Author Topic: Confederate treasure story...anybody know how to research this?  (Read 1038 times)

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Offline masek77

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OK. I dont have much to go on but here is what I have heard.

In the late 70s or early 80s there was a PBS documentary about some Confederate soldiers retreating south through central North Carolina at the end of the war. The show goes on to detail that this group had at least one artillery cannon, and by several accounts several hundred pounds of gold bars.

The soldiers were captured but there was no gold and no cannon. Apparently the Union knew about the gold and these men spent almost a decade in prison after the war in an attempt to get them to reveal the whereabouts of the gold. The story told by the Confederate soldiers was the same, they knew they couldnt outrun the Union soldiers weighed down with that much equipment and gold, so they melted the gold into the cannon barrel by some accounts and simply poured the ingots into the barrel by other accounts and rolled the barrel off the side of a very high cliff into a section of white water river.

In 1993 I was hiking in an area in central NC and came across several Civil War era cannonballs. In my research I have found no evidence or record of any military maneuvers or battles in this area. When I mentioned what I had found to several "old timers" they begged me to tell them where I found the cannonballs and were pretty pissed when I refused. Eventually someone came forward and shared with me the story of the PBS documentary.

Ive contacted the Smithsonian Institute about this as I had heard they had some records of this but they say they dont. Ive contacted several groups about this and all of them seem interested but wont tell me anything if I dont tell them exactly where I found the cannonballs.

Its gotten so bad I dont even mention this to the locals anymore because when I do I get people driving to my house and wanting to talk about treasure till 3AM for months.

Is there a way to see about old PBS documentaries or perhaps get a copy of the program episode that featured this?

Offline S.S.

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Re: Confederate treasure story...anybody know how to research this?
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2007, 10:15:44 AM »
I have heard almost the same story ..
It was in North Georgia not N.C...
There was a movie a long time ago called "TIME COP"
That answered the question of who took it....
A time traveler with a Machine Gun !!! ;)
I have hunted a local Treasure in my county for a while
now myself but to no avail... The McIntosh gold of Keg Creek...
I did find something (will not say what) on an Island off the coast of Georgia.
several years Back. By all Information I can find, It was "LOST" in the early to mid
1600's... There is more, But I can't get back to retrieve it.. I actually found the piece of chain
they had wrapped around a tree to mark the location too.. It was about 14 feet up
and the tree had grown around it completely. Made a nice Ring around the tree.
We also found a small cache in Roswell Georgia. This was supposedly hidden when Sherman
and his men were looting and pillaging the area on their way to Atlanta during the Civil War.
That was one bit of treasure that criminal didn't steal?
Good luck in your search. But don't get obsessed with it.. My brother did and it about drove him over the deep end...
Vir prudens non contra ventum mingit
"A wise man does not pee against the wind".