THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE.
Published: August 30, 1861
http://www.nytimes.com/1861/08/30/news/the-knights-of-the-golden-circle.html
Under this head an article appears in the London Spectator, of Aug. 17, which is of especial interest, as the journal in which it appears is well known to be American property and under American inspiration. It has a prominent place among the articles on the leading topics of the day, which forms a conspicuous and valuable feature of the Spectator, and will be read with interest by men of all hues in politics on this side of the Atlantic;
Just before the descent of LOPEZ on Cuba, the American papers were full of allusions to an association called the Order of the Lone Star, said to be organized for the purpose of conquering Cuba and Nicaragua. M. SOULE was said to be its President, and the appointment of that individual as Minister to Madrid was regarded by the Court of Spain, as a wilful discourtesy. LOPEZ himself belonged to the society, and it was from the ranks of the Order that WALKER obtained his most ardent recruits. After the failure of WALKER's first expedition, the rumors of the society died away, and though its members, under the quaint title of "Precipitators," were supposed to be active in the work of disunion, the society itself, as such, ceased to play any prominent part. The more violent members, however, saw in it a power which might be effectively used, and on the first symptom of the predominance of the Free-Soilers, they organized a new association, under the name of the Knights of the Golden Circle, with new and better defined objects, and an obligation of secrecy. The secret of the Order, however, has been betrayed during the intestine strife raised by disunion in Kentucky, and the revelation exposes a plot which, for audacity, ability and wickedness, has rarely been surpassed in the long history of conspiracy.
The object of the Order may be briefly stated. It is nothing less than to raise an army of 16,000 men for the conquest of Mexico, and the establishment in that vast Territory of a strongly organized monarchy, resting on a basis of slave institutions. The precise mode of accomplishing this object has already been settled. As soon as the internal warfare is over, all members of the Order, under their secret leaders, are to repair to Guanajuato, with the Governor of which province of Mexico, MICHAEL DOBLADO, the Order has concluded a formal treaty. By the provisions of this precious document the Governor is to add 16,000 men of his own, and the entire army is to march forward under his command to the permanent subjugation of the country. Means are found from the revenues of the province, and its State property is "mortgagad" for the payment of the soldiery, at one-eighth above the American rates.
To secure the necessary cohesion, the Order has been organized after this fashion. Every applicant for admission is first sworn to secrecy under the penalty of death, and then the design of the Order is revealed. If he assents to its propriety, and is, moreover, an American born, and a slaveowner, or can produce proof that he is imbued with Southern sentiments, and is a Protestant, he is admitted as a soldier of the Order, and informed of its signs, pass-words, and organization. On the recommendation of the chiefs of the Order he is admitted to the second degree, informed that the stores and ammunition for the Army are collected at Monterey, and acquainted with the names of the officers to whom he is to look for pay. He is also supposed to be on active service, and the President has, we perceive, summoned all Kentuckian members to attend a rendezvous, where they will be drilled and organized by regular instructors, and whence they are, for the present, to control the Kentucky elections in favor of Southern men. If influential enough, he is next admitted to the third degree, the council of the Order, which under the Presidency of Mr. GEORGE BICKLEY, the future monarch, regulates the affairs of the Order, without communication, except through GEORGE BICKLEY, to the other degrees. He swears in this degree to obtain all the neophytes he can, to support his colleagues the Knights of the Columbian Star in all efforts for office, to conquer Mexico and "Southernize" its institutions; to drive all free negroes into Mexico, there to be enslaved, and to reduce the peon population of Mexico to slavery, dividing them as chattels among the members of the Order, and to recognize for the present monarchical institutions, as tending to strong government. Moreover, after the conquest of Mexico, he is to contend for the exclusion of every Roman Catholic from office and from the priesthood, and to support a system of passports enforced by the penalty of death. He again swears to a scheme of government which, from its utter want of resemblance to any American idea, we give entire:
13. The successor to GEORGE BICKLEY must be over thirty years of age, of Southern birth, liberally educated, Knight of the Columbian Star, sound of body and mind, and married, and Protestant. He shall swear to carry out this policy, and to extend Slavery over the whole of Central America if in his power. He shall try to acquire Cuba and control the Gulf of Mexico. No one else will I sustain. But for such a one, who must be proposed by the Cabinet Ministers and elected by all Knights of the Star, or a majority of them, I will sustain here, there, or elsewhere. When the Knights cross the Rio Grande, I will do all I can to send in recruits for the Army, and if I should ever cease to be an active worker for the Star, I will keep secret what I know of the real character of the organization, and I promise never to confer this degree in any other way than in the way I have here received it, and I will forward to GEORGE BICKLEY, or to the Governor-General of this State, the name and fees of every candidate whom I shall initiate as Governor. In witness, I do voluntarily, here and in these presence, sign my name and address."
