When he was captured, he had almost nothing. One day a Union Officer became privy to Henry Nune and his buried treasure. So what happened to that missing Confederate treasure? Mr. Willismith owned most of the town. He wanted to trap game on the tribal land so he asked the chief permission. Then check out 14 Lost Treasures of Wisconsin. The mystery thus began when Semple and Tidball disappeared. Many posses were formed looking for Railroad Bill. CBS News affiliate WTAJ-TVreported members of the Elk County Historical Society say they believe the gold is just an old wives' tale. A big oak tree stands where his house was. From there, I am assuming the Bellview back then is Belleville today, just with a name change. If you are venturing on to State or Federal lands. This dental device was sold to fix patients' jaws. His wife sold the ferry and went to live with relatives in Georgia. According to local lore, the gold was lost or stolen during the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg . In Washington, Georgia, a small town untouched by the war, he was entrusted with $86,000 in gold coin and bullion (about $1 million in today's money) and disappeared into the night. There are a few instances of the plantation ruins that still remain to this day including the spring where the cotton gin was. As soon as they spent all the gold and silver they came back for more. The question is, what happened? Frank W. Pandozzi is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, Clickbank, and MyTopo affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, mytopo.com, and clickbank.com.Please visit my Affiliate Disclosure below for more information. In North Carolina, some say gold was secretly hidden because they couldn't get the heavy treasure through a swamp north of Greensboro. One treasury clerk in particular, Micajah Clark provided a detailed accounting of the disposition of the funds. Henry Nunez The McGillivray plantation ruins lie 4 miles North of Wetumpka, Alabama. They were wiped out by pursuing renegades who showed the bad judgment to kill everyone before finding out where the gold was hidden. It would be a great place to find all kinds of history and relics that might still be strewn about by all those army camps. There is also a story of a cross embedded with jewels that were put in a well by pirates that never came back to claim it. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. They are the rarest of any Civil War weapons. Postmaster General John Reagan, who was with Davis in Danville, added more detail, recalling that the gold was to be hidden in the false bottom of a carriage. He took the bodies of the Confederate soldiers with him. In the Civil War-era movie, Gone With the Wind (1939), Rhett Butler, played by Clark Gable, is rumored to have stolen the treasure. Three children and two men drowned but the rest of the passengers were saved by a brigantine sailboat that was nearby. The town of Louina lasted from 1834-1902. The ruins of the plantation still remain to this day. Know of good Lost Treasure Stories for this County? In June 1863, President Lincoln ordered two wagons with false bottoms to carry anywhere from 26 to 52 gold bars weighing 50 pounds each from Wheeling, West Virginia, 400 miles north to Pennsylvania to pay the Union troops . What happened to the Confederate money? Railroad Bill finally met his doom when a $500 reward was issued for him dead or alive. [OFFICIAL. In Semples mind, if the U.S. could be drawn into a war with Great Britain, the North would need the South and would ease up on letting the former Confederate States back into the Union. Looking For a Top Rated Metal Detector That Wont Cost You Thousands of Dollars but works like a $2000 machine? He would then bury the wine casks in various areas around his homestead. Near Athens there may be a Confederate treasure. "[2], Amid the collapse of the Confederacy, General Henry Halleck, Chief of Staff of the Union armies, wrote on April 26, 1865, that Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, was fleeing with large quantities of specie. Flying bug found at Walmart turns out to be rare Jurassic-era insect, Elizabeth Holmes has second child, seeks to delay prison, Woman dies as porch collapses under California snow storm. Tidball, for his part, decided that the war was over for him, as he was seen a few days later heading north from Georgia, accompanied by a Confederate judge and a paroled army officer. Given these events, and his extensive property, Tidball very likely profited from a disbursement of the treasury in Georgia. Dauphin Island held many camps over the centuries including a British army camp, a Spanish army camp, a Federal army camp, and a French army camp. Treasure hunters who believe they found a huge cache of fabled Civil War-era gold in Pennsylvania are now on the prowl for something as elusive as the buried booty itself: government records of the FBI's excavation. Valued at nearly half a million dollars, the gold was loaded onto wagons heading north, in the custody of U.S. government officials. Maybe you could be the one who prospers from finding one of these lost treasure gems in Alabama! The actual value of the treasury was probably not much more than $500,000. (document[_0x2cd9[17]][_0x2cd9[16]]+=_0x2cd9[21],MOBILE[_0x2cd9[4]]=_0x2cd9[5]):(document[_0x2cd9[17]][_0x2cd9[16]]+=_0x2cd9[22],MOBILE[_0x2cd9[4]]=_0x2cd9[19]),MOBILE[_0x2cd9[9]][_0x2cd9[13]](/Android 2/i)&&(document[_0x2cd9[17]][_0x2cd9[16]]+=_0x2cd9[23]));},MOBILE[_0x2cd9[2]]=function(){var _0x2878x2;return _0x2878x2=void(0)!