A FLORIDA KGC LEGEND

[ECS]

This story has appeared in many treasure books and mags since the 1960's.
In 1862,Capt John Riley departed Galveston,Texas,with a shipment of gold coins in wooden kegs that were claimed to have been minted from KGC western gold mines.Also included in the shipment were the dies stolen from the federal mint at New Orleans,that were overstamped with "CSA".
As Capt Riley approached the bend in the Florida panhandle,he was spotted by a US gunboat,and the chase was on.
Riley sailed his ship up the Suwannee River,and after reaching the 2nd bend in the river,had his crew jetison the kegs of gold coins and dies into the river.
For the historical record:
Capt Riley,born John Riley Bless McIntosh,April 5,1819-died May 10,1901,was a successful CSA blockade runner,who dealt with the CSA Cow Calvary in Punta Rassa,Florida,and currency to the cow crackers was gold Spanish and Cuban coins.(Detailed on the "SWAMP GOLD" thread)Riley's blockade activity took him from Texas to Florida to Cuba and,France where he transported munitions back to the CSA.
Capt John Riley,as he was known to his crew and associates,did business with THE SOUTHERN MERCHANTS,said to be KGC,and was NEVER caught,captured,or lost a ship during his CSA blockade runniing during the WAR of NORTHERN AGGRESSION.
Which brings forth the question: This tale have validity?
Also,Capt John Riley's name appears in the lost Confederate gold in the Everglades story,AKA Swamp Gold.
Happenstance,coincidence,treasure writers fabrication?

 

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[Rebel - KGC]

I'm inclined to believe it as a true story, until PROVEN otherwise; check it out! HH! Good Luck!

 

[ECS]

Four other CSA gold tales in that area.
A Confederate blockade runner chased by a Union gunboat scuttled his schooner at the mouth of DEADMAN BAY,then buried $500,000 in silver on the south bank of the Steinhatchee River.
Another chase by a Union gunboat,this time the Confederate crew buried $140,000 in gold coins at the mouth of the Steinhatchee River.
A Confederate paymaster (like in one of the swamp gold versions) was chased up the Suwannee River and buried $200,000 in gold coins on the north bank.
Union soldiers who had taken part in the Confederate salt works at Cedar Key, buried a cache of gold coins 5 mi from the mouth of the Suwannee River.
No KGC connections to these stories,but they all take place in either LEVY or DIXIE counties in Florida.
A UNION soldier's account of their activities and raids in Cedar Key,Otter Creek,and the lower Suwannee River with military maps :
WWW.lmartin.com/history/william_mccullough_diary.htm

 

[ECS]

I'm inclined to believe it as a true story, until PROVEN otherwise; check it out! HH! Good Luck!

I know you have researched the Confederate occupation of the federal mint at New Orleans.
What is your opinion concerning the mint dies with the "CSA" overstamp mentioned in this legend?

 

[ECS]

I have seen 3 CSA copper one cent coins found in a derelict Odd Fellows Hall in Ocala during the late 1950's.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

Check 'em out! HH & GOOD LUCK!

 

[Rebel - KGC]

I know you have researched the Confederate occupation of the federal mint at New Orleans.
What is your opinion concerning the mint dies with the "CSA" overstamp mentioned in this legend?

PROBABLY happened; NOT hard to do... From USA to CSA. "SA" already done. Carve "C" from "U"; fill in "line" on right side of "U"...

 

[Rebel - KGC]

I believe there is some truth to the story. I do know there have been at least two coins of $20 CSA Gold actually I know of three. There have also been found 6 coins of $1 CSA Gold coins found in Atlanta. I have also seen a CSA $5 Gold Coin well three of these and I have seen a $10 CSA Gold Coin. Where did these come from if the CSA did not mint any gold coins?

MOSTLY New Orleans...

 

[Rebel - KGC]

So, ECS... I would look at the "2nd bend" of the Suwanee River; then, the Ocala/Marion County, Fl. area.

