Calling all arborists, dendrologists and armchair tree nut experts.  WTH are these?

The nuts themselves look like acorns, and are bitter tasting like acorns.

But they come out of pods/caps that look very similar to chestnuts. Whenever I take the top off the container, there is a very fragrant, sweet smell to them.

And they can get quite big, as you can see.

The leaves on the trees look very similar to a chestnut as well, not oaks.

I have 3 trees in a side/back corner of my pasture. The one farthest to the right and mostly out of frame is by far the largest and has dropped the most nuts. My horses periodically come looking for any nuts to eat, and at dusk a herd of deer come up to scavenge what the horses miss. For reference, I am located about 50 miles north of Atlanta, Georgia. The trees were planted by a German emigre by way of Canada in the early '90s, so there is a possibility the trees originally came from outside the U.S. (I've also got a number of different kinds of fir trees that have no business thriving in my zone, but he planted them as well and they're all huge and healthy.) Thanks in advance to anyone who can help identify the trees and especially the nuts!