I live within twenty miles of the Chennault Place, and these "legends" seem to crop up constantly, and apparnetly don't have a lot of legs. (I'm sure that some local historian will cry foul on that!). There were actually two semgnets of specie which were taken out of Richmond just before the city fell. The first consisted of what was left -- and that was precious little -- of the specie of the Confederate Treasury, and the rest was specie from Richmond banks. It was sent out under guard of Confederate midshipmen, and eventually reached its way to Charlotte by rail, thence across country -- along roughtly the same route President Dsavis would take later -- to Abbeville, South Carolina. The railroads were out from the Catawba River Birdge near present day Rock Hill to about present day Prosperity, and the treasure train went by wagon from that point, then picked up the Columbia and Greenville Railroad to Hodges, then on by rail to Abbeville. It was still there when the Davis party arrived in early May.

At this point, the treasure train accompanied the Davis contingent along the road from Abbeville to Washiongton, Ga, a distance of about forty miles. The precise route, if you follow a Highway map (at Atlas will be fine) would have been to go west from Abbeville for about four miles along present day S.C. 72, then southwest along S.C. 823 to Mt. Carmel, then over a present day secondary route to the Savannah River at Hester's Bottoms (that was a late 19th Century name), where the road crossed into Georgia. Prior to the war, the river was crossed by a ferry, but during the 1864-65 Carolinas campaign. the Confederates placed a pontoon bridge across the river. A good many of the troops coming from Hoods' army to reinforce Johnston used this route in reverse. The crossing of the Savannah was just south of the junction of the Borad River in Georgia where it flowed into the Savannah.
At the top of the hill leading from the river was the old tobacco port town of Lisbon, which even by that time was basically a dead town. It still had an old country store and two houses which operated until about 1951, when the area was flooded by Clarks Hill Dam and Reservoir. There the road follwoed the run of present day Georgia Route 44 Spur, then Georgia 44 from GA 79, on through Danburg (which still is a postage sized community) to Washington.
The Chennault Place was and is located at the northwest corner of the intersection of GA 44 and GA 79.

For the best near-contemporary account, I refer you to an article in Battles and Leaders, Vol IV, written by the commander of the escort. That would be about 1890.
I'm not going out to my library to get it, but you can find it in any decent sized library. In my mind it has the ring of authenticity. In summary, he states that they transferred the specie from the box car it was in to wagons, which accompanied the Davis party when they left Abbeville. They reached the river the first night out of Abbeville, and camped on the Carolina side. The troops were growing restive, and it had been decided in Abbeville that the party would split up when they reached Washington. At that point the Treasury specie was divided, with some being retained for Davis, his immediate party, adn for the members of the cabinet who would be going their separate ways. The balance of the Confederate specie was divided among the men of the cavalry escvort, apparently about 2,000 men, most of them from Tennessee and Kentucky, it being paid per capita, and not by rank. This was done according to the writer in the ferryman's hut or cabin which was located enar the river.

The remainder of the Treasury specie, for the use of the President and his cabinet members, went on with the aprty to Washington, along with the bank specie, which was placed in a Washingotn bank or banks for safe keeping. There was absolutely no need for the specie traikn, now much reduced, to have stopped at the Chennault place; from the river to Washington was a one day driveAssuming an early morning departure, they would ahve reached the Chennault place by mid morning. I suspect that if any stop was made that day, it would have been at Danburg, which would have been a convenient noon stop for dinner and to rest the teams.

I see that the latest apologists now contend that maybe the escort tried to take the gold back to its rightful owners in Richmond, and thus backtracked, leading to a second stop several days later at the Chennault place. That makes absolutely no sense, for the teamsters and the midshipman escort would have stayed at Washington for parole. I don't recall the date that the Federal troops arrived in Washington, but it was only a day or two after Davis left, and he was there only overnight. Some of the money may have been -- indeed, probably was -- looted by the Federals from the Washignton banks into which it had been placed for safekeeping, but I cannot in any sense imagine that that took place on the back track, at the Chennalt Place. Davis' escort was still under pretty good military discipline, and the midshipment were a dedicated lot. I cannot imagine a raid on the specie train in braod daylight on Davis way to Washington, which would have been the time that it and Davis passed the Chennault Place, about 15 miles short of Washington. Someone would have said something about it.
I've never been in it, but the house is a handsome place, and the last time I was in that neighborhood it was upo for sale. Sorry to have been so long-winded.