He is then informed that Mexico can provide any amount of means, that funds to the extent of a million of dollars are lying at Matamoras, and two millions more at Monterey; that the Governor of Guanajuato is rapidly organizing his province for the reception of the Order, and that the march of the invading Army will commence on the 6th of October, 1861.
It reads, all this, rather like a dream of some mad slaveholder than a grave and definite project, which, nevertheless, we believe it to be. The Order is already powerful in the South, the alliance with the Governor is sufficiently probable, and the whole plan is strictly in accordance with the views known to be entertained by the most prominent slaveholders. Nor is the execution of the plan so difficult as to create any prima facie suspicion of falsehood. The South is full of men without slaves, with no place in society, and hungry for profitable adventure. They have been accustomed for years to regard the immense republic to their south, with its vast territory, its real and imaginary wealth, its disorganized government, and powerless white population, as a certain and easy prey. The successful annexation of Texas is a proof of what may be accomplished by a few unscrupulous and resolute men, and the laws of the Order tend directly to secure effective cohesion among its members. Quarreling and seduction are absolutely forbidden, every member is responsible for the orphans of those who fall, and societies released from the law are apt to protect themselves by somewhat effective guarantees for their own extra-legal code. The Order has men at command, so numerous that they are said to be objects of terror in Kentucky, Missouri and Arkansas, and the bribe offered is of stupendous magnitude. It is nothing less than to bestow on 16,000 men a body of slaves equal to the whole slave population of the South, and slaves, too, more easily controlled than the negro race. To men thirsting for ownership, and convinced that Slavery is lawful, the temptation must be almost irresistible, more especially as every American overratesthe case with which Mexico might be subdued. The pure Spaniards and the landed proprietors, utterly weary of anarchy, would probably bail a strong Government of any sort, while the native and quadroon population have never been able to resist the hated and dreaded "North." Of the awful increase of human misery which would follow the conquest it is unnecessary to speak. Slavery, as it exists, is bad enough, but the deliberate addition of 3,750,000 people and their children forever to the ranks of a slave population, is a crime from which the imagination itself recoils. It seems from its very magnitude impossible. CORTEZ, however, conquered these people with far inferior means, and there is no evidence that the Mexican peon of to-day is better able to resist a rifleman than his ancestor was to defeat CORTEZ's heavy armed cavalry. The only element of effective resistance would be the religious fanaticism the laws of the Order are so well adapted to arouse. These laws, however were obviously intended to serve only a tem porary purpose, the exclusion of Catholics being rendered essential by their friendly feeling for Mexico. A priest informed of the design in the confessional would be certain to put the Mexicans on their guard, perhaps cause the arrest of the Governor who is so coolly selling his country. Mexico once conquered, the necessity for the restriction would disappear, and though one of the laws of the Order, an obligation to dissolve all monasteries and open all convents, seems dectated by a real religious dislike, it is difficult to believe that it would endure in spite of the political advantage of tolerance. The whole scheme may be unreal, and the Knights of the Golden Circle as little disposed to fulfill their promises as Masons are to preserve the obligation of Christian brotherhood. But it must not be forgotten that this whatever the truth as to this society, is one of the designs of the South, and that the plan, which thus boldy stated seems incredibly atrocious is part of the permanent policy of the Government which has just won its first battle in front of Manassas Gap. The design, we fear, if the North succumbs, is at once as possible of execution as it is remorselessly wicked in concention
The Knights of the Golden Circle Research and Historical Archives
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http://knights-of-the-golden-circle.blogspot.com
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Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Copperhead Activities
by Dr. John W. Miller
©1996 The Cincinnati Civil War Round Table
Copperhead, a sinister word when used during the time of the War between the States.
