So here is how I would summarize the Curse of Civil War Gold's storyline:
* There was a treasury of the Confederacy. When the Union armies were approaching Richmond, the treasury was emptied and loaded onto wagons and moved.
* The assets were moved, for the most part, with President Jefferson Davis.
* President Davis was apprehended and the treasury was taken by the Union forces.
* The Union forces buried the gold in Georgia for 5 years.
* Some of the show also focuses on Georgia and looking for gold there.
* Then the gold was dug up and shipped to Muskegon Michigan to Charles Hagley. Hagley opened up a bank in 1870 and quickly became one of the wealthiest, prominent citizens of the town. Hagley was supposed to have laundered the gold through his gold mines out west.
* While shipping some of the gold to one of his gold mines in Utah, a train boxcar was pushed off the barge and is on the floor of Lake Michigan. So part of the search in the show is to look for gold in Lake Michigan.
Here's the tie-in to our family:
My 2nd great grandfather was George Terry Bridges.
He was born in 1847 and enlisted in the War Between the States.
(Here's my website with all the details about George :
http://members.toast.net/jan.monnin/bridges/Bridges_George/Bridges,George.htm
A published family history that pertains to the Bridges stated that George Terry was part of the Cavalry unit that guarded President Davis. Here's the whole story about George Terry, as printed in the book: "The Hufstedler family and allied families..." by Lena Jo Kelly Glaser, 1974.
"From Joyce L. Bridges:
George (Terry Bridges) was in the calvary escort that fled with Pres. Jeff. Davis out of Richmond. DiBrille was his commander and Gen. Wheeler was along for part of the flight. They all left Davis at Georgia and disbanded. George and P.J. Lineberry (his best friend) went into Miss. to find and join with Com. Forrest, not knowing he already had made plans to surrender. On the way, they practically starved (feeding themselves and their horses on any corn they could find) An artillery unit let them have the liver of a "worn out" ox after killing and skinning it for the unit. George and P.J. put the liver on sticks over a fire, but ended up eating it raw because they were too hungry to wait for it to cook.
Most of the family doesn't know about Davis' flight. Davis was thought to have helped arrange Lincoln's assassination and anyone with him was penalized, or at the very least suspect. "The reason I figured it all out was because George still had his horse and he said many times that they had 'collected their pay', he was under DeBrille's command throughout the year, and that's the only calvary unit which didn't join Joe Johnston in the Carolina's against Sherman at the time. He was in Georgia (due to the story about the liver) and no-one in the Confederacy got paid a dime except the unit of calvary from the Confederate treasury that Davis had on the flight. But he (George) sure couldn't openly every admit it later. All he ever said was "I fought in the Carolina's and other skirmashes at the end of the war' on official records to get his pension. (Honest George, wasn't telling a lie but not telling it all either). And this is what the family thought, just the Carolinas, Georgia and Tenn before that,, which was all true till DeBrille unit was sent to guard Davis."
I've worked with information from The Hufstedler Book and found it to be very accurate, even though she usually doesn't document where her information is from. In this case, she states the information was from Joyce L. Bridges, who was married to Buena Vista Bridges, youngest child of George Terry Bridges.
How does our family history compare to actual history:
1) According to Appletons' Annual Cylopedia and Register of Important Events for the year 1865, Volume 5, published 1873, page 202:
In a section entitled "Confederate States", the book states:
a) So this confirms that there was a Debrill who commanded Cavalry. And these troops did, in fact, guard President Davis and the treasury.
b) This also confirms our family history that says that the cavalry left Davis at Georgia.
2) Acoording to the published book "Tennesseans in the Civil War: A military history of Confederate and Union Units with available rosters of personnel" ,
a) pg 55, our George is listed: Bridges, George, Pvt, F Co. 19th Cav.
b) pg (unknown), lists the 19th (Biffle's) Tennessee Cavalry Regiment. Organized Oct 3, 1862, official designated 19th, paroled at Gainnseville Alabama May 1865. This is a 4 page history of the unit from 1862 until it was paroled in 1865. There is no mention in this history of guarding President Jefferson Davis (as one would expect). However, there is mention of Dibrille and Wheeler commanders of various regiments.
3) We have a service record of George Bridges, Co. F, 19 (Biffle's) Tennessee Cavalry (Confederate). Private. Residence of Wayne County, Tennessee. He was listed as a Prisoner of War when paroled at Alabama in May 1865.
4) We have George's application for a pension #12018, widow #10335, accepted.
G.T. Bridges, Filed June 14, 1910. One of his witnesses to his pension was P.J. Lineberry of Flatwoods, Tennessee (which also corroborates our family history). George was apparently given a pension from 1910 to 1916. But in 1916, the board of examiners determined that since he owned 40 acres of land, that was enough to make a living from and so they took away his pension. (Even though he was 69 years old at the time and really not able to do the farm work).
In summary, it would seem that our ancestor, George Terry Bridges, was in fact part of the Cavalry that did guard Jefferson Davis when he fled Richmond at the conclusion of the Civil War in April 1865. There is a lot more documentation that can be found, I am sure, that would add more details to this interesting story.