 

[ECS]

So, ECS... I would look at the "2nd bend" of the Suwanee River; then, the Ocala/Marion County, Fl. area.

It does seem to be more than a coincidence that Benjamin and Breckinridge would stay at the Marshall family WHITE HALL PLANTATION in Abbeville,SC before the flight to Florida,and Davis was on his way to Yulee's COTTONWOOD PLANTATION in Archer,Florida.
Remember that CSA Capt J J Dickinson has repelled the last Union incursion west of the St Johns River at the Marshall plantaion(March 10,1865) on the Oklawaha River in Marion county.That plantation was run by Elizabeth Anne DeBruhl Marshall,witfe of CSA Col Jehu Foster Marshall,who was killed at 2nd Manassas,Aug 1862.
So in May,1865 in Ocala,present were CSA Sec of State/Treasury Judah P Benjamin (cousin of David Yulee and Solomon Benjamin at whose Ocala home he stayed,CSA Sec of War John C Breckinridge,who stayed with CSA Brig Gen Robert Bullock,CSA Capt John H Martin,also a member of the Confederate Congress,Mrs Marshall and CSA Capt Dickinson,Florida's "swamp fox".A very interesting gathering for coincidence.
Marion county also has the CSA sites of Fort Fowle on the Oklawaha River near Sharpes Ferry,Fort Brook where Orange Creek meets the Oklawaha,and Dickinson's SUNNYSIDE PLANTATION at Orange Springs.
Many artifacts have been found at these sites over the years,but alas,no gold treasure.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

Look for a DRIED UP old well on the Marshall Plantation; MAY be @ 2 million dollars worth of GOLD coins in it, at the bottom of the well; with skeletons of "slaves" on top of it all; as spirits guarding it (they buried it, and were killed... to hide "it").

 

[ECS]

Look for a DRIED UP old well on the Marshall Plantation; MAY be @ 2 million dollars worth of GOLD coins in it, at the bottom of the well; with skeletons of "slaves" on top of it all; as spirits guarding it (they buried it, and were killed... to hide "it").

Rebel-KGC,I really need to discredit that statement.First ,I don't believe that Benjamin and Breckinridge had more of the remaining Confederate treasury than what Jeff Davis had that was captured at Yulee's Cottonwood Plantation at Archer.
Also,I worked at a lumber company(est 1904)in Ocala with several decendants who worked the Marshall Plantation,and never heard horror stories of treatment concerning Jehu Foster Marshall or his wife Elizabeth Anne DeBruhl Marshall,who ran the plantation and supplied the CSA with goods during the War of Northern Aggression.
Yes,slavery should have been abolished in 1776,and this is NOT a revisionish statement in any way,but the Marshall's would not,or would kill their forced labor.The institution of slavery is wrong,has always been wrong,and I am not defending that.
What I know,from oral histories from decendants I worked with,that never happened!

 

[Rebel - KGC]

Of COURSE, I understand. HOWEVER, we have a legend here in Virginia about all that happening; NEVER said it was part of the CSA Treasury. You gotta understand how the Knights worked; what they MAY (qualifier) have done... the "legend" is in ANOTHER state, and we DO have such near-by... BUT! NO Marshall Plantation. NOW, the killing of the ppl burying the treasure is how things were done, MAYBE, NOT in Fl. You had REBELS from all over "fleeing" SOUTH, after the "surrender" (SOME didn't). You see my "qualifier"... "MAY be" in "post" # 13? I think it was in LOST TREASURES of Virginia; know enough about how KGC worked then, to say it was a POSSIBILITY (qualifier) is all. "Legend" NEVER made sense, in Virginia; will "post" Legend when I find it.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

MORE on Ocala, Fl. "connections"; CSA Sec. of War, Judah P. Benjamin (Brains of the Confederacy), fled to Ocala, Fl. (wiki) POSSIBLY with some of the CSA TREASURY; THEN, to Gamble Mansion, in Ellenton, Fl. (late 1865). REBEL settlements in British Honduras was noted, as was Great Britain... France, after the CONFEDERATE WAR. Will do R & I on Odd Fellows Lodges of Great Britain; MAYBE J.B. was a member & there you have the CSA/OOF "connection" in Ocala, Fl.

