The Lost Confederate Gold

Everyone loves a treasure hunt. Especially when it involves gold. The mystery of the lost Confederate Gold has been debated for about 150 years. It is believed that Confederate President Jefferson Davis left Richmond, Virginia in May of 1865 with what is estimated to be about $500,000 in Confederate Gold coins, bullion, and private Virginia bank funds.

Davis and his entourage and the majority of the gold made it to the town of Washington, GA around the middle of May, 1865. This is the point where the Confederate Gold gets lost and many theories abound as to what happened to it. Many believe that Confederate Naval Paymaster James A. Semple was entrusted with $86,000 of the Confederate Gold and him and the money virtually disappeared into history some time after he left Augusta, GA.

Another theory proposes that a gentleman named Sylvester Mumford, who was supposedly present at the last Confederate Cabinet meeting when the gold was divided up among the remaining members of Davis's trusted circle, eventually took it to England with him.

Another theory has the caravan that eventually headed back to Richmond with the money was robbed by local Confederate and Union forces still in the area and the money was gone with the wind after that.

One more theory has chief clerk of the Confederate Navy Department, Edward M. Tidball, that was with Semple for part of his journey, stopped somewhere along the way and they divided the money between the two of them. It is believed that Tidball then returned to his home in Winchester, VA with almost $30,000 of the Confederate Treasury Gold. It was never found and he left no clue as to it's whereabouts.

One of the last theories has the belief that there was no money left by the time Davis reached Washington, GA. The Confederate troops knew the cause was lost, most had not been paid in months and the gold was used to pay off the Confederate troops encountered along the route from Richmond to Washington, GA.

History In Black And White

On Mother's Day, I went to my Mom's house to help her celebrate her special day. I got there before everyone else and I walked around the yard with my camera in my hand just taking random pictures of some azalea bushes, my old basketball goal, a birdhouse my father had built years ago, and a few other things. My parents have lived in that house for 40 years. I was 8 years old when we moved in so that was the house I remember growing up in. That was the one thing I could not take pictures of was my memories. My oldest sister shared some of her memories of a red wagon and a death defying ride one of us took down the hill in our yard. Known of us could even remember who it was. The thousands of hours I spent shooting baskets on that goal, all so I could be a third string guard for Coach Stephens 9th Grade basketball team at Flat Rock Junior High. I was a History major at Appalachian State and I even went on to get my Master's Degree in History at Western Carolina. I poured over thousands of history books where all of the photographs are in black and white. My camera has a black and white mode so I took a few pics in black and white and that somehow managed to put my memories in perspective. My memories are in color but the history of that house is in black and white.

Calvary Episcopal Church, Fletcher, NC

Sometimes a great part of history is right in your own backyard and you never realize it until you stumble across it quite by accident. I was doing some research for the blog I did called "the Ghost Rider Of The Confederacy" and since the Church was only about 5 miles from my apartment, I decided to take a ride down there and take a look for myself. The church is located on Highway 25 in Fletcher, NC and the church grounds and cemetery are open to the public. Calvary Episcopal Church was organized in 1857, making it one of the oldest churches in western North Carolina.

Calvary Episcopal Church is a beautiful church with a huge cemetery with some of the most interesting headstones and grave markers that I had ever seen. While doing my research, I found out the church was built in 1859 and quite a bit of it burned down in the 1920's but the original bell tower had been left standing. The church was rebuilt after the fire, incorporating the original bell tower as part of the new structure.

There were several headstones that were shaped like a small log and those symbolized that the people interred there had been part of a Masonic Lodge called the "Woodmen Of The World". I also saw a headstone that had the symbol of the free masons on it. Some bore symbols of things I did not recognize and others were just very ornate.

The Church had a deep connection to the Civil War other than the ghost rider of the Confederacy. The Church had been used as a barracks for Confederate soldiers going off to war and also had been used as a hospital for both Confederate and Union soldiers. At the back of the church there are several monuments that were dedicated to some of the more important figures of the Civil War, including the Confederate President Jefferson Davis. I had never seen anything like that at a church before. It is well worth the hour it took to tour the grounds and the cemetery.

The Long Journey Of Walter M. Bryson And George Mills

Walter "Watt" M. Bryson had just returned home to Henderson County from Charleston, SC with his medical degree from the South Carolina Medical College (now called the Citadel) when the Civil War broke out. Bryson quickly joined the company of men from Henderson County that became known as the "Henderson Rifles" and was sent to Raleigh to train for battle. The Henderson Rifles were mustered into state service early in November 1861 and became Company G of the 35th North Carolina Regiment.

Bryson was promoted to Captain in April 1862 and at some point and time, his lifelong friend, George Mills, was sent to be his servant. The two men had grown up together from boyhood and now were sent off to war to defend their southern homes. Bryson's father, William Bryson, was one of the wealthier people in Henderson County and he sent young George off with the instructions to join the younger Bryson in Raleigh, look after him, and bring him home after the war was over. The first battle that was fought in was the Battle of New Bern, then the Battle of King's School House, followed quickly by the the Battle of Malvern Hill, and Bryson survived all of these actions with George waiting anxiously for him in camp at the end of the day.

On September 17th, 1862, Confederate and Union forces met at the Battle of Sharpsburg in Maryland and unfortunately, Walter M. Bryson was one of three men that the 35th North Carolina Regiment had killed in action that day. When Bryson did not return at the end of the day, George went searching for his body and found him on the field of battle with a single bullet wound to his head. A distraught George picked his friend up and took him to an abandoned farm house near the battlefield that night until he could figure out what to do. George eventually got the body to a train depot in Fredericsburg, VA where he procured a cast iron casket with some money he had found on Watt's body and sealed Watt's body inside. He then boarded a train that eventually made its way to Greenville, TN where he purchased a horse and a wagon with the remainder of the money and started the journey back to Henderson County to return William Bryson's son home from the war.

The rugged and perilous journey from Bryson's death to Mills arrival in Hendersonville, almost took ten months. Mills arrived back in Hendersonville at the end of June 1863. Bryson's body was buried at a Methodist church in Hendersonville and 60 years later, his body was reinterred at Oakdale Cemetery in Hendersonville. George Mills was present at both ceremonies. George Mills became a free man and he served in the Henderson County Home Guards for the remainder of the war and became active in the Confederate Veterans associations after the war. He was given a full Confederate pension until his death in 1926. The story of Watt Bryson and George Mills is about loyalty, duty, compassion, sense of honor and more importantly, a friendship that transcended the social customs of the times.