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ACTIVITIES LINKS TO GENEALOGICAL & HISTORICAL SITES
LINKS TO OTHER GENEALOGY SOURCES
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ABOUT AGS The Augusta Genealogical Society is a nonprofit organization. It was founded in Augusta, Georgia in September 1979, by 84 charter members and now has well over 1500 members in 44 states as well as Puerto Rico, Guam, Singapore, Germany and Ireland. AGS maintains a genealogical library, publishes a newsletter and journal, presents monthly lectures and semi-annual "Footprints" methodology seminars, co-sponsors semi-annual seminars with Augusta State University, and specializes in cemetery surveys. The Society is the proud recipient of four Certificates of Commendation from the American Association for State and Local History. All mail should be directed to P.O. Box 3743, Augusta GA 30914-3743. We are located at 1109 Broad Street, Augusta GA. Our phone number is 706-722-4073.
WHAT'S NEWPROGRAM PREVIEWS
by Janice M. Johnson 5 AUGUST 2010 WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CONFEDERATE GOLD? Dr. Marshall P. Waters, like many retirees from fast-paced professional careers, enjoys having time for other interests, such as researching, writing, and speaking about Civil War history. We first became acquainted with Mark last spring when he attended Don Rhodes' AGS program and Don introduced him as an acquaintance from North Augusta. They recalled Mark's brother, Charlie Waters, quarterback for Clemson University and strong safety for the Dallas Cowboys in the 1970s. After Mark volunteered that day to present a program for AGS later in the summer, we learned that he is a member of the Civil War Roundtable in both Augusta and in Washington, GA, where he now resides. He is also a member of the Georgia Historical Society's Speaker's Bureau. Among his exciting slate of topics are those with stories about the existence of caches of missing gold and silver that disappeared in the waning days of the Confederate government after Richmond fell in the spring of 1865. Mark's presentation at our August meeting is entitled "The Confederate Treasury and the Midnight Raid at Chennault, GA: May 24, 1865." He will track the wagon train that left Virginia and arrived in Georgia with Confederate president Jefferson Davis. The wagons carried bullion, coins, specie checks (paper money), and jewelry, some of which was accounted for and much of which was not. It is well known that Davis was captured along with others from the fleeing Confederate government, but what happened to the treasure? Funds that reached Washington, GA were to be escorted by Union soldiers to a railhead in South Carolina. The detachment stopped for the night nineteen miles northeast of Washington in Lincoln County at a plantation owned by the Chennault family where over $250,000 worth of gold and silver was stolen. The 1865 value equals nine million dollars today. A portion was recovered, but about $179,000 ($3.6 million today) remains missing. Waters traces his Georgia heritage back five generations to his g-g-g-grandfather's land grant in Wilkes County for Revolutionary war service. He enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve and was called to active duty after high school graduation and served on the aircraft carrier USS SARATOGA until 1960. In 1965, he was commissioned an Ensign Aeronautical Engineering Duty Officer in the Naval Reserve. He attended Duke University and earned his PhD from the University of Georgia. Recalled to active duty in 1986, he was Associate Professor of Meteorology in the Division of Math and Science at the U.S. Naval Academy. He retired as Navy Captain after a career of over 39 years of enlisted and commission service. As a civilian, Waters had an equally extended career as mathematician and physical scientist for USDA and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and retired in 2001 from the National Weather Service, National Meteorological Center, Camp Springs, MD. He is the author of a number of technical articles relating to meteorology and oceanography but happily wrote articles in 2007 and 2009 for The Surratt Courier, Surratt Society of Clinton, MD newsletter, about the distribution of the Confederate treasury.
The regular monthly programs are free and open to the public. GEORGIA BIBLIOGRAPHY
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here for bibliography AGS TRUST FUNDImagine That!! Donors Set Up AGS Trust Fund And Give Large Donation For Virginia Records. Two magnanimous AGS members brought new meaning to us of the word generosity when they endowed the Society with our very first ongoing private trust fund, to ensure the Society's future stability, and then made available another large fund to be used exclusively for colonial Virginia records for our Library. The donors, who Insist on anonymity, have spent many years assembling details of the lives and times of their ancestors. Trips to research centers throughout the South and East enabled them to identify sources many genealogists only dream of finding. It is their wish that these types of documents and records be made available locally, hence the gift restricted to colonial Virginia, the home place of untold numbers of Southern families. What a splendid piece of generosity, to their fellow members, and to their community!
AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASEDUPLICATE BOOKS FOR SALEFor an updated list of duplicate books for sale Contact pointingdog1206@comcast.net for further information. WILKES COUNTY,
GEORGIA
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