It usually struck terror and consternation to the hearts of the Union Administration. A ray of
hope and possibly a way out, to the Confederacy.
The names Copperhead or Butternuts were used to cover all groups of Peace Societies,
Peace Democrats, Peace at any Price, or militant groups working to overthrow the existing
government and interfere by force, or otherwise with the conduct of the War between the States.
They were instrumental in bringing about one of the most controversial issues of the War.
Were they traitors to the Union, or were they people fighting for freedom of action, of speech
and the pursuit of their own convictions?
In the words of Lincoln, "were they testing whether that Nation, or any Nation, so
conceived and so dedicated could long endure."
Many Northern political leaders and writers thought the Slave States had a perfect right to
accede and were glad they were doing so.
Senators and Congressmen made speeches in the Halls of Congress, such as Pendleton,
Long, Greeley and others, that nowhere in our Constitution did it say that any State had agreed or
were they duty bound to remain in the Union if they wished to do otherwise. I do not believe that
our Constitution as it stands today, has any rule or disciplinary action to follow if a State wished
to secede.
In fact, some went so far as to say that in all probability the Founding Fathers had planned
it this way. That if any State in due time felt that they could do better alone or in another group,
they were perfectly free to leave the Union.
The confusion of ideas and impulses in the South was equalled by the hysterical state of the
North in the face of actual secession.
The abolitionists, or most of them, thought that nothing at all ought to be done to bring back
the seceded Statea. They felt that the Northern people should thank God that secession had
helped the Union to get rid of slavery. Horace Greeley wrote ponderously in the New York
Tribune that secession was justifiable, and that he was glad the slave Statea were saying
good-bye. Wendell Phillips delivered an impassioned, erratic speech in which he declared that
a War against the South could end only in disaster. The people of the North would not fight, he
said, and the only result of a War would be the conquest of the North by the South, with slavery
fastened on the country forever.
New York City was a center of disunion sentiment. Its Mayor, Fernando Wood, proposed
in black and white that in case of hostilities, the Metropolis should dissociate itself from the
Uhion and become a free and neutral City. The bankers and politicians whom W. B. Russell met
in New York on his arrival from England held similar views. "They told me", he wrote in the
London Times, "that the majority of the people of New York, and all the respectable people,
were disgusted at the election of such a fellow as Lincoln to be President, and would back the
Southern Statea if it came to a split".
The story of the Copperheads, gaudy with secret symbols, passwords and other
conspiratorial paraphenalia, is bloody and full of mighty terror. Beneath the theatrical props
were real violence and fanticism. The true scope of the Copperheads will probably never be
known. When Richmond was burning, Secretary of State, Judah Benjamin burned the record of
his and Hines' secret dealings with the Copperhead leaders. However, Hines kept copies of
many of his reports and letters, which he sent to his wife with instructions to hide them.
The Knights of the Golden Circle Mayor may not have been the outgrowth of the Southern
Rights Clubs of the 1830's. Six ships, all equipped for piracy, were sent out on the high seas by
the Clubs, but they were seized and burned by the British.
In 1854 a wonderful old humbug, George W. L. Bickley, took over the Clubs and organized
the Knights of the Golden Circle, with headquarters in Cincinnati, Bickley had an impressive
list of medical degrees - all forged, of course, - and a suitcase of secret signs, symbols and a
"book of rites". Under his management the Knights spread like wildfire all through the Cotton
South. From hocuspocus rituals they turned to violence and conquest when they tried to promote
the extension of slavery by the conquest of Mexico.
