Lost Treasures of the Civil War

                                  Lost Treasures of the Civil War                                                

The year is 1863. The time of the Civil War. A young blue-coated lieutenant is given a task by his superior officers. The task. To transport a wagon with a false bottom. In that false bottom. Gold Bars. Twenty six to be exact, each with a weight of fifty pounds. The lieutenant and his entourage of nine individuals, eight cavalrymen and one civilian guide, headed northward from Wheeling, West Virginia. Believed to had made their first stop in the town of Butler, a lumber community just north of Pittsburgh, the young lieutenant took ill. So severe was his fever it forced him to ride in the back of the wagon, which was covered in hay to mask the identity of their true mission.

 With the lieutenant ill, the civilian guide, named Connors, took command. Unbeknownst of the wagons true cargo, Connors lead the party through Clarion Valley. After they reached the town of Clarion, the pale, sickly officer resumed command. Feeling they were far enough north the lieutenant choose to head northwestward to Ridgway, then eastward to the Sinnemahoning River near the town of Driftwood. There they would construct a raft and float down to the Susquehanna River, and then to Harrisburg. After their arrival in Ridgway(and a little trouble with its inhabitants) the expedition set out towards St. Marys, a small Dutch community eleven miles to the east. During the night the young lieutenant had another severe seizure. In agony he cried out the true intention of of their mission, stunning the men he was with.

  After a night at St. Marys, Connors, the civilian guide, once more assumed command. He announced that the expedition would be heading over the rugged mountains towards Driftwood. Though they where but twenty miles from their goal, the hard part was yet to come. The group left St. Marys, and that was the last time anyone laid eyes on them. In August, a wild eyed, disorient Connors stumbled into the town of Lock Haven where he told everyone about the deaths of those that were with him and the loss of their cargo. Overwhelmed with sympathy, the local residents believed Connors depiction of what happened, while the army did not. They questioned him relentlessly. First Connors told of the officer dying and being buried, and then he told of a terrific fight. After that he claimed he lost his memory.

 The army turned the case over to the Pinkertons. For almost a year the forest wilderness swarmed with agents, who hired on as lumberjacks and teamsters. They searched the area but had no success. During the summer some dead mules were found—perhaps the ones that pulled the wagon. Two or three years later, several human skeletons, believed to be those of the guards detail, were found in the Dent’s Run area of Elk County not far from Driftwood. But the gold bars where not among them. Occasionally one claims to have found the spot where the treasure was lost, but so far the treasure has yet to been found.

The answers of what happened to the gold bars are still lies a mystery. There is a theory that the little band was ambushed and massacred by Copperheads or a Gang of robbers. Some feel that Connors may have planned an ambush. So what do you think happened? Leave a comment below on how you think the Gold Ingots of Dent’s Run happened to disappear.

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