During the American Civil War, some Southern sympathizers in the Union or Northern states, such as Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, were accused of belonging to the Knights of the Golden Circle, and in some cases, such as that of Lambdin P. Milligan, they were imprisoned for their activities. Sir Harry Andrews spent more than 50 years building a headquarters for members of the Knights of the Golden Trail brotherhood. A few agitators, some of them encouraged by Southern money, talked of a revolt in the Old Northwest, with the goal of ending the war. Although nominally a secret society, the existence of the Knights of the Golden Circle was not, in fact, a secret. has drawn the interest of numerous investigators who claim that it was a vast conspiracy that drew inspiration from groups such as the European Knights Templar, Scottish Rite Masons, and the Sons of Liberty. Captain Mattison, the secret slaver, lived just around the corner from Southern sympathizer Saulsbury on adjoining Eden Street, site of the 5,000 gold coins. "Newcomb, James Pearson | The Handbook of Texas Online|", "California Naval History: The Pacific Squadron of 1861-1866", "Gold coins found by California couple unlikely stolen from U.S. Mint", "The great north-western conspiracy in all its startling details", "Watch Lincoln's Secret Assassins Full Episode - America Unearthed", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Knights_of_the_Golden_Circle&oldid=1134359194, Expansion of slavery in the United States, Proposed states and territories of the United States, Articles containing Spanish-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2012, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, The KGC are the villains of the graphic novel, The KGC are portrayed as conspirators in the, The KGC and their potential involvement in President Lincoln's assassination are discussed in an episode of the, The KGC are the antagonists in a story which is featured in the, The KGC are referenced during a discussion concerning a potential assassination plot in the, The KGC are the subject of a historical fiction novel by, This page was last edited on 18 January 2023, at 08:27. About the Author: Jack Myers is the author of several books, including Row House Days, Row House Blues, and The Delco Files as well as his book Knights Gold. Supposedly, the hidden treasure was meant to finance another Civil War, and perhaps one that would prove more successful for the South. accessed March 04, 2023, Linked to the Freemasons and the ceremonies of Freemasonr. However, it is possible that the Knights tallied closer to 50,000 by 1860, given that there was a membership of 16,000 in California, 8,000 in both Texas and Kentucky, and there were castles established in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and not to mention some 15,000 men who had joined up with the KGC following the dissolution of the OLS. The group's original goal was to provide a force to colonize the northern part of Mexico and the West Indies. Copperheads Fernando Wood, former Democratic mayor of New York City, and Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio were reputed to be the chief officers. ISBN 0-7432-1968-6. In September 1857, Masters and Wardens from those three lodges assembled and organized the Grand Lodge of Nebraska. They also unite with Mexico and the rest of Central America. Once back in Baltimore, Kane was quickly appointed to the municipal water board, known as the Jones Falls Commission. Knights of the Golden Circle. The convention confirmed Bickley as leader and published a lengthy address to the people of the southern states that remains the most reliable statement of the K.G.C.s organization and goals. During this time, the pro-slavery South and the anti-slavery North wanted to expand their borders and create new states aligned with their respective causes. Their early purposes included expanding southern imperial interests into the "golden circle" of Mexico, Central America . If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe. With the early 1900s death of Thomas Armstrong, the man likely responsible for the stash of coins found on-site at The Fountain Hotel in 1870, no one is left who was originally involved with the burial of the coins in the cellar at the treasure house on South Eden. The Knights of the Golden Circle ( KGC) was a secret society founded in 1854 by American George W. L. Bickley, the objective of which was to create a new country, known as the Golden Circle ( Spanish: Crculo Dorado ), where slavery would be legal. This enormous empire would have a diameter of 2,400 miles. had its beginnings in the formation of Southern Rights Clubs in various southern cities in the mid-1830s. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Though there were rumors that the Knights were involved in the infamous Confederate incursion known as Morgans Raid, which garnered some 2,000 men to draw out Union troops in Ohio and Indiana, these are not substantiated. