pvt James Lanier Jr was killed.
"The detachment sent to Fort Meade in my last had a fight with the Rebs and drove them from the place Thursday last destroying all their stores complete, and killing leading guerilla Lanier, and rounding out several others with horses, without any loss whatsoever".-
US Capt Henry A Crane, Fort Meyers

CSA Cow Cavalry Capt Francis Asbury Hendry married Adeline Lanier, led a canoe mapping expedition of the Everglades in 1880, and has a county named for him.
CSA Captains McKay and Lesley aided CSA Sec of State Judah P Benjamin in his escape from the Union at Gamble Plantation, and Dr Howard Tyson Lykes married McKays daughter, Almeria, and formed LYKES BROTHERS, with cattle ranches in both Florida and Texas.
Moses Barber was involved in a range war with the Mizell family, and Summerlin loaned Orange county the money to build the courthouse in Orlando.
The lost 50lbs gold coin cattle payment has never been found, but has led to the legend of 1/2 ton of gold in the Everglades.
 

I recently bought a 1850's map of Florida from an antique/junk store in Palatka for $10.00.
It shows all the Seminole War forts, many of those were used by the Confederates during the War of Northern Aggression, and it shows the Everglades further north than it is today, extending well into Corkscrew Swamp, where, I believe CSA Pvt Lanier hid the 50lb gold specie cattle payment.
What I like about this map is that this was the Florida during that period, and with information from various diaries, some I have posted here, provides search area leads that can be coordinated from those period sources.
 

Military Map of the Peninsula of Florida South of Tampa Bay Compiled from the Latest and Most Reliable Authorities by Lieut J.C. Ives Top. Engineers under the general direction of Capt. A.A. Humphreys Top. Engineers by order of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War (War Department: 1856). Senate Doc. No. 89, 62d Cong. 1st Ses.

See if you can locate a copy of Memoir to Accompany A Military Map of the Peninsula of Florida, South of Tampa Bay, compiled by Lieut. J.C. Ives, Topogl. Engineers, under the general direction of Capt. A.A. Humphreys, Topogl. Engineers, by order of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, April 1856, War Department (New York: M.B. Wynkoop - 1856).

The Memoir is very detailed. I think you would find it quite useful.

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo, CM
 

Henri Nunez, one of Jean Lafitte's men, retired from piracy in 1815 and built and operated a ferry across the Perdido River that separates Florida from Alabama on the Old Spanish Trail that started in St Augustine. Having the only ferry in the area, business was good and he acquired a sizable fortune, which he buried on his property.
During the War of Northern Aggression, he provided free service to both the Union and Confederacy in hopes of remaining in the good graces of whomever won the War.
A Union officer from Union occupied Pensacola heard of Nunez wealth, and with a small detachment went to the ferry and tortured Nunez for the location of his buried wealth. Nunez who was a tough character who not divulge the location, but was saved from death when his wife delivered some gold and silver coins from one of the buried caches.
It is claimed that Henri Nunez had several caches that have never been found.
Baldwin County: Nunez Ferry
 

The February 1865 battle at Braddock's Farm at Dunn's Lake (Crescent Lake) between Florida's "swamp fox" CSA Capt JJ Dickson and Union forces station is accounted here from several eyewitness accounts.
Notice how the mortally wounded Union Lt Col Albert Wilcoxon was cared for in the field by fellow Freemason, CSA Dr Williams.
While not a treasure story, many relic, CSA and Union have been found in this area near Crescent City, Florida.

http://www.drbronsontours.com/BronsonBraddockFarm1885.html

A month later, CSA Capt JJ Dickinson repelled the Union raid of Marshall Plantation and Holley's Farm and Grist Mill on the Oklawaha River in Mation county.
 

