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Confederate Gold and Ghost
Confederate Gold and Ghost

Confederate Gold and Ghost

ElwoodElwood

Confederate Gold and Ghost

Its hot, nearing the end of September. It's Florida, I should be used to it by now. It's a muggy still night, not even the slightest Breeze. I'm dressed in shorts, t-shirt and flip flops. My Buddy Lee. He's a big Burly guy, long hair, full beard and big as a bear. He's wearing a pair of shorts, tank top and bare feet.

Tonight we're headed to the cemetery. It's been rumored that Confederate gold is buried in one of the Confederate Graves. Tonight we're going to be grave robbers. Legends of this treasure are over a century-old. Rumor has It that at the end of the Civil War, confederate troops buried gold in the local cemetery. Not wanting the Union troops to get ahold of the gold and knowing the war was coming to an end, a small party was dispatched to fine a safe place to bury the gold.

Legend has it they chose our Cemetery to bury the loot. We're just a small town, Maytown population 3143. Back in those days there probably weren't 200 people here. It's an old graveyard, there are Stones here dating back to the early 1800s.

As the story was told to me there were three soldiers involved in the detail. Two Corporals and a Sergeant. They never returned back to their troops. Our Cemetery it's just one of many that have this Legend. There are different theories on what happened to the soldiers. Some say they took the loot and fled to Cuba. Others say they were killed by runaway slaves. And still another story has them being eaten by Gators.

We don't have high hopes of finding anything. Me and my buddy Lee have been on countless treasure hunts. We've never found anything but empty holes. On one trip we found a hole in the middle of a Palmetto patch, in the middle of an island. The only thing in the hole was a couple of empty wine bottles. As we sat there contemplating on what might have been in the hole, we noticed what looked like a path of palmetto's that was shorter than the rest. Upon closer investigation we could see the ruts where they had drug something heavy out. On another trip, on another Island. We found a hole with a cofferdam built in it. And next to the hole was a brand new Honda water pump. Once again we had been beaten out of our treasure. So our hope's wasn't high on this one.

But what the hell we didn't have nothing better to do. It's a Small Town not much to do in it. Our biggest fear was getting busted by the cops for grave robbing. We didn't believe in ghosts and goblins. But after tonight that would all change. For we had no idea what we were about to experience.

So me and Lee get out of the truck. We grab a couple shovels, a pry bar and a axe out of the back of the truck. I said to Lee "Hey fire up that Doobie." Lee sparks up the Doobie and we start heading towards the back of the graveyard. Lee says "Damn it's hot tonight ." I said "Yeah I thought it'd be getting cooler by now, it's been a hot summer."

We've been out to the graveyard, plenty of times before surveying. We had found some markings on some Confederate Graves. The Confederate Graves were at the rear of the cemetery, right at the edge before it dropped off to the swamp.

Lee says to me "So what do you want to do, dig that spot up between them two grave markers?" I said "Yeah I want to start there. Those markings are weird, they weren't carved by the stone maker. And that's weird there's no stone in that spot. Looks like another grave should be there." Lee says "Yeah and there seems to be a depression there in the ground."

We've now made it to the back of the graveyard, at the spot we're going to dig. I sink my shovel in the ground. Lee passes me the Doobie, we finish burning it. Lee says "Look at the fog coming up out of the swamp." I'm already digging and say "It's just swamp gas, get to digging." Lee laughs and says "Let's get to it, we'll have this place dug up no time." So we're digging away, sweats just pouring off of me. We get down about three foot deep, and I say "Hey did you bring any of them beers." Lee says "Sure did, I grabbed a couple." I say "Well toss one over here, I'm dying of thirst." Lee tosses me a beer, I pop it open and take a big swig.

Lee says "Hey I hit something, shine the Light over here." I grab the flashlight, shine the Light over there. Lee says "It looks like bones." I said "Yep them look like bones to me too." Lee then says "Hey that fog is getting thicker down there, and now I see a light, it kind of looks like a lantern." I said "Man you're just freaking out because we're in a graveyard. That ain't nothing but swamp gas, it's the moon reflecting off the gas. Damn that shit wasn't that good." But to tell you the truth, I could see the light to. And I wasn't buying that reflection story, even if it was mine. I was curious of what the light was too. It kinda did look like a lantern.

But I got back to digging. We're digging up bones, leg bones, ribs, etc. Lee digs up a skull. It's got a hole in it, like maybe a bullet Hole. We come across some rusty iron. Looks like a old gun, part of a rifle maybe. Any wood has long sense rotted away. I said "You know I don't think this body was buried in a coffin. And it sure seems like a lot of bones for one body." Meanwhile I'm still keeping my eye down by the swamp. That damn light seems to be moving around. And that fog sure it's getting weird looking. Lee says "I was thinking the same thing, seems to be too many bones for one body. And are you watching that light down there? And look at that fog, that fogs weird." I said "Yeah okay I'm watching the light and yeah something's weird with that fog. Now you got me freaking out. That shit must have been better than I thought."

