Confederate Gold and Silver (47 page)

Chick and Bobby Ray had spread out a blue plastic tarp on the ground so the barrel could be set down on top of it after Duke lifted it from the hole with the backhoe. Now following Paul’s guidance, Duke carefully removed the rest of the soil from around the wooden barrel. As the soil was being removed, Pete filmed the barrel being unearthed. With the soil being removed from the grave, it was easy to see the barrel had not remained as intact as Paul first thought. The sides were now somewhat rotted from the years it had been in the ground. It was obvious that it was far too fragile to try and move in one piece. Paul quickly made the decision to take the barrel apart by hand. Before they did, Chick took some rough measurements of the barrel for documentation purposes.

In several pieces the barrel easily came apart, with only the metal hoops standing up to the test of time. As Paul took the barrel apart, he handed the pieces up to Chick so they could be laid out on the tarp. After exposing one side, they saw what was left of several cloth bags, bags which once contained gold and silver coins. Reaching into one of the rotted bags, Paul picked up an 1861 Liberty Head gold dollar coin and held it up for the others to see. “We found it. We found the money just like we thought we would!” Looking up, he saw Duke sitting in the backhoe clapping his hands, happy at what they had just found.

Using six white plastic buckets they had brought with them, Paul and Chick carefully began scooping the gold and silver coins out of the rotted barrel. As they filled each bucket with coins of several different denominations, they set the filled heavy buckets within the bucket of the backhoe for Duke to lift out of the grave. It took two of them to place the buckets into the backhoe as the weight of each bucket was significant. Over the span of an hour they completely filled five of the six buckets with gold and silver coins. They filled the sixth bucket with the remaining handfuls of coins they found within the rotted barrel.

As the last bucket of coins was handed out of the grave to Jayne, Bobby Ray was looking at the other buckets of coins they had already excavated. As he looked at them, he asked Paul what he thought the value of the coins were worth. “Haven’t even thought about it to be honest; I have been too concerned about leaving some of the coins behind in the grave. I don’t even know what we have here, but I’m sure it’s worth plenty. It’s likely worth a lot more now than it was back then. But you know what? For me the hunt is now on for the rest of the Confederate treasury and the hunt is what it’s all about for me. I could care less what the coins are worth. I just want to find the rest of the treasury.” Paul knew they would be hard pressed to find the rest of the money, but he also knew he was not giving up the hunt, no matter hard it was going to be, especially after finding this portion of the missing treasury. Putting handcuffs on bad people was a satisfaction Paul had always enjoyed; partially solving the legend of the missing Confederate treasury was a feeling he had never experienced before. He now wanted to experience the feeling again.

The buckets of coins had carefully been transferred from the backhoe to the blue tarp. Like kids in a candy store, Paul and the others knelt down next to the buckets, sifting through the Double Eagles, the Half Eagles, the gold dollar coins, and the other types of coins they had found. Excitedly they showed each other the coins they found and the years the coins had been minted. Unlike the wooden barrel, the coins had stood up well in the soil over all of those years they had been buried.

After several minutes of looking at the coins they were back to work. Jayne ran one of the metal detectors over the entire grave site as Chick and Bobby Ray began to place the six buckets of coins into Paul’s truck. Just before they loaded the coins into the truck, Paul reached into one of the buckets and randomly pulled out an 1862 silver dollar. Just as casually as a young school boy would do to a nickel, he flicked the silver coin in the air to Duke. “That’s a gift for you. It’s a way for you to remember your granddaddy’s good deed, a deed done for these three soldiers here.” The simple gesture Paul made to Duke again caused him to bow his head in remembrance of his granddaddy. That gesture, and Duke’s subsequent head bow, was fortunately caught on videotape by Pete. It was a simple gesture which three years later would bring thousands of people to tears when they watched the premier of Paul’s documentary air on South Carolina’s ETV affiliates for the first time.

