Hiding the Gold, Part Four of Four

Here is the concluding portion of the narrative of James Carson, merchant and mine owner in Charlotte, North Carolina. In the first three installments, he described how he and three associates moved the gold from the Charlotte branch of the Bank of North Carolina to a hiding place in the woods for safekeeping in the waning days of the Civil War. Here he recounts their time in the hiding place and the group's decision to return the gold when order appeared to be restored.

Alarms

After having put everything in good shape we felt somewhat relieved and took a rest.

We had brought along some books and papers that helped to pass the time. 'Twas the morning after our work had been completed, as we were about through with breakfast, that we were somewhat startled at the appearance right in the camp of a man with a long-barrelled squirrel rifle on his shoulder. His appearance in our very midst without detection did not speak well for our vigilance, and this incident put us on our guard, and we kept a stricter watch by day and a guard by night thereafter.

It is scarcely conceivable (and hardly believable) what the imagination will sometimes conjure up. It was Mr. Kennedy's and my watch. The camp was quiet and asleep and those not on duty were asleep. It was about ten o'clock at night and a light rain had been falling. Owing to this the watch had taken their station in one end of the wagon, so as to be protected from the rain. Everything was deathly still, except the occasional call of the whipperwill. The watch were sitting with their backs to sunrise, one of us had occasion to turn his face in that direction, and to his horror saw a party coming right toward us, and bearing a large torch. He at once drew the attention of the other to it who looked around, hesitated a while, and at last gave it as his opinion that it was the moon. The one that first discovered it had also, after a more satisfactory scrutiny, pronounced it to be the moon, but he imagined when he first saw it, that he could see it move just as a torch does when borne by one walking. This was a pretty good joke in camp for several days and helped in some degree to while away the weariness of camp life.

Nothing else of moment occurred at camp. Occasionally some of us would imagine that we heard a drum or firing of cannon in the direction of Monroe or Charlotte, but it was only imagination.

For about a week we saw no one and, of course, had no intelligence from the outside world, and this state of affairs was almost unbearable. Finally we decided that one of us must go to Charlotte and get the news as well as some supplies that we were running short on. Mr. Riddle was the one selected to make the trip, so taking Mr. Kennedy's saddle mule he left camp about four o'clock one afternoon so as to reach Charlotte after night and without observation.

He made the trip successfully, spent a day gathering up the news and some much needed supplies, left next morning before day and arrived in camp about eight o'clock next morning.

The news he brought was encouraging and discouraging. Stoneman had left the vicinity of Charlotte, and Sherman had gone east in the direction of Fayetteville, but Richmond had fallen, Gen, Lee had retreated from Petersburg, and President Davis and Cabinet were retreating south. These were rumours only, as telegraphic communication had been interrupted for some time, and the news could not be confirmed, but it was generally believed.

The intelligence left us in a quandary. We were at sea as to what course to pursue. Finally we decided it would be best to break up camp, leaving the treasure where we had placed it, and return to Charlotte. We thought that if we should fall in with any of the marauding bands of cavalry (Confederate) that were going through the country stealing stock and anything else that came in their way, it would be much better to fall into their hands some other place than at the camp where the money was buried. So we left camp about three o'clock one afternoon, and having but a light load, arrived in Charlotte soon after nightfall, and without encountering any stragglers on the way.

We found on reaching Charlotte that Lee's Army had surrendered at Appomattox, and President Davis with a part of his Cabinet had just passed through Charlotte going south. For a period of some two or three weeks there was much disorder and lawlessness around Charlotte. Bands of Confederate Cavalry were the worst. They would steal a man's horse or mule in the main streets and carry them off. This reign of terror continued until Federal troops were sent here, when some degree of order was restored.

During all this time the money of the bank remained buried at Grasshopper Springs, and, of course, our anxiety for its safety was great.

After order had been somewhat restored, we made application to the Commander of the troops stationed here, [Colonel Willard Warner, 180th Ohio] for a guard to go with us to bring back the coin. The request was cheerfully granted. He furnished an armed escort of five or six men and a wagon and team, but Mr. Kennedy thought he ought to have the honor of bringing back to the bank's vaults the treasure which he had so faithfully assisted in taking away. I think that all of us that were in the first expedition were in the last, but of this I am not positive.

