A bigt mea culpa. I rambled around and found the follwoing article in the Edgefield (S.C.) Advertiser, of June 2, 1865, copied from the Augusta Constitutionalist:

"HEAVY ROBBERY OF SPECIE -- $200,000 STOLEN

A few days since two of the officers of the Richmond banks, whose assets were removed from that city upon the evacuation in April, reached Washington in this State [Georgia, quoting from the Augusta paper], empowered by the authorities to remove their effects, consisting of three hundred and twenty thousand dollars in specie, to the capital of Virginia. Procuring teams and a guard of twelve men, these gentlemen set out on their return home, intending to take the railroad at Chester, South Carolina.

At the end of the first day's journey, they encamped on the grounds of Mrs. Morse, eighteen miles from Washington and three miles from the Savannah river. The officers retired, and the guards fell asleep.

About midnight a party of twenty mounted men, who were evidently aware of the value of the train, suddenly dashed upon it, and the guard surrendered without firing a gun or making the slightest show of resistance. The freebooters immediately went to work, bursting open the specie kegs and helping themselves to the glittering contents. One fellow, it is related, had a large leather haversack, which he filled, but just as he was mounting his horse, the straps gave way, and the precious metal fell clinking to the ground. He eagerly scraped up the gold and sand, leaving a number of pieces, and placing the coin in a bag, rode off. The next morning a negro teamster found five dollar gold peices scattered in profusion all about the ground.

Some two hundred thousand dollars were stolen, leaving about one hundred and twenty thousand. With this amount, the banks officers journeyed on, sadder but wiser men. Upon reaching Abbeville, S.C., they offered a reward of twenty thousand dollars for the recovery of the property.

The robbers are supposed to be paroled soldiers, who followed the train from Washington. It is singular that in the present demoralized state of the country, the gentlemen made no secret of their valuable possessions; nor did they use any extraordinary measures of precaution tto preserve their property."

The Abbeville paper had not resumed publication as of May, 1865 (or at least the copies are missing). I would suggest that the above would be much more nearly correct than any accounts written ten, twenty, or thirty years later, but those may corroborate what was written at the time. I find that the Washington City website has a number of glaring errors, but the substance of the theft now appears to me to be correct. I am not sure if the home of "Mrs. Morse" is the same as the Chennault place. I would think that it is at least five miles by road from Lisbon, but that may have been a guess. Does anybody have an idea of who Mrs. Morse was, and where she lived?
Lee