With the intensity of recruiting, the county was soon drained of many of its most vigorous and ablebodied men. At that time there was but one bank in Leesburg--the old Valley Bank, concerning the founding of which in 1818 we have read in the last chapter. One day, so runs the story, there suddenly appeared in the town three bandits who, making their way to the bank, then located in what has since been known as the "Club House" on the northwest corner of Market and Church Streets, proceeded to loot it. Tradition says that they found and seized over $60,000 in gold and, placing it in sacks they had provided, fled with it south along the Carolina Road. The greatly excited citizens hurriedly formed a posse, made up largely of men who were too old for military service together with a number of boys, which pursued the robbers so hotly that the latter left the highway where it passes the woods on Greenway, south of the mansion, and sought to hide themselves there. Here they were surrounded in the woods and either made their escape or were killed, the narrative at this point becoming somewhat vague. Be that as it may, they disappear from the story and the pursuers turned to recovering their booty. A diligent search, continued long after nightfall, failed to reveal the hiding-place of the plunder. With daylight the search was renewed and, although carried on for many days, during which much ground was dug over, not a dollar ever was recovered; but for years the story of the hidden treasure was repeated and even after the late John H. Alexander purchased Greenway, long after the war, his children were regaled by the negro servants with the story of the believed-to-be buried gold. Meanwhile the work of building fortifications of earthworks, begun by Colonel Giddings' 56th Regiment of Militia, had so far progressed that there were three forts on elevated ground on different sides of Leesburg. One, known as Fort Evans, named in honour of Brigadier General Nathan G. Evans, in command of the Leesburg neighborhood, was on the heights on the part of the original Exeter between the Alexandria Pike and the Edwards' Ferry roads, recently purchased by Mr. H. B. Harris of Chicago from Mrs. William Rogers and Mr. Wallace George; another, known as Fort Johnston, in honour of General Joseph E. Johnston, commander of a portion of the Confederate troops at the first battle of Manassas, (Bull Run), crowned the hill now covered by the extensive orchards of Mr. Lawrence R. Lee, about one and one-half miles west of Leesburg on the Alexandria Road; and the third, known as Fort Beauregard, was constructed south of Tuscarora in the triangle formed by the old road leading to Morrisworth, the road to Lawson's old mill and Tuscarora. The property is now owned by the heirs of the late Mahlon Myers.