The soldiers occupied their own wagon and we ours. I have forgotten, but think we left in the afternoon, and spent the night at our old camp. In the morning we went to work unearthing the hidden coin. We found our old camp fire, where the bulk of the money was buried, in good order.

The cattle had tramped over it but nothing but the ashes were disturbed. We found the boxes all in good condition and just as they were put down. We had our plat or chart with us and next located the boxes hidden in the branch. Then we located the kegs and soon had the wagon again loaded with a quarter million of specie which landed safely in the bank's vault without one dollar missing.

Hiding the Gold, part three of four

A reproduction of Carson's treasure map, as it appears in the typewritten transcript of his testimony.


This is the third installment of James Carson's account of hiding the gold of the bank of North Carolina in a safe place at the close of the Civil War. He and three other men have successfully conveyed it to a secluded spot out of town. Here he describes the steps they took to conceal it.

The Camp

After leaving the place where we had halted for about an hour we were fortunate in meeting but few people; the road was firmer and our pace was faster than the night before. There was[sic] but few farm houses on the road, and few openings or cleared fields, and we were getting to a place where we thought we might find shelter and concealment. We had made some five or six miles when we reached what appeared to be a good hiding place, out of sight of any habitation, and no one being in sight, we left the road and struck for the thicket.

Our driver being an expert, managed to get through the undergrowth with but little difficulty, some of us going ahead and removing any obstructions that might be in the way, and it was not long before we were out of view of anyone passing the road. We continued our journey thus for a half a mile or more when fortunately we came to a branch, just the thing of all others that we were looking for. It was not very inviting it is true but it was water, and something we were obliged to have. We halted, and after a careful examination, we concluded it would do; so we went to work with the only shovel we had clearing out the bed of the stream, and also cleaning out the spring at its head. It was not long before we had it running nicely, and knew it would supply all the water we wanted for man and beast.

After this work was successfully accomplished we began making preparations for dinner, which was enjoyed by all. The next thing after our repast was to see what was to be done with our precious charge. To leave it in the wagon would never do. We had to make some disposition of it, and that quickly, as we did not know when the soldiers might come upon us, well concealed as we thought ourselves to be. So we made a careful survey of our surroundings, and found good hiding places for some of our plunder.

There had been a fire some years before in these woods which had burned some of the pines (the dead ones) entirely up, leaving round holes in the ground where the trees had stood. These holes were just the thing for the kegs, which contained the silver, and were much larger and harder to hide than the boxes containing the gold; but these holes made it much easier, and it took but little trouble or time in getting clear of them. After accomplishing this task we still had the gold to dispose of. This was a much more difficult job, as we found no ready made holes for them. At last we dicided that we must make holds for them, but where? was the question. Finally we concluded to dig a hold about six feet square and two feet deep, large enough and deep enough to hold all the boxes except two or three, which we thought could safely be buried in the branch. So, after coming to this conclusion, as night was coming on, we had supper, fed and watered the stock, and all hands got ready for the night work that was ahead of us.

We marked off the ground that was to be excavated, and with but one tool for us five, we went to work, digging by turns, and carrying away the excavated earth in the bucket for watering the stock, and dumping it in the bed of the branch some hundred yards below. The ground was not very hard, and we met with no rock or roots in digging, and by ten o'clock our pit was sunk, and ready for the boxes. We covered the bottom with them and then packed in the earth around them until nearly level with the surface, when we carefully replaced the turf which we had first removed, and gathered up all the loose earth that remained around the pit and dumped it in the branch, and this most difficult part of the work was done.

We still had two or three boxes to dispose of but we soon found a good hiding place in the bottom of the branch for them. About midnight our task, so far as burying the quarter of a million of treasure, was accomplished, but before retiring for the night we collected some old logs and trash and placed them over our pit and set them on fire, in order to obliterate as soon as possible, any marks that might exist to show that the surface had been disturbed.

After this the three that were not on guard found places rest, and the camp was quiet.

Next morning we had every tell-tale vestige of our work of the previous night removed, so that in the event of having a visit from anyone, nothing could be seen to indicate that anything had been buried by us.

We also made careful measurements from a given point giving the courses, as near as we could determine without a compass, and the distance, and made a chart or plot of the same, so that any one of us could locate the kegs and boxes in the future. The Chart was something like this. [See picture at beginning of entry]

On account of the number of grasshoppers, we gave the name of "Grasshopper Springs" to our Camp.

