By Howard
M. Duffy
(reprinted from Treasure Quest Magazine)
It was a hot day in June 1863, when a dusty band of
mounted Union cavalry troopers rode into the small town of Butler, Pennsylvania,
a thriving lumber community north of Pittsburgh. In command of the party of
eight troopers and a civilian guide was a young lieutenant, whose name has been
lost in the pages of history. Townspeople wondered why a group of Union soldiers
were so far from the scenes of on-going battles--but then the army does strange
things, as any vet knows. This group had previously departed from Wheeling, West
Virginia, with orders to proceed into Pennsylvania, at which time the lieutenant
had been instructed to open his sealed orders. What a surprise met his eyes when
he tore open the envelope! He was informed that the hay-filled wagon in the
party had a false bottom containing 26 gold bars, each weighing 50
pounds...worth over 1.5 million on today's gold market. Their destination was to
be Washington, D.C. As Confederate patrols had already penetrated Pennsylvania,
the lieutenant was ordered to take a northern, circular route through the state
to the Susquehanna River, then proceed in a southerly route to Harrisburg and
eventually to Washington. Under no condition was the leader to inform the
troopers of the gold concealed in the wagon's false bottom. Even before this
group had departed from Wheeling, General Robert E. Lee's Confederate forces had
gained one of their greatest victories in the Civil War at Chancellorsville,
Virginia, in May of 1863. The Union army, though superior in numbers, after
three days of terrible fighting was defeated and retreated across the
Rappahannock, after losing 18,000 men.
Elated by this victory, the Confederates pushed
northward. Lee marched 80,000 men up the Shenandoah Valley and into southern
Pennsylvania on his last and greatest invasion of the North. He concentrated his
army at Gettysburg, where Union General George Meade blocked his progress in
what became the biggest and bloodiest battle in the history of the United
States...A Union victory.
Meanwhile, when Lee was driving northward, the
little band with its load of gold bars pulled into the village of Butler,
Pennsylvania. Instead of being welcomed by the residents, the troopers found
they had entered a nest of Copperheads....the term given to northerners who
opposed the war and sympathized with the South. They banded themselves into
secret societies such as the "Knights of the Golden Circle" and sought to
embarrass the Union by discouraging enlistments, opposing the draft and even
helping Confederate prisoners escape. These rowdy villagers surrounded the
treasure wagon, forcing the troopers to draw their guns to drive them
away.
The following morning the soldiers hastily packed
their gear and headed northward through the Clarion Valley. The party was now
far enough north to evade probing Confederate patrols, it swung northeasterly
bound for Ridgeway. By now the Union troopers began to speculate about what was
so important concerning the hay-filled wagon. The officer told them it was none
of their concern (and to) just keep guarding the wagon.
In late June, on a Saturday evening, the group
finally arrived at the Elk County village of Ridgeway. To the soldiers'
amazement, the angry villagers rushed at the troopers like a horde of hungry
locusts. Several times the lieutenant ordered the jeering crowd to disperse. The
puzzled officer turned to the civilian guide, asking whether Ridgeway had not
produced the Union's Elk County Rifles, one of the best companies in the famed
Bucktail Regiment. When informed it indeed had, the young officer was stunned by
the hostility of the crowd. Deeming it too risky to camp there for the night,
the officer commanded his tired troopers to saddle up. In the dark of night the
party rode eastward. Its destination was the small Dutch community of St. Marys,
11 miles away.
During the eastward march the lieutenant was seized
by a high fever. In his delirium he mumbled the secret of the gold concealed in
the false bottom of the wagon and the purpose of the mission. The troopers and
guide were flabbergasted by this secret! As he was the only one who was familiar
with this wild and wooded region, the guide Connors assumed command. After
spending a day with the friendly residents of St. Marys, the party hit the trail
for Driftwood and the headwaters of the Susquehanna River where they planned to
build rafts to float the treasure downstream to Harrisburg and eventually to
Washington.
Unfortunately, this plan never materialized, for
the treasure wagon and its military guard mysteriously vanished after departing
from St. Marys. It never reached Driftwood! Later, in August of 1863, the
residents of Lock Haven, about 55 miles southeast of St. Marys, were astounded
when Connors staggered into town. The guide was wild-eyed and hysterical,
babbling a tragic story of how a band of robbers had ambushed his party, slaying
all the soldiers before they had an opportunity to return fire. Connors was the
lone survivor and was hazy about what happened to the treasure laden wagon. He
believed the attackers might have been Copperheads or perhaps a band of
highwaymen.
While local residents accepted his story, the army
did not. Later, he was relentlessly questioned by army officers as well as by
Pinkerton detectives. Although Connors adhered to his original account of the
ambush, he was eyed with a great deal of suspicion. In fact, to keep
surveillance of his movements, he was forcibly inducted into the army and sent
to a lonely western outpost. Connors' army buddies sometimes mentioned that when
the former guide was drunk, he would occasionally mumble about the burial of the
lieutenant, who had died from fever after departing from St. Marys. He claimed
to know of the treasure's concealment. When sober, however, Connors refused to
talk about the treasure. Sometime after the disappearance of the troopers, dead
mules were discovered in the forest. It was surmised (that) they had belonged to
the treasure party. Later, scraps of harnesses bearing U.S. Army markings were
also found. It wasn't until about three years following the ambush that several
skeletons were discovered in the Sent's Run region, near Driftwood. It was
believed these were the remains of the troopers. A number of years ago the U.S.
Government re-opened the case by sending agents to (the) Elk-Cameron County area
to conduct a search, but nothing was found.
An interesting event of about 35 years ago
developed, when a man was discarding an old bed in Caledonia, about 13 miles
southeast of St. Marys. Tacked to the back of the bed's headboard was a scrap of
paper, bearing the date 1863. It also mentioned a two-hour battle near a "big
rock," and the mysterious writer stated "they see me." Could this scrap of paper
have been a partial description of the massacre?
This lost treasure won't be easy to find and will
require some additional research on your part. Probably the best place to begin
your field work is in the neighborhood of Dent's Run in the Driftwood area. It
is highly unlikely that there was ever an attempt to sell any of the gold bars.
No doubt they had U.S. government markings, and a fifty pound gold bar would
have drawn a great deal of attention to the seller. So it is very probable that
this treasure still lies buried or perhaps hidden in a cave.
Good hunting!!
