Legends & Lore
A Golden Opportunity? During the Civil War, the Confederate Treasury, valued at over half a million dollars in gold, was transported under heavy guard from Richmond, Virginia throughout the South. The treasury’s last reported destination was Washington, Georgia, where it was housed for quite some time. Washington, Georgia also hosted the last cabinet meeting of the Confederacy in May of 1865 where President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, signed papers officially dissolving the Confederacy. The location of the Treasury was lost as the Confederacy disintegrated. While reports maintain that some of the fortune was captured along with President Davis in Irwinville, Georgia and $100,000 of the gold was held by Northern troops in a Washington, Georgia bank, the whereabouts of the Treasury are still shrouded in mystery. To this day, legend persists that the balance of the Confederate Gold is buried somewhere in Wilkes County. Who knows, maybe you’ll be the one to find it.
www.washingtonwilkes.com Andersonville Prison Blues At the Andersonville Prison Camp, legend says that when prisoners were bored, they held lice races to pass the time. They would take louse from a prisoner’s hair, put them on a metal dinner plate and place bets on which lice would crawl off of the plate first. One prisoner was reportedly beaten for trying to cheat – he heated the plate so that the lice would crawl faster.
www.nps.gov/ande This Andersonville Prison story comes from an inmate’s diary. Everyday the prison guards carried cadavers to the “dead house” to be held until they were taken to the cemetery for burial. This prisoner wrote that he was shocked one day to see the pile of corpses erupt and one of the “dead” men run out of the pile, and out of the camp. The prisoner’s diary does not reveal whether or not the escape was successful. But, give credit where it is due – that was one creative escape plan.
www.nps.gov/ande The One That Got Away Historic Banning Mills in Whitesburg, Georgia was a crucial manufacturing and storage site for the Confederates during the Civil War. The Mill and the surrounding town are on Snake Creek, nestled in a deep gorge. Women and children worked at this water-powered mill during the war making uniforms, corn meal and wooden carriages for the Confederacy. When Sherman was given the task of destroying the Confederacy’s resources, he searched all throughout the South. His scouts searched up and down the Chattahoochee River, the source of Snake Creek, but they were unable to find Banning Mills. Because of its hidden location and use of waterpower, the Mill remained a vital resource for the Confederacy.
www.historicbanningmills.com Dinner is Served The Gordon-Lee mansion in Chickamauga served as headquarters for General Rosecrans of the Union Army during the War. Mrs. Lee, the lady of the house, was expected to feed Union soldiers. One soldier, in particular, commonly asked for food at the Gordon-Lee mansion. The family refused to stop feeding him for fear that if he were turned away he would burn down the mansion, or retaliate somehow. This same soldier came drunk to dinner one night and began to bother Mrs. Lee. A frustrated Mrs. Lee couldn’t tolerate him a moment longer. She snuck up behind the soldier and smashed a bowl of hot gravy on his head. The soldier ran out of the house. Luckily, he never came back to dinner nor did he harm the mansion – it stands to this day.
www.gordon-leemansion.com The Better Part of Valor During the Civil War the town of Gordon, Georgia served as a major railroad center. The Confederacy was confident that Union forces would never make it that far south into Georgia. James Rufus Kelly, a 17-year-old Confederate soldier home on leave, after losing a leg in battle, offered the Confederacy his scouting services while he was in Gordon. November 22, 1864, on one of his scouting trips, Kelly was shocked to find Sherman and his troops outside of Gordon. The Confederacy had 150 railway cars and nine locomotives stored in Gordon with only 700 young cadets from the Georgia Military College in Milledgeville and inmates from the local state prison available to defend them. When General Wayne, commander of the 700 Military College cadets, heard about the large Union presence in Gordon, he and his troops boarded a train for Milledgeville, surrendering the town and all of its supplies to the Union forces. Kelly, however, would not be shaken. He vowed to “. . .defend Gordon alone.” Kelly rode out firing to meet the advancing Union forces, alone. He was quickly forced to retreat to Gordon where he hid in the Solomon Hotel. Mrs. Sally Solomon, owner of the Solomon Hotel, gave him refuge. Knowing that the Union forces were hot on his trail, Mrs. Solomon hid Kelly underneath the bell of her hoop skirt for hours while Union soldiers searched every corner of her Hotel. The Union soldiers planned to burn the Hotel down, but spared it because Mrs. Solomon’s husband was a Mason.
Kelly’s Story Doesn’t End There… After Union soldiers left the Hotel, Kelly launched a one-man guerrilla attack on them. This time, Kelly’s luck took a turn for the worse: he was captured. His crutches were taken away and he was forced to watch as Union soldiers burned down the town depot, railcars, and locomotives; and destroyed the railroad tracks. That evening, the soldiers held a court martial, found Kelly guilty of murder and sentenced him to death. The next day, everything was set for Kelly’s execution - the regimental band played the “death march” as they circled Kelly. General Sherman began to question Kelly about the location of supplies on the way to Savannah, and despite all odds, Rufus Kelly lived another day. Kelly managed to stay alive for several days in the custody of the Union army. Even more surprising, he escaped, improvised crutches and found his way back to Gordon. After adventures early in life, Kelly settled down, married and became a teacher in Gordon and the surrounding areas. He is buried at Liberty Church in Twiggs County, Georgia.
The Ride of a Lifetime On May 2, 1863, John Wisdom, a Gadsden, Alabama ferry operator and mailman, uncovered news of an impending Union attack and decided to take action. Wisdom rode on horseback for 11 hours straight to warn residents of Rome, Georgia that they were in danger. Not only did Wisdom make it to Rome before the attack, but he stopped along the way to warn citizens that Union forces were on their way. When he arrived in Rome, he and others rang the town bell for one hour continuously, alerting the townspeople of the on-coming attack.
Wisdom’s efforts were not in vain. Over a thousand boys, women, elderly men and convalescent soldiers assembled to defend the city. They lit fires and torches to create the illusion that the city was fortified by Confederate troops. Union troops believed the sham and retreated - right into the hands of General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s waiting forces. Because of Wisdom’s 11-hour ride and the work done by the citizens of Rome, Sherman and the Union cause were delayed for over a year.
Courage Under Fire On May 17, 1864 in the middle of a battle in Rome, Georgia, Union soldiers threatened to capture two docked Confederate steamboats. But, the steamboat captains refused to give up their ships without a fight. Under cover of darkness, both captains built up a load of steam and began to make their way out of the landing into the Coosa River towards safety. Union troops stationed on Shorter Hill noticed the escape and immediately began firing their cannons at the steamers. The Union troops were baffled when every cannonball that they fired had no effect on the steamers. Unbeknownst to the Union soldiers, the steamboat captains had cleverly surrounded critical parts of the steamers with bales of cotton. Each time a cannonball hit the boat, it sunk into the cotton without damaging essential parts of the steamer. Both steamboats successfully escaped.