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Proudly powered by WordPress | But people believe there are still more treasures to be found across the United States and potentially in Canada. Both Baylor and Trevanion Teel, Sibley's captain of artillery, had been among the KGC members who rode with Ben McCulloch. The overarching goal of Bickleys secret organization was simple, if not a little grandiose: to create a slavery-fueled empire known as the Golden Circle.. Southwestern Historical Quarterly. Some argue that the Knights buried millions of dollars in stolen U.S. Army payrolls in locations across the Southwest, where the money (now worth billions) remained under guard into the mid-twentieth century and perhaps even now. The legend of this ill-gotten treasure lives on perhaps most strikingly in a man named Bob Brewer, who believes his ancestors may have hidden the gold in Arkansas and has since devoted his lifes work to finding it. European colonialism and dependence on slavery had declined more rapidly in some countries than others. had been created and, therefore, ended its life. His case galvanized abolitionists in the North. According to the book titled JESSE JAMES WAS ONE OF HIS NAMES by Jesse James III (the grandson) and Del Schroeder, Jesse James was indeed a prominent member of the KGC and hid large quantities of stolen riches in various locations on behalf of the secret society. Like many other secretive societies, the K.G.C. Stuart, reported encountering Pennsylvania farmers who frantically made strange hand gestures, often while waving yellow pieces of printed paper and/or exclaiming certain words. However, that hasnt stopped some people from suggesting that the organization is still active as an underground society today. Kane was suspected of being the mastermind behind an aborted plot to free two thousand rebel prisoners from a Union military prison on Lake Eerie. The Northern and Southern United States had adopted different approaches to slavery since the country was colonized. Seeking out his friend Kane and the colonels Confederate Secret Service comrades, Booth proposed a scheme to kidnap President Lincoln and to hold him for ransom in exchange for thousands of Confederate prisoners. The K.G.C. These attempts appear to have been foiled by Lincoln having a change of plans. Theres a conspiracy that Lincolns assassin was a member of this society. While we dont have too much detail on the Knights and their history is mired in rumor, we do know their ultimate goal: to create an empire that would stretch from the Caribbean to the Pacific built on tobacco, cotton, sugar, and the blood and sweat of slaves. convention held in 1860, the organization was originated at Lexington, Kentucky, on the fourth day of July 1854, by five gentlemen who came together on a call made by Gen. George Bickley. Bickley then occupied himself with other projects during the mid-1850s, and the K.G.C. [citation needed], As abolitionism in the United States grew in opposition to slavery, the KGC members proposed a separate confederation of slave states, with U.S. states south of the Mason-Dixon line to secede and to align with other slave states to be formed from the "golden circle". played a role in reducing the vote for Constitutional Unionists (see CONSTITUTIONAL UNION PARTY) in November 1860 and in keeping Unionist voters from the polls when the state held a referendum on secession in February 1861. The Golden Knights are one of only three Department of Defense-sanctioned aerial demonstration teams, along with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. Knights were grouped into three divisionsmilitary, commercial and financial, and politicaleach of which was in turn divided into two classes. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Section 107 related to Copyright and Fair Use for Non-Profit educational institutions, which permits the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), to utilize copyrighted materials to further scholarship, education, and inform the public. Does the Knights of the Golden Circle still exist? Problem was, the troops were viciously attacked in Baltimore as the passed over the Pratt Street Bridge. Knights of the Golden Circle - A secret society formed in 1854 by George W.L. Every penny counts! Pinkertons report included the astonishing detail that Marshal Kane himself was likely involved with the plot or at least would offer Lincoln little or no protection because of hisloyalty to the rebel cause. And none of the Knights in the photo are clean shaven, so it must be a different Henry Ford than the auto magnate. Bickley created, on paper at least, an army of 16,000 men. Webb had always declined political office until the position of city collector was tendered him by Mayor Kane. Apparently, the bond between Webb and Kane was so tight that Kane was the one individual to whom Webb could not say no., But Kane died in office soon after. The Texas KGC supported President of the United States James Buchanan's policy of, and draft treaty for, protecting routes for U.S commerce across Mexico, which also failed to be approved by the U.S. How refers to the process to achieve . The Knights of the Golden Circle or K.G.C. Upon his release, Kane headed to Canada where he joined the Confederate Secret Service office in Montreal as Colonel