Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 39.djvu/40

 28 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Ont; man began to fill his sack out of the first keg he came to, which proved to be a keg- of silver. He was happy when he lugged off his bag of silver dollars, but when he met his companions later in the rendezvous, where they stopped to count their money, he found that he had only about $4,000, while his companions had secured several times that sum in gold, while his was in silver. He became greatly disturbed over his ill-luck and insisted that his more fortunate brothers divide their gold with him. This they refused to do, and he then de- termined to turn informer. He was as good as his word, and upon the information furnished by this silver king, several of the gold-bugs, were apprehended and forced to give up their booty. But a number of them w^ere wise enough to keep' going until they got safe from the scene of their capture.

I personally know several of the men who got some of the swag. Two of these men went with their money, amounting to more than $120,000, to Kansas City, Mo., where they engaged in business, becoming men of large wealth. Two others went to California, and with something more than $100,000 they em- barked in business. One of the wealthiest planters in Texas got his start with money secured from those kegs, and still another in the same State has made good as a stockman, being now a cattle king.

From Confederate Military History.

(Vol. n.)

Capt. Joseph M. Broun, of Charleston. W. Va., was born at Middleburg, Va., Dec. 23, 1835, ^ descendant of William Broun, a Scotchman of French descent, who settled in Westmoreland county and practiced law in the colonial period. He was edu- cated at the Ridgeway Academy, the University of Virginia in i853-'54, and the University of Georgia in 1855. During 1857 he was with the command of Col. Joseph E. Johnston, employed in marking the thirty-seventh parallel between Kansas and In- dian Territory, and in 1850 he was engaged in teaching at