Swamp Gold

Bigcypresshunter said:
... The account comes from the diaries of CSA Capt John T Lesley and and CSA Capt James A McKay,CSA Commissary Agent for South Florida at Fort Meade.
Click to expand...
A brief of CSA Co B Cow Cavalry:
http://homeages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~fcc/main/military/cow cavalry%history.htm
Roster of CSA Co B Cow Cavalry:
Company B
A Plant City marker for CSA Co B-notice it has both James Laniers:
http:www.historicalmarkerproject.com/markers/HMV5K_cow-cavalry_Plant-City-FL.html
 

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Capt William B Hooker was an early cattle baron in Florida, his son served in Lesley's C Co Cow Cavalry, Hooker had contact with all the cracker cowhunters and those who formed the "Cow Cavalry"s.
Captain William B. Hooker
This is well worth the read, as many of the names will be familiar for those who have followed this thread.
 

Pasteur inquiry

ECS said:
This is a collection of interesting letters from US 2nd Lt Calvin Shedd,Co A 7th Regt NH Vol,who served at Fort Jefferson and Fort Marion(Castillo de San Marcos)in Florida during the Civil War.Shedd,it seems was sick most of the time,did not the heat,mosquitos,fleas,food,etc,but detailed events and life during 1861-65 in Confederate Florida from a yankee view.
Well worth the read.
The Calvin Shedd Papers
Another interesting read are the captured letters of M Whit Smith,a CSA paymaster with the 3rd Florida Vol Army.
Smith details the retaking of a CSA blockade runner ship at Cedar Key,and he sends a letter to CSA Col Thomas J Pasteur of Silver Springs,Marion County,Florida.In the 1950&60's,I attended school in Ocala, with several of Pasteur's decendants,and was fortunate to hear the old Civil War stories of Marion County.
One son of Thomas J Pasteur,Marion Pasteur,ran cattle and in 1904 opened MARION HARDWARE CO in Ocala.MHC sold everything from screws to wagon parts,lumbering supplies for the cypress logging operations on the Oklawaha River,dynamite,firearms and ammo.Also there was an off site lumber yard,with its own RR Spur,a block from the Union Station.
In the early "70's,I worked in sales at the lumber yard,and another company bought out the operation,and decided to tear down the old warehouses that straddled the RR spur,and sell all the old items in a yard sale.What a treasure trove of past those warehouses contained!Wagon wheels,yokes,bars of babbit,wooden boxes of anti-Borax Compound dated 1902,canthooks and handles,and items I have no idea what they were used for.Next to an old anvil,I found Marion Pasteur's "M" branding iron,which I still have.
CHS: Civl War Manuscripts Project: Sherman W. Adams
Click to expand...

I am Marion Pasteur Jr.. Thomas Jefferson Pasteur is my great, great Grand Father. My great grandfather, George, my Grandfather George D Pasteur, my uncle Mason were the ones that ran cattle. Still run by family today. My Grandfather, George D Pasteur sr had Marion Hardware. My dad, Marion Pasteur Sr, his brothers George D, Jr and Allen all worked there. If you still have the branding iron I would be interested in purchasing it from you.
Sincerely, Marion T Pasteur, Jr.
 

Just thought I would mention...I have been looking for this cache for years. As it turns out the gold was from cattle money paid at Punta Rassa. They were being followed and the gold buried at the junction of two creeks where the land rises like a camels back. Buried in the west hump of the rise. There is documentation in this website but the new format is not user friendly so I can't seem to locate it. Anyway as far as the research goes the location is east of Punta Rassa around where the the road turns on McGreggor which was the main cattle trail to Ft Myers. Now populated and any chance of landmarks being obliterated by development. Perhaps some lucky landowner digging in their backyard would be the lucky one. I have put this lead to rest. I can assure you I know 5 square miles where it isn't buried.
er
 

ECS said:
In March,1864,after delievering 400 head of cattle to CSA blockade runner Capt John Riley at Punta Rassa and recieving payment of $12,000 in gold Spanish and Cuban specie,the 2nd CSA Cow Calvary,under Capt John Lesley were engaged by Fort Meyers Union raiders,led by US Lt James T Green on Moses Barber's corduroy road.
Having knowledge of old Seminole War trails,the Confederates plunged into the Evergalades,with the Union in pursuit.
Lesley ordered CSA Pvt Lanier to stay behind and bury the gold,as he led the Union raiders off in another direction,finally losing the pursuing Yankees.
Lanier made it back to Fort Meade and reported to CSA COMMISSARY AGENT,Capt James McKay that he buried the gold in a hummock near where two small creeks met,and could find the location again.
April,1864,the rains came,and on April 7,1864,Pvt Lanier was killed at The Little Battle of Bowlegs Creek.
The location of that cattle gold payment was never found.
Click to expand...
Is this the post to which you were referring.
 