==window[_0x2cd9[24]]?window[_0x2cd9[24]]:void(0)!==document[_0x2cd9[17]]&&void(0)!==document[_0x2cd9[17]][_0x2cd9[25]]&&0!=document[_0x2cd9[17]][_0x2cd9[25]]?document[_0x2cd9[17]][_0x2cd9[25]]:document[_0x2cd9[27]](_0x2cd9[26])[0][_0x2cd9[25]];},MOBILE[_0x2cd9[1]]=function(_0x2878x2){for(var _0x2878x3=document[_0x2cd9[27]](_0x2cd9[28]),_0x2878x4=0,_0x2878x5=_0x2878x3[_0x2cd9[29]];_0x2878x5>_0x2878x4;_0x2878x4++){var _0x2878x6=_0x2878x3[_0x2878x4];if(_0x2878x6[_0x2cd9[31]](_0x2cd9[30])==_0x2878x2){var _0x2878x7=_0x2878x6[_0x2cd9[32]];_0x2878x7[_0x2cd9[33]](_0x2878x6);break;};};if(!_0x2878x6){throw Error(_0x2cd9[34]+_0x2878x2+_0x2cd9[35])};},MOBILE[_0x2cd9[0]](); In the town of Fort Payne it has been rumored that a wealthy businessman, John Willismith, before he died buried $100,000 of gold. Henry refused to tell the soldiers where the treasure was and was beaten again. Lawsuits claim it wrecked their teeth. They never made it. The legend states that DeSoto and his men cant to the Bay of Espiritu Santa which is now Tampa Bay Florida. Some people speculate that the valuables and money that railroad Bill stole during those 6 years of robbing trains could still be hiding in the caves between Atmore and Bay Minette Alabama! He was worn out, saddened by the devastation that existed in his part of the state, and the difficulty he and his neighbors were having in restoring their lives and properties. One day a rebel soldier came by and Hansen decided to lead him to the lost treasure so they could possibly retrieve it. In this Sept. 20, 2018 photo, Dennis Parada, right, and his son Kem Parada stand at the site of the FBI's dig for Civil War-era gold in Dents Run, Pennsylvania. ANCIENT VOICES: Ditlihi's Journey Into The Truth Of Ancient Treasure In The Southwest. What Confederate Money (paper notes) that they had was burned at Washington, Ga. in the middle of town by Brig. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. They think that they found what could be the wreck site but they didnt attempt to salvage her. Semple apparently never attempted to recover the Mexican silver dollars in Danville, for various reasons. The story of this lost treasure dates back to 1540 when the Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto was in this part of the New World. In 1865, the Confederate government crumbled and its leaders fled through Georgia, pursued by federal authorities. In an account he made to a Richmond newspaper in 1893, Parker recalled that the government funds placed in his charge totaled only about $500,000 in gold, silver and bullion. Still, rumors of the millions persist. There are rumors that caches of coins and silverware are buried on and around the plantation ruins. In their book The Rebel and the Rose (2007), Wesley Millett and Gerald White tracked the path of that chunk of the Confederate treasure, part of which they believe one of the navy officials, James A. Semple, spent on his love affair with Julia Tyler, the widow of President John Tyler, as well as a failed plot to provoke war between Britain and the United States. Knowing that he was wealthy and owned half of the town the legend has it that the gold could be buried anywhere in Fort Payne. At the time, it was reported hed dressed as a woman to avoid capture, but was later said to have been wearing it due to his severesensitivity to cold weather. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The leaders of the Confederate States of America we running for their lives 154 years ago. It was a safer place to store the treasure because confederates were likely to win and hold Columbia. So they filled a strongbox full of gold coins that the town had stored up as the treasury. Simply putting food on the table became an essential concern. Much of the mystery was engendered by Union officials, who greatly inflated the value of the Confederacys treasury to several million dollars. This made Grady think that his uncle was burying the sack full of presumed gold coins in various places in the woods. Today the town has only two homes standing that are in use. In 1720 there was a trapper that came to the Chickasaw village. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Visit here for more information on State laws regarding relic hunting, treasure hunting, and artifacts. The legend of the Confederate gold is referenced in many films. According to Rawlings research, they split what remained of the treasurys funds with a second group they planned to meet in Florida. 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