Secession wee their goal in 1860. "Castles" as the Knights called their lodges, sprang up in
non-seceding States. Bickley, active in this work in Kentucky, was threatened with arrest and
fled to Virginia. But the movement flourished in Kentucky and became a real danger to the Union
Army after war broke out.
Not all the Knights knew the secret aims of their leaders. Many solemnly went through the
fantastic rituals, swore their oaths, believing themselves to be only Democrats preserving the
freedom of the ballot against tyrannica1 Republicans. Only those who took the last two
advanced degrees of the ritual were told - then only orally - of the violent goals their leaders
had set. Armed sentries, sometimes the strength of a full Company, guarded the meeting places.
In Illinois the Knights were openly gathering recruits for the Confederate Army in 1861. In
Iowa they burned the homes of men who joined the Federals. In Des Moines the U. S. Marshall
found evidence that the Knights were gunnrunning into Missouri for Quantrill's guerrillas. In
August, 1862 the Chicago Tribune declared the movement had 20,000 members. Missouri
membership was reported from 10,000 to 60,000 with Castles springing up in every section of
the State.
Althought I find no connection between the two groups, long before the hysteria of
secession and actual warfare which brought the Copperheads into being, a group of men in our
government dreamed of an empire to stabilize slavery in the area. They took the first opportunity
to do just that. Their idea was that an imaginary Golden Circle be drawn, 16 degrees latitude
and 16 degrees longitude, with its center at Havana, Cuba. It reached north into Pennsylvania
and Ohio, also including the slave States, and South - - to the Isthmus of Darien. It embraced the
West Indian Islands and those of the Carribean Sea with a great part of Mexico and Central
America. The idea was, to purchase Cuba if possible, otherwise take it by force. Their first
opportunity came when the U. S. Merchant vessel Black Warrior wee seized and condemned by
authorities at Havana (28th Feb. 1864) for an error in her manifest. A clamor for war with Spain
broke out among expansionists in Congress. Pierre Soule' U. S. Minister to Spain, presented a
claim for damages, followed by an ultimatum demanding immediate satisfaction. Secretary
Marcy checked Soule', and in 1855 the U. S. accepted a Spanish apology and reparation. Soule'
was instructed by Marcy to meet at Ostend, Belgium, with John Y. Mason, and James Buchanan,
U. S. Minister to France and Great Britain, respectively, for the purpose of shaping a policy on
the acquisition of Cuba. The meeting with the approval of President Pierce, resulted in the
Ostend Manifesto. Declaring Cuba indispensable for the security of slavery, the Ministers
recommended that the U. S. should make every effort to buy Cuba, should Spain refuse, "then by
every law, human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from her, if we possessed the
power."
The aggressive pronouncement of the document was the work of Soule'. The document
brought Marcy's disavowal, and Soule' resigned. Publication of the Manifesto aroused Northern
feeling and intensified Spanish resentment of the administration's annexationists policy. The
newly born Republican party pointed to the Manifesto as proof that a Southern-dominated
administration had surrendered to pressure for more slave territory, Buchanan's participation
recommended him to Southern Democrats.
What were the economical and social reasons that made secession seem so important to the
South? And a possible creation of a New Empire?
I find the best estimation of this has been made by the historian Dr. Woodward, and I quote,
- There were somewhere near 1,600,000 white families in the South, lesa than 400,000 held
slaves. Three-fourths of the southern families held no slaves and had no direct interest in its
continuance. About 10,000 families owned the great slave plantations and constituted the
wealthy and ruling class of the slave States and they wanted to keep it that way.
The rank and file of the Copperhead movement were the smaller farmers and poor artisans
of the region, if measured by the accumulation of wealth. They, like the poor whites of the South,
saw another vision from that which was seen by the followers of Lincoln. Why were they so
strong in the middle west? The census of 1860 shows that about 6% of the white population of
Ohio were immigrants or descendants of immigrants from slave States, chiefly, Virginia and
Kentucky, and from 12 to 25% from the same states in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.