About that time I hit something else digging. Looks like a piece of leather. I grabbed a hold of it and pulled it out of the hole. It's a leather pouch. I open it up, it's full of gold coins. There must be 20 or 30 in there. I yell over to Lee "Damn I found something, after all these trips we finally found something. Gold man, there must be 20 or 30 coins in here." Lee says "No way man, your pulling my leg right." I said "No shit I'm serious, freaking gold man." Lee says "Let me see." I hand him the Leather Pouch. He opens it up, and reaches in and pulls out a coin. He says "These are Confederate coins, they're worth a mint."

We done got Gold Fever now, forgetting all about the light and the fog. I said "Well this can't be the treasure, they sure wouldn't go through this hassle to bury 20 or 30 coins." Lee says "Yeah what the hell, what do you think this is? Did we just get lucky and they buried this dude with his money?" I said "I don't know what this is. Let's just keep digging maybe there's more." So we keep on digging. Lee says "Man I found another skull." I said "I thought there were too many bones for one body." Lee says "Hey I think I found another leather pouch." He tugs on it, and pulls it out of the hole. Sure as shit, it's another pouch full of coins.

We can't believe our luck. It's not the treasure we're looking for. But two pouches of gold. Shit we couldn't ask for more. All the while we've been paying no attention to the swamp. Gold Fever had us. I just happened to glance down there and couldn't believe my eyes. I said to Lee "Shit man what the hell is that? Do you see that shit?" Lee says "Hey what the fuck is that? Man that looks like somebody coming up out of the swamp. And It looks like he's carrying a lantern."

Lee being Lee yells at the figure "Hey man who the fuck are you? What the hell you doing over there?" I look at Lee and say "Hey man I don't think that's no dude. It looks funny to me, you can almost see through it." The figure starts getting closer. It looks like it's hobbling. As it gets closer we can make out what looks like a Confederate uniform, all torn and shabby looking. I said to Lee "Man I think that's a fucking ghost. It looks like a confederate soldier. And it looks like he's missing part of his leg." Lee says "Dude I think you're right. And he's coming this way, looks like a pissed-off son of a bitch... Shit man! It looks like the flesh is falling off his bones. That ain't no fucking human."

About that time I turn around to look behind me. I can't believe my eyes. Behind me is standing two more Confederate soldiers. Now I'm thinking man that was some good shit. I say to Lee "Man that must have been some good shit. Cause, I'm hallucinating! I see two more confederate soldiers behind us." Lee's been watching the figure coming out of the swamp. He turns around towards me and says "I must be on the same trip, because I see them too." The two that were behind me didn't look all tattered up like the one coming out the swamp.

Now about this time I'm thinking we better get the hell out of here. Like man we done fell down the rabbit hole, and this trip was getting bad. I turned to Lee and say "Hey man, I think we got enough. Let's get our Booty and get the hell out of here." Lee says "I'm with you on that one, it's time to split this crazy scene." Now the figure coming out of the swamp, it's like he heard me and starts rushing towards us. We grab the two leather sacks and start running for the truck. I turn around to look back to see if it's following us. What I see is the other two confederate soldiers, grabbing the one that was coming up out of the swamp. It looked like they were trying to hold him back. We made it to the truck hopped in, and got the hell out of there.

Well we didn't find the lost treasure. What we found we're two leather pouches, with a total of 53 CSA printed gold coins. Not too shabby. And a hell of an experience. Weve come to our own conclusions about that night. And have our own theories. We think the treasure is still there. Lost in the swamp. We also think the figure we seen coming out of the swamp was the sergeant. And we think the grave we dug up was the two corporals. The way we got it figured is there was a double cross. The sergeant killed the two corporals and was going to take the treasure for himself. The corporal's must have swiped a couple of the coins and the sergeant didn't realize it. He buried the two corporals in the unmarked grave. And made the grave mistake of trying to go through the swamp. By the way he was all tattered and ripped up we think that a gator got him. And even in afterlife he still had greed in his bones. He wanted them two leather pouches and the rest of the gold. What we haven't figured out is were the two corporals protecting us.

We went back the following day. Daylight of course and reburied the bones. And later bought them some proper markers for there grave. Since we didn't know their names or any dates. We just had the gravestones carved.
RIP
Unknown CSA
Born ?
Died 1865

Author Notes: Give me some feedback Good, Terrible, Bad, Ok. My first time writing. I'd appreciate any comments.

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Elwood
Elwood
About This Story
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Posted
23 Sep, 2018
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2,076
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