Hiding the gold, part two of four

Mules, like this one photographed by cindy47452 on flickr, pulled the wagon that Carson and his crew loaded.

This entry continues the story begun in the previous blog post of how the gold from the bank of North Carolina was hidden for a time in the final days of the Civil War.

In the first installment, the president of the Charlotte branch of the Bank of North Carolina, James Carson, described how the gold had been moved to Charlotte during the war. The approach of Sherman from the South and Stoneman from the North alarmed him sufficiently that he, two bank employees, and a local wagoner made plans to remove it from the vault under cover of night.

The Start

It did not require much time in getting everything ready for the journey.

Cooking utensils consisting of a frying pan, a skillet, a coffee pot, a half dozen tin cups and set of knives and forks constituted our kitchen inventory.

Three or four hams, a sack of flour, sugar and coffee, salt and pepper, some butter and lard and a basket of eggs was about all we took along for a journey which might last, we could not tell how long. We supplied ourselves with blankets and comforts for bedding, and our driver supplied corn and oats for his team.

It was early in April 1865 when all things were in readiness for the move. Mr. Kennedy had his instructions to have his team in front of the bank about 7 o'clock P. M. The sky was overcast, and we had had a very wet spring, and, as I have before stated, the roads were in a a wretched condition, bur our driver was on time. As we had collected everything at the bank, it did not take over thirty minutes to load. The specie was first put in, then the bedding, cooking utensils, provisions, guns, etc.

There was but little light, if any, on the street and a candle set inside the vault was all the light that was in the bank; the wagon had its cover closely drawn so as to prevent anyone with prying eyes from seeing what was going on inside. So quickly was everything conducted that I do not believe there was a soul, outside of those who had the matter in charge, who knew or suspicioned what was going on.

The bank was where the Observer office is now located. [32 S. Tryon St.] The party who were in this expedition were Thomas W. Dewey, Cashier, S. L. Riddle, Teller, and the writer, President, John M. Springs and Mr. Kennedy, our driver.

We did not know where we were going to land when we left Charlotte, but late that afternoon Stoneman had set fire to the bridge on the Catawba at Rozzelles Ferry, twelve miles Northwest of Charlotte, and as the smoke from the burning bridge could be plainly seen, and it was known before we left that it was Stoneman's raiders at work, and that too at uncomfortably close quarters - it did not take us long to decide to go east.

The Journey

It was about eight o'clock when we got everything aboard with fully four thousand pounds of freight and more than three fourths of it in gold and silver. Some of us went ahead to be picked up on the way, and the others concealed themselves in the well covered wagon, with the exception of the driver, who was of course exposed to view, but he soon got out of the main streets and was unobserved.

We took what was then called the Lawyers' Road, making slow but sure progress. After getting a few miles out of town, squads of two or three horsemen would frequently pass us, all going our way, and as it was not wise or prudent to interview them, it produced the belief strongly in our minds that they were stragglers flying from Stoneman, whom we supposed was making for Charlotte. The squads were a noisy set and some of them were disposed to be a little too inquisitive, so, having come to a place along the road covered with a dense growth of cedar and young pine, we thought best to take shelter among them until the main road was free from these men. We remained here until after midnight, when we again got back to the main road and resumed our flight. We found everything quiet, and seeing no signs of fire in the direction of Charlotte, concluded that Stoneman had not yet reached it. We jogged along as fast as the road and our heavy load would permit, and by seven o'clock next morning we found ourselves twelve miles on our way and the worst part of the road passed.

Here we made a halt, had the mules watered and fed, made some coffee and fried some ham, and enjoyed our breakfast. While at our repast Mr. John S. Means drove up with a four-horse team with a negro driver. Mr. Means expressed a desire to remain with us, but we were not looking for company, especially when there was a negro in the party, so we told him to go ahead and we would overtake him, but we never did. His load was light and ours heavy, so he outtravelled us.

Hiding the Gold - part one of four

The following is the testimony of James H. Carson, 1829-1919, merchant and mineowner in Charlotte, NC, as recorded in the Cornelia Berry Fore papers. The Fore papers are archived in the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library.