ECS said:
Historic Peace River Valley, Florida
http://freepages.geneolgy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~crackerbarrel/Civilwar3.html
http://freepages.geneolgy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~crackerbarrel/Tories.html
http://freepages.geneolgy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~crackerbarrel/DCHS.html
WWW.oocities.org/yes_album/rebuttal.htm
http://freepages.geneolgy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~crackerbarrel/Hardee
Confederate Polk
The above sites will give you old photos,names of the Union Fort Meyers & Confederate Fort Meade & "Cow Calvary" who took part in the events,Union Capt Crane's "death warrant" for the cracker ranchers,places for the events,and dates-but not where CSA Pvt Lanier hid that $12,000 Spanish & Cuban gold coin cattle payment.
Click to expand...
These are good research sites.
 

mindspark said:
Just thought I would mention...I have been looking for this cache for years. As it turns out the gold was from cattle money paid at Punta Rassa. They were being followed and the gold buried at the junction of two creeks where the land rises like a camels back. Buried in the west hump of the rise. There is documentation in this website but the new format is not user friendly so I can't seem to locate it. Anyway as far as the research goes the location is east of Punta Rassa around where the the road turns on McGreggor which was the main cattle trail to Ft Myers. Now populated and any chance of landmarks being obliterated by development. Perhaps some lucky landowner digging in their backyard would be the lucky one. I have put this lead to rest. I can assure you I know 5 square miles where it isn't buried.
er
Click to expand...
Can you br specific on the areas you have searched and areas that interest you. I live down this way and have been interested in this for quite sometime.
 

ECS said:
A first hand account of CSA and Union activities on the St Johns River,including skirmishes,gun boat & blockade captures,scuttled and sunk are contained in the memoirs of CSA Pvt Jasper Jackson Dykes of Welatka,who served with Hopkins 4th Volunteer Regiment and later under CSA Capt J J Dickison's 2nd Florida Cavalry.
Jasper Dykes Letter
Click to expand...
Another good diary full of information on where to search for CW relics.
 

ECS said:
If you follow Moses Barber's coduroy road from Punta Rassa and look at the location of Union Fort Meyers, CSA Capt
John Lesley would have traveled south to escape from Union Capt James D Green (Green was a Confederate deserter,a local,who also knew the old Seminole War trails).Lesley would have deverted Green's pursuit to the east,while Lanier continued south into the Corkscrew Swamp.
We do not know the exact day Lanier returned to CSA Fort Meade to report to CSA Capt James McKay,except it was before April 7,1864.
Considering the timeline and terrain,Lanier,on horseback, probably would not venture that deep into the Everglades,just far enough to avoid the Union,hid the gold cattle payment,and return to Fort Meade.
Click to expand...
Sabre, have you searched in Corkscrew Swamp?
 

Rebel - KGC said:
:icon_thumleft: And in EAST Texas, PROBABLY became the BEEF KINGS! CSA/KGC "connections"... all the way to California; "T" Ranch.
Click to expand...
That would be the Lykes Bros Corp. the largest landowner in Florida and 9th largest in the US, with combined Florida and Texas acreage of 615,000 acres.
Dr Howard Tyson Lykes married Almeria McKay, daughter of CSA Capt James McKay, CSA Commissary Agent for South Florida at CSA Fort Meade, whose "cow cavalry" activities have been discussed on this thread.
McKay, because of his CSA cattle blockade running activities had contacts in Cuba, which developed into the La Candelaria, a 15,000 acre sugar cane and cattle ranch for the Lykes family in Cuba, which was nationalized after the revolution.
Lykes lunchmeat and hot dogs are a direct legacy of Florida's "cow cavalry".
 

ECS said:
Was there any mention of CSA Charles Greenleigh McKinney who served at Fort Meade under CSA Capt Hendry,or his son in law,Charles Christopher Johnson?
Remember Johnson was wanted for coating silver dollars with gold and passing them off as $20 dollar gold coins.Where did Johnson obtain this gold?
Click to expand...
Charles Christopher Johnson lived in Hendry county.
 

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