This week, we share the third installment of our five-part series on the covert Southern missions that helped make America’s freedom possible. Then we travel to the Volunteer State to learn about a legendary gold discovery near Greenbrier Cove, navigate the Obed Wild and Scenic River in Wartburg, and preview the 48th Annual Mountaineer Folk Festival in Spencer.
Revolutionary Secrets, Part 3
A key double agent made big social moves
James Armistead Lafayette of New Kent County, Virginia, is remembered as one the most significant intelligence operatives of the American Revolution. With permission from his enslaver, Armistead joined the Continental Army and came under the command of a young French nobleman known as the Marquis de Lafayette. In 1777, the Marquis had anchored his ship at the entrance of South Carolina’s Winyah Bay, then rowed to North Island where he vowed to fight for America’s liberty. He recognized that Armistead’s ability to move between social worlds primed him for double agency, which is exactly what he asked him to do.
After the Civil War, a blacksmith named Perry Shults became known as the wealthiest man in Greenbrier Cove, Tennessee. According to legend, Shults uncovered a shallow gold streak near Webb Creek with a pick and shovel. He secured a mining charter from the State of Tennessee in 1867, which was, interestingly, only licensed for mining silver, lead, copper, and zinc. Shults guarded the site carefully, taking different paths each time he journeyed to the mine and never sharing the details of its location with his wife. He also melted gold at his forge to produce counterfeit coins, using stolen plates he obtained from a former U.S. Mint worker.