By now darkness had almost descended upon them and they still had not viewed the remains of the three soldiers wrapped in the blankets. They now decided, out of respect to the soldiers, to spend the night in the meadow until they could view the remains the following day. As the others started collecting the tools and the other items they had used during the day, Chick hollered out a thought to them. “I’ll get another tarp and we can use it to cover the remains with, that way if it happens to rain nothing will be damaged.” With Bobby Ray’s help, Paul and Chick soon covered the remains with a large plastic tarp. Over the next couple of hours they took turns, two at a time, staying in the field in shifts while the others showered and ate a cold supper in one of Duke’s barn.

Before they fell asleep in their vehicles, they sat talking for a few hours next to a small fire they built away from the grave site. They each talked of what they had found, at what the experience meant to them, and what they had to do to find the rest of the lost Confederate treasury. As he listened to them talk, Paul knew they had just become as passionate about the hunt for the rest of the missing money as he had been all along.

******

The next morning Duke drove out to the field early, bringing with him hot coffee and donuts to a tired group of people who had not slept in a car for years. Soon the smell of hot coffee helped them forget about what little sleep they had actually gotten. As they drank their coffee and ate their relatively simple breakfast, Chick wondered if their experience in waking up to a simple breakfast was possibly similar to one the three Confederate soldiers had experienced in the meadow before they had been killed. “Who knows, maybe they had enjoyed their last cup of coffee right here in this same meadow?” The question he posed to his friends caused them to pause from drinking their coffee and to wonder if his thought might have actually been possible.

As the morning’s rising sun quickly warmed the meadow, Paul had Duke and Bobby Ray set up the metal sifting screen which Duke’s men had built the day before. They soon started sifting the soil that had been removed from the grave. Next they planned to sift the loose soil that remained in the bottom of the grave. As this was being done, Paul and Chick carefully started unwrapping the tarps and blankets from around the remains of the three soldiers. As the blankets were being peeled back to reveal what was wrapped inside of them, Pete turned on one of his video cameras he had set up on a tripod. Now he carefully filmed the proceedings with his hand held video camera as well.

Slowly unwrapping what was left of the decaying blankets, blankets which had been wrapped around the soldiers so many years ago, the skeletal remains of what appeared to be three young soldiers were seen for the first time. Remarkably their remains were still partially covered by the tattered remnants of three gray Confederate uniforms. Within the blankets, Paul saw one soldier’s belt buckle was still visible. The same soldier’s feet were still wearing his crudely made boots. One other soldier was found not to be wearing any boots. Chick and Paul both thought this was odd, but Pete quickly offered a logical explanation to what they had found.

“Perhaps one of their fellow soldiers needed the boots more than he did. Boots and shoes were precious commodities during the war. As you both likely know, the Battle of Gettysburg was preceded by some of Lee’s troops actually looking for shoes there.”

Resuming their work, they confined the inspection of the remains to a visual one, electing not to look for any type of identification which may have been buried with the soldiers. Paul’s visual scan of the three sets of remains showed nothing of any obvious historical or military value within the blankets. He knew it was not the time or place to be looking for any such items.

Duke and Bobby Ray, with Jayne’s help, screened all of the soil as Paul and Chick examined the contents of the blankets. They found little when they sifted the soil, finding only a couple of nails and a rusted metal spoon, but found no other coins. Finished with that task, they moved to help with the inspection of the soldier’s remains.

After finishing their inspection, and with the same dignity they had removed the remains from the grave with, the soldier’s remains, now wrapped in individual blue plastic tarps to protect them from further water damage, were carefully placed back into the grave. The remains were soon covered with the same soil which had previously been in the grave.

Paul stood quietly while Duke used his backhoe to finish filling in the grave. After he placed the four stones back on top of the grave, he walked to where Paul and the others were standing. “Duke, I think for now the best thing for us to do is to let these three soldiers rest in peace as they had been. We have some additional clues we want to work out and hopefully those clues will lead us to the next place where some of the money is buried. When we are done finding the money, we will all meet with the proper authorities to decide where these soldiers, along with the soldier I found, should be buried.”

