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The Chennaults never had the gold
Riders robbed a wagon of bank gold in Georgia in May 1865, and $140,000 is still gone. The hunt began with a general who tortured a family that had none of it.
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In July 1865, Union soldiers tied the Chennault family's hands behind their backs. Then they strung them up by their thumbs. The family ran a farm in Lincoln County, Georgia, and its head, Dionysius Chennault, was a Methodist preacher. Union officers wanted to know where the gold was.
The Chennaults did not know. Their torturer, Union general Edward Wild, had the wrong people. The family turned out to be innocent, the New Georgia Encyclopedia records. So Ulysses S. Grant pulled Wild from his command.
The gold came from six banks in Richmond, Virginia. It had fled south with the Confederate government in April 1865. On the night of May 24, riders hit the wagon train near the Chennault crossroads. By the encyclopedia's count, $251,029 went missing.
About $111,000 came back. That leaves roughly $140,000 that 161 years of hunting has never turned up. If all of it were $20 gold pieces, that would be some 7,000 coins, worth about $27 million at late October's gold price. That is our math, and it is the high end. |
| Edward Wild, the Union general who led the hunt. Photo: Library of Congress. |
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The legend
The tale says coins still wash out of the clay after a hard rain.
Around Washington, Georgia, the story never died. Folks say the gold was Jefferson Davis's own war chest. And they say the robbers buried it in the woods before the posse came.
The best part of the legend is the road. After a hard rain, the tale goes, coins wash out of the red clay along the back roads near the old Chennault place.
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The evidence
In 1893, a federal court gave the banks' heirs $16,987 and kept $78,276 for the United States.
The Confederate treasury left Danville, Virginia, on April 6, 1865. It held $327,022 in gold, silver and bars. But almost all of it went to pay soldiers before Davis was caught on May 10.
The bank money was different. It sat in a vault in Washington, Georgia, until May 24. Then bank officers and a Union escort loaded it into five wagons to take it home.
After the raid, a posse got back about $110,000 from folks nearby. A former rebel general, Edward Porter Alexander, led it. Then the Union army took the money.
On June 22, 1893, the federal Court of Claims split it. The banks' heirs got $16,987, and the United States kept $78,276.
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What probably happened
Within days, a posse got back $110,000 from local hands, so the coins had already scattered.
The missing gold most likely went into pockets, not a hole. About 20 riders hit the wagons, and local men grabbed what they could carry. Then they spent it.
The proof is the speed of the posse. It got $110,000 back from people living nearby within days. So the coins had already spread out, a handful at a time, across a county that had seen no hard money in years.
Still, the record itself is the best case against that. The robbers were never charged, so the paper trail stops with the posse. And a few men may well have buried a share and died without digging it up.
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What's true
Eight claims. Five are documented. Three are campfire stories.
Legend
The stolen gold was Jefferson Davis's treasury.
The robbers buried the gold in the woods.
Coins wash out of the clay after rain.
Evidence
The raid took $251,029 in bank money. New Georgia Encyclopedia.
A posse got back about $110,000. Court of Claims record, 1893.
Wild tortured the Chennaults, who were innocent. Casstevens, McFarland.
The treasury left Danville with $327,022. New Georgia Encyclopedia.
The banks' heirs got $16,987 in 1893. Court of Claims ruling.
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Where it is
Most of the ground near the crossroads is private farmland.
Lincoln County sits on the Savannah River, on Georgia's line with South Carolina. The raid hit near the Chennault crossroads, about 13 miles northeast of Washington. That is about 100 miles east of Atlanta. Most of the ground there is private farmland, so ask the owner before you set foot on it.
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| Atlanta to Washington, Georgia, is about 95 miles, close to the drive from Dallas to Waco. Map: Treasure Hunt. |
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What would settle it
A dug-up pocket of 1865 coins, logged by an archaeologist, would prove a share was buried.
Two things would settle it. The first is a dig. A pocket of coins dated 1865 or earlier, logged by an archaeologist near the crossroads, would prove a share was buried. Scattered single coins would back the spending story instead.
The second is paper. Court of Claims files sit at the National Archives in Record Group 123. And Freedmen's Bureau records for Georgia, Record Group 105, cover Wild's months there.
Want to hunt? Get the landowner's written permission first. Then start at the Washington Historical Museum, which keeps the local story.
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Happy Treasure Hunting!
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P.S. The bank gold rode out of Richmond on the same train as the Confederate treasury. That was the night of April 2, 1865.
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Sources New Georgia Encyclopedia; Sherpa Guides, Georgia Civil War; History.com; Frances Casstevens, Edward A. Wild and the African Brigade, McFarland; Emory University thesis, Emily Moore, 2016; Karpovage Creative, 2022; National Park Service; House Divided, Dickinson College; National Archives
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