Lost Confederate Gold

The Claim

There are millions worth of gold, silver, and jewellery buried “somewhere” by Confederate troops.

During the American Civil War, the Confederate forces weren’t quite as well funded as the Union, but due to the size of the territory they controlled and the mines within it, they were able to gather enough gold to fund thousands of troops.

Money is normally the deciding factor in war, as the better-funded side has the better weapons and equipment, and it almost always stays close to the leadership.

The leader of the Confederate forces during the war was President Jefferson Davis, with whom our story begins. He was a politician and remained far from the front lines, managing funding and sending telegrams, and then one day in Richmond on Sunday, April 2nd, 1865, he received a message from his most trusted general, Robert E. Lee, telling him to evacuate the town as Union forces were closing in.

Two trains left the town later that day, carrying two very different loads. The first train to depart carried President Jefferson Davis and his officials, along with all the secret documents they could find.

The second train carried the gold reserves held in the town, as well as some silver and a sizable amount of jewellery donated by various confederate women to the cause. The size of the treasure is believed to be much smaller than the common estimates, and the officer who was placed in charge of the train, Captain William H. Parker, made a statement to a Richmond newspaper in 1893 that the total value of the goods on that train was probably around $500,000.

As for both trains, they safely reached their new home in Washington, Georgia, and the gold was stored in the town’s bank. The Union forces’ advance seemed to be slowing at this point, and the president and his officials headed south while the gold remained in the bank’s vault.

Over the next few days, the President sent an order to the bank to have the money loaded on board another train and to be sent further south still, as the Union forces were once again rapidly gaining ground; however, this is where the gold vanishes.

There are no records of the gold being moved from the bank and making it to President Jefferson or any of his people, and when he was captured on the 10th of May, he had only a few dollars with him.

The bank in Washington, where the gold was originally, was quickly raided by Union forces, but they found only a small amount of banknotes, suggesting the wealth had already been shipped.

So where is it then?

Probably underground somewhere south of Georgia. Whoever was in charge of moving it wouldn’t have been able to move it all without the use of a train, and they can’t exactly go anywhere they like. It was most likely taken south and then stolen, or buried.

If it reached the hands of the Officials, it would have probably been buried to either come back to at a later date, or simply to hide it to spite the Union forces by denying it to them.

There are also various rumours about Confederate gold that claim a huge amount of it was buried in case the South ever decided to rise up again and cause a second civil war.