Kane. What is the difference between endocervical and cervical? What made him different, however, was the fervor with which he took to this task. Fresh hordes will be down on us tomorrow. With the decision of Dred Scott in 1857 that extended abolitionism in the States, many white Southerners saw the writing on the wall for slavery. The Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) was a pre- Civil War, pro-Southern secret society founded in Ohio in 1854 by George W. L. Bickley, a Virginian, who soon moved the KGC to the South. [8] The plan was to prevent Lincoln from reaching Washington by capturing him in Baltimore. Do Knights of the Golden Circle still exist? ), a secretive organization created in 1854, proposed to establish a slaveholding empire encompassing the southern United States, the West Indies, Mexico, and parts of Central America. "Mike" Campbell, Wikimedia CommonsAbraham Lincolns assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was allegedly a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle. His plot was discovered, and led to greater distrust of secret societies and Copperheads in general. To recap, Charles Webb, a Southern Democrat-sponsored as Grand Master of Maryland Freemasonry by K.G.C. It amassed billions in stolen gold and silver. An Authentic Exposition of the "K.G.C.", "Knights of the Golden Circle": Or, A History of Secession from 1834 to 1861. Then, as Booth and his henchmen planned for yet another attempt at seizing Lincoln and holding him hostage, Union forces succeeded in surrounding Richmond. Why did Lincoln jail opponents of the war? Cassandra Morris Small letters, York County (PA) Heritage Trust files. The order itself had little influence in the South and had few or no Northern adherents. Because the New Orleans men disbanded, they could not meet up with another contingency of Knights gathered around the Mexico border later in March 1860. However, new evidence has recently surfaced which points directly to a secret Confederate society known as the Knights of the Golden Circle (K.G.C.) Does the Knights of the Golden Circle still exist? Knights of the Golden Circle: John Wilkes Booth a member That secret society, the Knights of the Golden Circle, was the brainchild of a Cincinnati con man named George Bickley. The Knights of the Golden Circle (K. G. C.) was a secret society founded by George W. L. Bickley on July 4, 1854. In the summer of 1863, Congress authorized a military draft, which the administration soon put into operation. However, once the seat of power was secured, a furious Lincoln dispatched Union troops to seize Baltimore at night and occupy the Charm City for the remainder of the war. In an angry letter to Seward, Pierce denied that he knew anything about the KGC, and demanded that his letter be made public. The slave population there had continued to grow due to natural increase even after the ban on international trade. Randolph B. Baltimores native son, George Herman Babe Ruth revolutionizes the game of baseball by launching 60 home runs in a season. Alerted to a sudden change in plans by a Confederate courier, Colonel Kane rode his horse south day and night in time to rendezvous with the retreating Jeff Davis train in Danville. The Knights merged with the Order of the Lone Star with the expansionist goal of forming a slave-holding empire that operated like the East India Company by annexing Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, and Central America into the United States. This secret society hatched a plot to protect and extend slavery, arguably the most contentious issue in the history of the United States. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) Secret society in the mid-19th-century US, Plans to seize Lincoln and inaugurate Breckinridge as president. DAILY GAZETTE & COMET [BATON ROUGE, LA], April 6, 1860, p. 2, c. 3 Knights of the Golden Circle.This organization, whose sole aim at presents seems the invasion of Mexico and assists in the establishment of a new government, has caused some interest, especially among the young men of the city, many of whom are unemployed.They have formed an association, and for some time past have been . [6], Hounded by creditors, Bickley left Cincinnati in the late 1850s and traveled through the East and South, promoting an armed expedition to Mexico. Hudson, Linda S. "The Knights of the Golden Circle in Texas, 18581861: An Analysis of the First (Military) Degree Knights", p. 53, in Howell, Kenneth W., ed. Charles Webb and his brother James were high-ranking Freemasons, with Charles having been selected to be Marylands youngest-ever Grand Master of Freemasonry in 1853. In 1877, Kane would run for and win the office of Mayor of Baltimore. Such was the case in New Orleans in 1860 when a group of Knights, perhaps 1,000-large, descended into madness while Bickley was otherwise occupied. After months of recruiting his team, securing weapons, and preparing an escape route, Booth was ready to act. There exist reports of the KGC continuing after 1864 as a secret group which planned to start fighting the Civil War again, as soon as a generation or two had passed and they had regained their