Chasing A Legend

By Tom Poland

The Lost Confederate Gold

My latest Southern adventure below the gnat line came about in an unlikely way and involves a strange mix of geographies. For starters, the places involved include the Republic of Georgia (Russia), Seattle, Washington, and Lincoln County and Danburg-Tignall-Washington, Georgia. The people involved include a historian, a doctor and humanitarian, a student, and a writer. It all began with an email from Russia from a relative, Dr. Kenneth Walker, who does humanitarian work in Russia’s version of Georgia. By way of an associate at Emory University, he introduced me via email to a student from Emory, Emily Elizabeth Moore.

Emily is from Seattle where she says the sun seldom shows its face. Attending Emory on a scholarship, she’s a senior majoring in history and finds all the sunlight and heat down here challenging. She chose the lost Confederate gold as the subject of her thesis and she is a skilled and determined researcher. Emily had arrived in Washington, Georgia, Friday, July 24, to research libraries in Lincolnton and Washington and the museum in Washington. She interviewed Dr. Mark Waters who traces his heritage back five generations in Wilkes County, Georgia, and has extensively researched the lost gold mystery.

Because I have written about the lost gold, Dr. Walker directed her to me and she called and interviewed me earlier this summer. At that time, we agreed to meet Saturday, July 25, and trace the route of the wagon train as it moved into Lincoln County, the county where I grew up.

After lunch at the historic Fitzpatrick Hotel (1898) in Washington, Georgia, we struck out for Highway 44, Graball Road, and the Chennault Place. Now Graball Road gets its name as one of the gold robbers was to have said, “Grab all you can, boys.” No one seemed to be around at the Chennault Place and we had no luck getting to talk to the transplant owners who apparently don’t much talk to visitors. So locals say. A security system and extensive fence guard the place and though it seemed no one was around, Emily thought she saw a man working on a tractor through some trees. We left and headed down Graball Road to the Moss Place where the Confederates were paid as they were paroled out according to historical reports.

We drove down to the lake to Hester’s Ferry campground and was told by locals that we could better see where the wagon train crossed the Savannah river if we went up Highway 79 and over to the South Carolina side and then drive down from the Calhoun Falls area. That would have given us a view of where Hester’s Ferry had been before the lake covered everything. Time didn’t permit that because Emily had a 3:30 appointment with Robert “Skeet” Willingham, a local and knowledgeable historian.

Skeet showed us around his classic 1871 Southern home with its high ceilings and massive doors. He talked at great length about various aspects of the gold theft. Emily recorded his comments as we listened, occasionally asking questions. The details were plenty, way too much to go into here but Skeet did underscore Washington’s importance as one of the few towns where both Revolutionary War and Civil War history was made. As for some of the wilder claims about gold coins washing into highway gullies, he dismissed them as unbelievable. Still, the midnight raiders made off with $179,000 May 24, 1865. (Some accounts say the stolen amount was $251,029.)

The “Lost Confederate Gold” fascinates many and no matter whom you talk to or what you read, the story seems to be ever changing. Unraveling the facts and wading through the murky waters of legend and myth make the lost gold a fascinating but difficult topic. Emily, for certain, has her work cut out. A recap can bring anyone who’s missed this legend up to speed as to what the basic story is. As reported in the Lincoln Journal in the August 29, 2013 edition, Dr. Mark Waters was to speak September 5 that year. From that report comes the following.

“The infamous raid took place near Chennault in northern Lincoln County on May 25, 1865. During the attack, approximately $250,000 ($5 million in today’s currency) in gold and silver coins, that had traveled with the Confederate Treasury to Washington, Georgia, was successfully stolen by local citizens and Southern soldiers returning home from the war.

The original amount in the treasury was $450,000, which belonged to six Richmond, Virginia, banks and was traveling under federal guard to Abbeville, South Carolina, for shipment back to Richmond by rail.

Emily Moore stands close to possibly where the Confederate gold train was robbed, the Chennault Place.

The party had stopped for the night near Chennault before crossing the Savannah River on a pontoon bridge, located close to what is now known as Hester’s Ferry. The coins, mostly gold, were stored in 40 wooden kegs sitting in five wagons, guarded by just two sergeants, two privates, and five teamsters. The day after the raid, approximately $40,000 in coins was found littering the ground in the vicinity of the raid and on trails leading from the robbery site. Moreover, over $70,000 was recovered from local residents and robbers.”

My mother grew up just minutes from the robbery site and through the years she told me many times about how people dug holes all over the place where Highway 79 crosses Highway 44. Every time I pass the old historic home I see robbers stuffing their pants and saddlebags with gold coins. Books, articles, and documentaries have attempted to fill the holes in this great Civil War tale. Now Emily’s thesis takes a hard, close look at this legend.

I keep hearing new twists to the tale and it’s my feeling we’ll never know exactly what happened. As for Emily, she says she likes the South and Georgia in particular and hopes to live here. Though she’s never had a tomato sandwich I know she will. She reminds me very much of my older daughter, Beth, and will make a fine Southerner I’m sure.

After I headed back to South Carolina and Emily to Atlanta, she sent me a message: “Thank you for sharing so many stories and driving me around. I will remember all of it for a long time.” So will I. Meanwhile, the myth goes on, and when torrential rains cause those Georgia red clay gullies to flood. Well, might you see a glint of gold here and there? Probably not.

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Visit Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything. [email protected]

Tom Poland is the author of eleven books and more than 1,000 magazine features. A Southern writer, his work has appeared in magazines throughout the South. The University of South Carolina Press has released his and Robert Clark’s book, Reflections Of South Carolina, Vol. II. The History Press of Charleston just released his book, Classic Carolina Road Trips From Columbia. He writes a weekly column for newspapers in Georgia and South Carolina about the South, its people, traditions, lifestyle, and changing culture.

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