During 1891-1895, archeologist, Clarence Bloomfield Moore, rented the riverboat ALIGATOR to explore the St Johns and Oklawaha Rivers to discover, map, and recover artifacts from Native American burial mounds.
The ALIGATOR sank in Crescent Lake near where Braddock's Farm Battle was fought 40 years before and remained until discovered in 2008.

https://rn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aligator(steamboat)

Mount Royal mound at Welatka was one where Moore recovered artifacts:
http://www.trailoffloridaindianheritage.org/o-Mount_Royal_Archaeological_Site.html

Not far from the Mount Royal mound is the FORT GATES FERRY on the St Johns River. Established during the 3rd Seminole War as a rope and pole barge transport for troops, the ferry was used by the Confederacy, including CSA Capt JJ Dickinson, and is still in use today, but with a power boat attached to a barge.
http://studiohourglass.blogspot.com/2014/10/historic-crossing-ft-gates-ferry.html
 

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The only time a cavalry unit captured and sunk naval vessels occurred of the St Johns River at Horse Landing south of Palatka. Lola Sanchez, Confederate spy from Palatka and CSA Capt JJ Dickinson (both aided Benjamin, Breckinridge, and Wood in their escape from the Union) were both involved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jackson_Dickinson#American_Civil_War
The captured Union POW's were sent to Andersonville Prison in Georgia.
A reenactment is held yearly at Horse Landing, which is now a part of the Florida Sherriff's RODEHEAVER BOYS RANCH on HWY 19, which is north of the west bank Gates Ferry landing at Salt Springs.
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMDEJZ_Battle_At_Horse_Landing
 

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Down a dirt road just west of the RODHEAVER entrance on HWY 19, will take you to the DAVENPORT LANDING on the Oklawaha River, which was that last firewood landing for riverboats coming from Silver Springs before entering the St Johns River.
Dickinson used this landing during many of his raids, the Hart lines JAMES BURT stopped here, carrying Benjamin, Breckinridge, and Wood to Silver Springs/Ocala, CSA Corporal Thomas Cassidy Fillyaw who was landing master after the War is buried there, and an Native American burial mound excavated by Clarence Bloomfield Moore during his time on the ALIGATOR is also at this location. There are now camping sites at the landing for kayakers.
Davenport Landing Trail | Florida Hikes!
 

ECS said:
The Confederate Treasury train followed Davis and Cabinet from the flight from Richmond.
April 3,1865 the train left Richmond to Danville,Va, April 8 onto Charlotte,NC, and on April 12 to Chester,SC , where it was loaded onto wagons. Between April 19 and May 3 it went back and forth from Marshall's White Hall Plantation in Abbeville,SC, to Washington ,Ga.
On its journey to Dionysius Chennault's plantation in Washington,Ga, it was attacked by an unknown band.They fled with what they had stolen, claims place it at $250,000, and it has been rumored that some it was buried on several locations near the plantation,and a larger cache was buried where the Apalachee and Oconee Rivers meet.
On May 24,1865,the Union army descended on Chennault's and recovered the remaining CSA treasury-boxes, barrels, crates of gold and silver coins, gold and silver bullion, and jewelry donated by Southern ladies for the Cause.
Not believing that part of the treasury was taken by bandits, the Union soldiers tortured members of the Chennault family and members of their household to no avail, because none of them knew or divulged the location of the rest of the missing treasury.
Click to expand...
While I was raised in Ocala, Florida, I was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and my great grandfather was one of those Northern Aggressors. As a US 1st Sgt, 10th Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers, he saw action at Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, the Wildness, and Cold Harbor, and Sailors Creek.
During the months of May & April, 1865, his unit was part of the Union occupying force at Danville.
Returning to New Jersey several moths later after mustering out, he bought a city block in Paterson, New Jersey, in which his extended family lived, brothers, cousins, and so in brownstones with connecting backyard alleys.
Family lore claimed he bought that property with rebel gold.
After studying the flight from Richmond of the CSA treasury, and Benjamin, Breckinridge, and Wood's flight through Florida and the Ocala connection, I have wondered about the family lore. He was in Danville at a crucial time. :dontknow:
 

It is known that the 39 kegs (230lbs each) of Mexican silver dollars the Confederacy received for the sale of cotton to Maximilian of Mexico were in Danville, Virginia, April 1865, and one that made it to Florida along with Benjamin, Breckinridge, and Wood, but what became of the other 38?
Lore has it that CSA Gen Johnston distributed the silver dollars out among his men, or that the kegs were buried along with a Confederate soldier in a Danville grave.
 

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