Grasshopper Springs in 1865

It was near the close of the Civil War. Sherman had made his celebrated march from Atlanta, through Georgia to the sea, and was continuing his march across South Carolina - had reached Columbia, and that city had been burnt either by his order, or by the Confederate troops who are said to have set fire to some cotton in the streets. Be that as it may, the city was destroyed, and Sherman continued on his triumphant march towards North Carolina, coming as far as Winnsboro in the direction of Charlotte, when this little event never chronicled in print, had its inception.

The Bank of the state of North Carolina before the war was one of the largest in the South, having a capital of four million dollars - equal to any fifteen banks now in the state. It was located at Raleigh, but had branches in Charlotte, New Bern, Tarboro, and several other places in the state.

As the war progressed, the eastern portion of the state was soon invaded by federal troops, and the branches of the Bank located in that section had to pack up and remove to the interior, some of them coming to Raleigh and others to Charlotte. At last however all the specie the bank owned, amounting to about two hundred fifty thousand dollars, was sent to [the] branch Bank at Charlotte, as it was thought it would be safer here and less liable to capture than at any other point where a branch of the bank was located.

For some time no apprehension was felt in regard to its safety, but when Sherman's troops got to Winnsboro and Stoneman's raiders were getting uncomfortably close to us, some doubt was felt about the safety of the specie in the vault of the branch at Charlotte.

Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had been here and had his headquarters at the Bank, but soon left, going east to attempt to intercept Sherman's forces, and some of his troops had passed through going in the same direction.

As this move left Charlotte uncovered and without protection, some of us who were the most interested in saving that specie had a conference and after mature deliberation decided that the money would be safer in the woods somewhere than in the bank's vault.

The next thing to consider was how to do it. Teams of any sort were hard to obtain, as they had been taken for the use of the army, and the Rail Roads did not run in a direction that we thought safe. the weight of the specie was between three and four thousand pounds, which would require a good team to haul over such roads as we then had leading out from Charlotte. We were fortunate however in finding the man for the occasion.

A. A. Kennedy was his name. He lived about one mile north of Biddle Institute, had been a wagoner all his life, and always had good teams. Fortunately too, he owned ten thousand dollars worth of stock in the Bank, and this fact relieved us of any embarassment in applying to him for his aid. It was soon granted and it took us but a short time to arrange the program for our flight.

The specie was all in strongboxes and kegs, ready for shipment.

To be continued in the next blog post.

Digging for gold

"It was gold, the selection of Charlotte as a railroad junction, and the building of a network of converging highways which made Charlotte great." (Charles Brockman, Hornet's Nest, Charlotte, 1961, p.267.)

"What accounts for Charlotte?" an out-of-town visitor to the library asked me recently. Why did a city arise here at all, I supposed he meant, so I cited the Indian crossroads which presaged the later crossing of wagon roads, railroads, highways, and air routes in the same location. This transaction has stayed with me because I felt the inadequacy of my answer. Considering Charlotte as a crossroads explains why there is any kind of conglomeration here at all, but does not explain why it is such a large urban center. Any number of other Piedmont towns were the peers of Charlotte in the first half of the nineteenth century. In Sorting out the New South City (Chapel Hill, 1998), Thomas Hanchett explains the importance of the railroad, which came to Charlotte in 1852. It gave farmers a reason to take their produce to Charlotte rather than other market towns. But what made Charlotte a good spot for a railroad depot in the first place? The difference was gold.

Before the coming of the railroad, gold-mining and (after 1835) the minting of gold drew people to Charlotte and diversified the local economy, freeing it from entire dependence on cotton. (The next post to this blog will reprint a story of gold in Charlotte's past from the Civil War era.) The gold deposits discovered in the western states later in the nineteenth century would overshadow the Carolinas' gold rush but not before Charlotte had built on the initial prosperity it brought.

Charlotte's gold-mining days still attract researchers. The Depression of the 1930s sparked renewed local interest in mining, but the veins were exhausted by then. The current specter of hard times returning has brought more people into the library to ask about the location of old mines. Others study it for its historical importance rather than to strike it rich themselves. These latter researchers have a new lode of information to consider now thanks to librarian Jane Johnson of the Carolina Room. She recently travelled to the office of the National Archives in Atlanta, Georgia. There she spent the better part of a week photocopying nineteenth-century records pertaining to the Assay Office and the Mint in Charlotte. She's organizing them now, and they will soon be available to researchers.