As the group remained standing next to the grave site, Paul said a short prayer for the soldiers. He was not an overly religious person in any formal sense, but he asked God to continue to watch over them as he already had since the day they had died. Dropping down to one knee, Duke grabbed a handful of loose dirt and gently tossed it on top of the grave. “Amen,” was his only comment to what Paul had asked God for.

After thanking Duke for his friendship, and for his faith and trust in them, Paul first, and then the others, said their goodbyes to him. Paul promised to call him soon so he knew how they were making out deciphering the next set of clues.

Driving home Bobby Ray soon fell fast asleep in Paul’s truck, a truck now containing gold and silver coins from the Confederacy. Coins they had found and others had not. Making his way back into South Carolina on Highway 17, Paul tried to remember what the clues were Francis had left in his letter to President Davis. “I remember he said he left some of the money with the children of Governor Allston, but why? Why would he leave the money with his children?” After a few moments of trying to think things out, he knew he was too tired to make any sense of it. His thoughts turned to seeing Donna and to taking a hot shower. He would resume the hunt tomorrow. For now, sharing a meal with his wife, grabbing a hot shower, and then getting some much needed sleep were far more important issues to him than a few more pails of gold and silver coins were. That would all change the following day.

Fall,
1863

22
Charleston.
 

“Yea,
though
I
walk
through
the
valley
of
the
shadow
of
death,
I
will
fear
no
evil;
for
Thou
art
with
me
 . . .”
The
23rd
Psalm

The morning following Sgt. Griffin’s death proved to be a tough way to start a difficult day for Francis and his men. As they woke, the humidity was already becoming excessive and they all knew the rising sun would soon make travelling a brutally hot day to endure. Their early thoughts of both the loss of their friend and of the hot day they would be facing made them a disagreeable bunch. The lingering effects of drinking two bottles of spirits the previous night also did not help with their moods. Even the early morning coffee they had before they started out did little to make the day look anymore promising to them.

As they started out, Francis was forced to drive one of the wagons on their five day leg of the mission from Georgetown to Charleston. It was the first time he had driven a wagon since he had been back home a few years ago. Before they had climbed aboard the wagons he told his men once they reached the outskirts of the city he would feel much safer.

The city of Charleston was rich and prosperous compared to most Southern cities and one strongly aligned with the Confederate cause. It would be a place where Francis knew they could relax far more than they were able to during any other part of their journey. He had also promised his men that once they got to Charleston he would give them a couple of days to rest as a reward for making it there with their precious cargo. It was not much, but the promise had the men’s spirits soaring a little during the hot morning. At least they now had something to look forward to. For Francis, once in Charleston he would finally learn how he would complete his mission. He hoped it would either be by train or by a Confederate blockade runner. As his men were, he also was now tired of the slow moving wagons which seemed to expose them to all types of problems. He also was looking forward to a couple of days of rest as well. Besides the physical strain they all had endured during their journey, he also had to deal with the loss of several of his men. Those losses had begun to take an emotional toll on him.

After weighing his options, Francis chose to travel to Charleston by taking a route fairly close to the South Carolina coast. He did so as he thought such a route would steer them away from any Union cavalry troops who might be scouting the area. He wanted to avoid any fights with the Yankees as he knew his men could not hold off any good size group of Union soldiers for long. As he drove his wagon south, he had but one thought about the Yankees at this time. “You leave me alone and I will leave you alone.” He hoped his thought would play out just this once. While he knew it would benefit both sides, he knew it would benefit his side far more as they had the gold and silver with them. It would prove to be the only time during the war where he hoped to avoid an encounter with any Union troops. It simply was not in his makeup to avoid a fight, but this time he hoped they could. It would mean they would survive to fight another day.