LOGAN COUNTY – During the Civil War, a Union detachment was assigned to escort a payroll shipment of gold coins destined for a Yankee encampment in the region. As the detachment was proceeding through dense woods, a Union scout reported to the commanding officer that a Confederate patrol was rapidly bearing down on them from the east.
The Union officer ordered the detachment into a gallop to outdistance the Rebel forces. For approximately five miles the Union soldiers tried to elude the enemy, but the commanding officer could see their effort was futile. Realizing his men would soon be engaged in a fight, the Union officer stopped the transport wagon and ordered the canvas bags containing the gold be buried.
As troopers hastily dug a pit and buried the treasure, the commanding officer noted the location in his journal. He wrote the payroll was buried on the west side of the Guyandotte River near the tiny settlement of Chapmanville. After filling the hole and camouflaging the site, the Union soldiers fled. An hour later the Confederate patrol caught up with the detachment and opened fire.
The fight continued for roughly two hours, but the Union troopers were poorly situated and largely outnumbered. When the gunfire quieted the entire Union detachment lay dead. Rebels searched the wagon and found it empty. The Confederate commander suspected the gold had been buried just before the engagement and a search was conducted by retracing the Yankee’s trail for several miles, but nothing was found.
The Confederates then returned to the scene of the battle and stripped everything of value from the dead. An unknown Confederate soldier took the Union officer’s journal and later tossed it into a trunk where it remained until the early 1930’s. The directions in the journal stated the treasure was buried “at a point where the old road and the Guyandotte River came within twenty yards of one another.” Again a search was conducted and nothing was found.
The old road has since been obliterated, so check local plat maps or old military maps to help locate the cache site. No reported recovery has been made.
The Union officer ordered the detachment into a gallop to outdistance the Rebel forces. For approximately five miles the Union soldiers tried to elude the enemy, but the commanding officer could see their effort was futile. Realizing his men would soon be engaged in a fight, the Union officer stopped the transport wagon and ordered the canvas bags containing the gold be buried.
As troopers hastily dug a pit and buried the treasure, the commanding officer noted the location in his journal. He wrote the payroll was buried on the west side of the Guyandotte River near the tiny settlement of Chapmanville. After filling the hole and camouflaging the site, the Union soldiers fled. An hour later the Confederate patrol caught up with the detachment and opened fire.
The fight continued for roughly two hours, but the Union troopers were poorly situated and largely outnumbered. When the gunfire quieted the entire Union detachment lay dead. Rebels searched the wagon and found it empty. The Confederate commander suspected the gold had been buried just before the engagement and a search was conducted by retracing the Yankee’s trail for several miles, but nothing was found.
The Confederates then returned to the scene of the battle and stripped everything of value from the dead. An unknown Confederate soldier took the Union officer’s journal and later tossed it into a trunk where it remained until the early 1930’s. The directions in the journal stated the treasure was buried “at a point where the old road and the Guyandotte River came within twenty yards of one another.” Again a search was conducted and nothing was found.
The old road has since been obliterated, so check local plat maps or old military maps to help locate the cache site. No reported recovery has been made.
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