manpower and resources." . The K.G.C. Meanwhile, Lincolns own advisors were being given the same terrifying information. [citation needed] The membership, scattered from New York to California and into Latin America, was never large. . Phillips and another party arrived on Saturday.. Floyd received instructions from the Order to "seize Navy-yards, Forts, etc. Timothy H. OSullivan/U.S. [1]:102104 The Secretary of War, John Floyd and of Treasury, Howell Cobb, were members of the circle, in addition to Vice President John Breckenridge. [3] In the United States, the new country's northern border would roughly coincide with the MasonDixon line, and within it were included such cities as Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Mexico City, and Panama City. The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry. Once Texas seceded in March 1861, individual Knights participated in the actions that displaced the authority of the United States in Texas, leading some Unionists such as James P. Newcomb to emphasize the role of the organization in destroying the Union. One of his first moves in office would be to appoint his longtime friend Charles Webb as tax collector for the city. One by one as the Southern states began to secede, a startled Lincoln ordered Northern troops from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts to hurry south to protect Washington, D.C. Nearly a century after its founding, more than 300 people have been knighted and today there are still around 50 active KGOT members. These clubs were inspired by the philosophies of John C. Calhoun (1782-1850). Eyewitness evidence says a young John Wilkes Booth was an enthused participant. A New York railroad C.E.O. The Roaring Twenties ushers in an age of excess and rampant stock market speculation. Booths fellow actors remember his chilling words upon hearing of Kanes arrest: I know George P. Kane well; he is my friend, and the man who could drag him from the bosom of his family for no crime whatever, but a mere suspicion that he may commit one some time, deserves a dogs death.. The markers are on the south side of Virginia Route 33 in the Swift Run Gap, roughly at the intersection of . Joseph Holt, United States Judge Advocate General, submitted a report in October 1864 that warned Secretary of War Edwin Stanton about the danger of this plot, which he attributed at times to the K.G.C. While the Knights dreamt of a slave empire, their more immediate concern was Mexico. [9], In 1859, future Confederate States Army brigadier general Elkanah Greer established KGC castles in East Texas and Louisiana. Home; Dante Opera. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. The Montreal office seems to have approved the idea, and to have advanced Booth some seed money to organize the plot. [11], With the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, the Texas KGC changed its emphasis from a plan to expand U.S. territory into Mexico in order to focus its efforts on providing support for the Southern States' secession from the Union. [12] On February 15, 1861, Ben McCulloch, United States Marshal and former Texas Ranger, began marching toward the Federal arsenal at San Antonio, Texas, with a cavalry force of about 550 men, about 150 of whom were Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) from six castles. Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley on the 1862 New Mexico Campaign, which sought to bring the New Mexico Territory into the Confederate fold. However, that hasn't stopped some people from suggesting that the organization is still active as an underground society . The new charges, said Lincoln on receiving Hays report, were as puerile as the Knights of the Golden Circle. Treason trials against members of the Sons of Liberty in Indianapolis on the eve of the election of 1864 furnished campaign material for the Republicans. In late May 1864, Booth invested in an oil company in western Pennsylvania. is its contribution to creating the emotional excitement necessary to persuading southerners to rebel against the United States. By 1873 Kane had left the Jones Falls Commission to run successfully for Sheriff of Baltimore. Andrew Saulsbury would one day have yet another grandson, this one named Thomas Armstrong Saulsbury. The Golden Circle is a concept that explains how a business might provide maximum value to consumers by changing the way it thinks. argued that their empire would have a virtual monopoly on the worlds supply of tobacco and sugar and perhaps cotton and have the strength to preserve slavery in the South from constant attacks by northern Abolitionists. Bickley responded by calling a general convention of the K.G.C., which met in Raleigh, North Carolina, on May 711, 1860. Local chapters were known as castles and by the 1860s, Bickley claimed the group had over 100,000 members, but such numbers are almost certainly exaggerated. Bickley of Ohio, a charlatan jack-of-all-trades with . This circle of countries would represent the golden circle of the KGC, the knights of the golden circle. The K.G.C., which boasted some 3,000 members in Baltimore alone, was known to collect dues and initiation fees in the