Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1883-02-03
Confederate Cod.


1t will be remembered that at the
ciose of the late war number of
Y wagons, loaded with gold and sill
ver, belonging to the confederate
government and the Richmond
banks, were robbed by struggling
soldiers, in Wilkes county, near
| Washington. There are men now
living near Athens, who, common
/ report says, got finger into the pie,
/ and from the way they bIOomed out,
1 paying In specie for land and stock :,
I gave good ground for suspicion.
/ As the money would have doubt
/ less fallen into the hands of the fed
( erals, no one blamed the boys for
( taking this means to get their hard.
earned. pay. Men who were pres
ent at he,sackdng of the wagons say
the soldiers, after loading up haver-
/ sacks. pockets, and every other
'receptacle at hand with the prec-
ious metal, hid quantities of it in;
/ the woods near by, while'a wagon
/ load of the bullion was dumped into
/ q. creek that ran near. the scene of
the robbery. One soldier, who was
greedier than the rest, took off his
made a, pair of .saddle-bags by
which he was enabled to carry off A
vast quantity of gold. The writer
was living in Eiberton at the time
of this robbery, and remembers
that the day.,after it's commission
two soldiers stopped at his fathers
house for the night, after first seeing
that he was a Mason, and gave into
his keeping more gold than "A negro
man could lift. The next morning
!, ,they-left. for Madison county and
we heard of them passing through
| DanielsVille. The day after the
robbery, parties who visited the
place say that both gold and silver
We're scattered along the road like
leaves, and a large amount was
picked up. Since that time there
has been almost constant search
tfOr this hidden treasure. A negro |
barber i'm Washington stated that
he knew where box of the bull |
ion was hidden, and for a time he
was petted and feasted ON all hands, !
even detectives from the Richmond !
banks coming cut to work up the |
case. But il Was soon discovered |
that his story was all a hoax. Peo-
pie havecome from IA long distance |
TO search for this gold and the woods |
around the scene have been every !
square foot secured time and again. |
a couple of years agO.a man nam !
ed Cohen, who bought the land |
where the robbery was committed, |
conceived the idea of turning the |
bed of the creek before mentioned, |
with the confident hope of uncover
ing the untold wealth hidden be- |
meath its waters. 1t was stupend- /
Gus undertaking and required
months of hard labor; but he re-
ceived not nickel for his pains.
The bed of the stream was care
fully searched, but neither gold or
silver were found. This seemed to
have thrown bumper upon the
searchers, as we have heard of no
late attempts to find the hidden
wealth, although there will doubt
less be fools enough in many gener-
ations to come To keep up the ex-
element. In all probability there
was no gold here, as the soldiers
could not have carried it all off, but
they either afterward returned for
it themselves or secreted il so Sc
curely that il will never be found.
Mr.. III. l.. Crawford, of Athens, was
Il guard with these wagons for
time, but left them few days be-
fore the robbery WAS committed.