Post by Ky Twostep on Apr 10, 2013 12:09:36 GMT -5
This lost Confederate payroll near Cumberland Gap has never been reported found, although several people have searched for it.
The year is not known for sure, since there were several different epidemics of measles that happened to both armies during the Civil War, but it is believed that this incident occurred at Cumberland Gap in 1863.
A complete regiment of Confederate soldiers were quarantined for several weeks during the period. A payroll was due in for the men. Four of the Rebels decided to steal the payroll and blame it on Union soldiers, stationed a short distance away.
The four men slipped away from camp, waylaid the pay wagon, killed the paymaster and guards, and then ran the horses and wagon over a cliff, hiding the money and returning to camp. They planned to return and get the payroll later.
Shortly after the Civil War, a man came to Middlesboro, Kentucky, near Cumberland Gap, and gave his name as Jones. After about a month of searching, he found what he believed to be the location of the payroll. Becoming afraid that because he was an ex-soldier of the Confederate Army, he might be shot, go to jail, or that the Government would take the money away from him if he removed it, he left it alone.
The man returned to the hotel and told the owner his story. He had been in the service in Virginia with the four Rebels who had robbed the paymaster. Three of them had been killed in action, and the fourth one was wounded. Before dying, however, he had told his story to Jones, a good friend.
After killing the paymaster and the guards, then disposing of the wagon and horses, the four had hidden the money, which was in a trunk, in a small cave near the top of a ridge on the left-hand side of a road on the Kentucky side of Cumberland Gap. They had later been transferred to the heavier fighting in Virginia, leaving before they had had the chance to reclaim the payroll.
After telling his story, Jones left the country, and, to anyone's knowledge, never returned. The hotel owner looked for the payroll, but he could never find it.
The year is not known for sure, since there were several different epidemics of measles that happened to both armies during the Civil War, but it is believed that this incident occurred at Cumberland Gap in 1863.
A complete regiment of Confederate soldiers were quarantined for several weeks during the period. A payroll was due in for the men. Four of the Rebels decided to steal the payroll and blame it on Union soldiers, stationed a short distance away.
The four men slipped away from camp, waylaid the pay wagon, killed the paymaster and guards, and then ran the horses and wagon over a cliff, hiding the money and returning to camp. They planned to return and get the payroll later.
Shortly after the Civil War, a man came to Middlesboro, Kentucky, near Cumberland Gap, and gave his name as Jones. After about a month of searching, he found what he believed to be the location of the payroll. Becoming afraid that because he was an ex-soldier of the Confederate Army, he might be shot, go to jail, or that the Government would take the money away from him if he removed it, he left it alone.
The man returned to the hotel and told the owner his story. He had been in the service in Virginia with the four Rebels who had robbed the paymaster. Three of them had been killed in action, and the fourth one was wounded. Before dying, however, he had told his story to Jones, a good friend.
After killing the paymaster and the guards, then disposing of the wagon and horses, the four had hidden the money, which was in a trunk, in a small cave near the top of a ridge on the left-hand side of a road on the Kentucky side of Cumberland Gap. They had later been transferred to the heavier fighting in Virginia, leaving before they had had the chance to reclaim the payroll.
After telling his story, Jones left the country, and, to anyone's knowledge, never returned. The hotel owner looked for the payroll, but he could never find it.