form of gold coinage. By 1858 the Knights of the Golden Circle had bylaws, rituals, and a constitution. His sponsor and Companion Mason was the powerful Albert Pike from Arkansas, soon to be the supreme commander of all Southern Freemasons and the suspected national leader of the Knights of the Golden Circle. This entry belongs to the following Handbook Special Projects: We are a community-supported, non-profit organization and we humbly ask for your support because the careful and accurate recording of our history has never been more important. soon found a new enemy to oppose. David Keehn talked about the secret society known as the Knights of the Golden Circle that sought to establish a slave empire spanning the southern United States, Mexico, Cuba, and the West Indies . KGC Meeting. Wilmer McLean and his family sit on the porch of his house, where Confederate General Robert E. Lee signed the terms of surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865 in Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Library of Congress via Getty ImagesWilmer McLean and his family sit on the porch of his house, where Confederate General Robert E. Lee signed the terms of surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865 in Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Some of that money was set aside (buried) in anticipation of funding Latin American expeditions that never materialized. outdoor artificial palm trees; In 1859 George Bickley, a freebooter and adventurer, launched a fraternal order which proposed the establishment of military colonies of Americans in Mexico. The company was originally called 'Queensland Tropical Fruit Products', with 'Golden Circle' used as their brand name. The companys main factory sat just off Pratt Street by the Inner Harbor, where Captain Mattison docked his ships, and slaves were held in pens to be sold South. Saulsbury felt so indebted to the Armstrongs that he named his first-born son James Armstrong Saulsbury. Despite the hundreds of Knights of the Golden circle who had swarmed near the Mexican border, the invasion never happened. The Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) was a secret military organization created in 1859 by George W. L. Bickley in Cincinnati, Ohio. A group of Knights in New Orleans then publicly attacked him as a liar, coward, and inept leader. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Armstrong, Saulsbury, and the Webbs just werent fellow employees, they were blood brothers in unison for a cause, the Confederate States of America. There were three different types of membership within the Golden Circle: military, financial, and governing. The war ended in Spring, 1865. On May 28, 1856, the Grand Lodge of Missouri issued a charter to Giddings Lodge # 156 at Nebraska City. Omissions? The eventual goal of the plan was the annexation of all of Mexico to the United States. Lincoln rerouted his troops, but they were delayed in reaching D.C., leaving that city open to attack. The Knights of the Golden Circle or KGC were a secret society during the American Civil War period. Many of them were not willing to give it up, however, and dreamt of expanding the use of slaves such that it could never be extricated from them. Although nominally a secret society, the existence of the Knights of the Golden Circle was not, in fact, a secret.Knights of the Golden Circle. decided to send undercover New York City detectives to Baltimore to root out the conspiracy. Some 250,000 to 300,000 oath-bound members were said to have existed in the Midwest. northwestern lacrosse. In 1846, it was revealed that Junius Booth had neglected to divorce his first wife before eloping with his second, Mary Ann, 25 years before. Ollinger Crenshaw, The Knights of the Golden Circle: The Career of George Bickley, American Historical Review, 47 (October 1941). Houston, however, regardless of his interest in annexing Mexico to the United States, could not accept the K.G.C.s anti-Union stance and refused to support its schemes. Warren Getler and Bob Brewer, Rebel Gold: One Mans Quest to Crack the Code Behind the Secret Treasure of the Confederacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004). On May 20, 1863, the creek became the site of the so-called " Battle of Pogue's Run ." At the Indiana State House, approximately 10,000 Democrats including Copperheads and suspected members of the pro-Confederate Knights of the Golden Circle gathered to protest the Lincoln administration. In 1859 George Bickley, a freebooter and adventurer, launched a fraternal order which proposed the establishment of military colonies of Americans in Mexico. ISBN 978--80715-004-7. [15] In May 1861, members of the KGC and the Confederate Rangers attacked a building which housed a pro-Union newspaper, the Alamo Express, owned by J. P. Newcomb, and burned it down. These Knights of the Golden Circle In the decade leading up to the Civil War, a fledgling group called the Knights of the Golden Circle joined forces with a well-establish Southern society known as the Order of the Lone Star.The Knights were the brainchild of George W.L.
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