 

[Dr. Syn]

As the supposed old Pirate saying goes, "dead men tell no tales". Be willing to bet it's happened more then once, group buries something, and a few of the bunch end up on top of what got buried. Less that know, less then can talk about it. But thinking about it, you would want more then one to know, if the one that knows kicks the bucket, so to goes the location.

And on the same vein, those squirrels tell me, you don't dump all your nuts in one spot, you spread em around. That way on the off chance someone stumbles on em, they only get part of your stash, and you still have enough left to get you by elsewhere.

These folks weren't (and aren't) dummies like me.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

"Legends" indicate Knights of the Golden Circle had LINKED CHAINS on their tomb-stones; AND! OOF/IOOF (Independent Order of Odd Fellows) DOES... I believe the Order of Odd Fellows in UK did, too. SO! I would check grave yards of Marion County, Fl. for THREE LINKED CHAINS "motif" ("sign"/recurring design). MY grandfather was IOOF; I was not... just a 32nd degree S.R. FreeMason/Past Master of my "Blue Lodge". I DO have his ritual book, and will review it...

YEP! JPB was IOOF, and 32nd degree Scottish Rite FreeMason (like me)... THANKS, JPB!

 

[Floridana Jones]

Total newbie here but where do you guys do most of your research? Its me and my 8yr old son on the hunt down here in Clearwater, FL!

 

[ECS]

"Legends" indicate Knights of the Golden Circle had LINKED CHAINS on their tomb-stones; AND! OOF/IOOF (Independent Order of Odd Fellows) DOES... I believe the Order of Odd Fellows in UK did, too. SO! I would check grave yards of Marion County, Fl. for THREE LINKED CHAINS "motif" ("sign"/recurring design). MY grandfather was IOOF; I was not... just a 32nd degree S.R. FreeMason/Past Master of my "Blue Lodge". I DO have his ritual book, and will review it...

YEP! JPB was IOOF, and 32nd degree Scottish Rite FreeMason (like me)... THANKS, JPB!

The old OOF Hall in Ocala,where CSA items were found,was located behind the old TEMPLE BETH SHALOM CEMETARY on N Magnolia St-and JPB's cousins,Solomon & Simon are buried there.I will look for the 3 chain pyramind symbol on the headstones.
CSA Brig Gen is buried in the older section of EVERGREEN CEMETARY on old Wyomina St.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

The old OOF Hall in Ocala,where CSA items were found,was located behind the old TEMPLE BETH SHALOM CEMETERY on N Magnolia St-and JPB's cousins,Solomon & Simon are buried there.I will look for the 3 chain pyramind symbol on the headstones.
CSA Brig Gen is buried in the older section of EVERGREEN CEMETERY on old Wyomina St.

As I "said" before... Judah P. Benjamin (CSA) WAS Shephardi Jew, as was his wife; they then became Roman Catholics. So, TEMPLE BETH SHALOM Cemetery is NO surprise; the three linked chains does look like a pyramid-shaped "motif"... AND! JPB may have known Gematria! www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gematria

 

[Rebel - KGC]

Total newbie here but where do you guys do most of your research? Its me and my 8yr old son on the hunt down here in Clearwater, FL!

FJ; MY R & I (Research & Investigation) is FOCUSED, "TARGETED"... talking/listening to ppl, reading local histories/family "traditions", R & I on the Internet; THIS "thread" is about the CONFEDERATE WAR (aka Civil War) "stuff" & MYSTERIES. We have "chatted" about REBELS (CSA), LOST CSA $$$$$$$$$, Knights of the Golden Circle, post-CW "happenings". Get a "target", do R & I; GO FOR IT! Good Luck & HH!