The name Copperhead and Butternut, first came into use in 1861 and it depended on which
side you were, as to meaning. If you were a Union sympathizer it was likened to the Copperhead
snake that struck without warring, and the Butternut wood was so soft it was useless. If you
were a Southern aympathlzer, the head cut out of a copper penny indicated freedom, and a
butternut cut in half showed two perfectly shaped hearts joined together which could not be
separated either by law or war.
Different peace societies had many different names: Knights of the Columbian Star,
American Knights and Sons of Liberty, Corps de Belgium, The Democratic Invincible Club,
Democratic Reading Room, Knights of the Mighty Host, Knights of the Circle of Honor and
Mutual Protective Society. These names were obviously used to confuse as to their real
purpose. Their Lodges or Castles, as they were called, were scattered over a number of
Western States. They were strongly entrenched in Southern California, and a number of Lodges
were reported in Michigan, Iowa, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland and
Delaware. In several counties in Pennsylvania and even as far north as Boston, the agents tried
to get a foothold. Who sent these agents out, I have been unable to determine, but they certainly
were active. Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and Ohio were the hot beds of the
Copperhead movement.
By 1863, Vallandigham speaking in Dayton on the strength of the Copperheads, estimated
their number to be 500,000 in the United States, and this according to Judge Advocate Holt was
very near the truth. They were organized in almost every county and by this time had set up a
military organization. Indiana, alone, was divided into four military districts by a man named
Dr. Wm. Bowles, a wealthy physician from French Lick, who planned, when the time came, to
murder all State and City Officials and take over the government. They used the same signs as
the Confederate Army, such as hand-grips, marking houses that were known to be Copperheads
and firing four shots, counting to fifty between shots. When in trouble, the penalty for any traitor
to the Copperhead cause, was to have his body cut into four pieces and cast to the four winds. It
is amazing, in the light of al1 this, that some men had the courage to divulge these and other
secrets and to become Federal counter-spies within the organization. Among them was a young
clerk named Felix Stidger, under order from Col. Carrington, who was the Union Commander at
Indianapolis. If Hines was the Confederacy's most dangerous agent, Stidger was his Northern
counterpart. When Stidger's reports arrived, Col. Carrlngton, a judicious man of sober
judgement thought his investigator's imagination had run away with him. But when Stidger
predicted that certain Federal supply warehouses would be burned, and they were burned, then
Col. Carrington acted.
On March 19, 1863, Col. Carrington, in a direct wire to Lincoln, reported of Morgans next
raid, that he (Morgan), will leave the command and quietly reappear to raise the standard of
revolt in Indiana. Thousands believe this and his photograph was hung in many homes. In some
counties his name was daily praised. It would appear, then, that by this time the purpose of
Morgan's raids had expanded. Now according to Col. Carrington's information, the
Confederates - or at least Morgan - had made some sort of alliance with the Copperheads for a
revolt in the Northwest. On April 1st, Gen. Burnslde, who had been given the command of the
department of Ohio after the Fredericksburg debacle, issued his famous Order No. 38, which
authorized the death penalty for Confederate Couriers carrying secret mails, recruiting officers
of secret societies and "persons found concealed in lines belonging to service of the enemy".
The following day 3,000 wildly chearing Copperheads greeted Vallandigham at an
open-air meeting in Dayton, to watch the former Congressman spit on a copy of the Order and
hear him denounce Gen. Burnside as a "Usurper of American Freedom". That afternoon Gen.
Burnside heard of the speech. He immediately ordered the Provost Marshall of Ohio to arrest
Vallandigham. The hour of midnight was melodramatic enough, but Vallindigham added a few
tricks. Grabbing a pistol and barricading himself and his wife in a bedroom, he fired several
shots from a window, shouting "Asa, Asa, Asa", into the darkness. What the words meant, no
one knows. But it is said they were signals to secret agents who were watching his house night
and day in case a Burnside man attempted to arrest him. The Soldiers smashed in a door,
arrested Vallandigham and took him to a Dayton Military prison. Word swept across the
countryside. In towns and villages men fastened the copper Indian head of a penny in their
lapels, armed themselves with rifles and pistols and marched on Dayton. Thousands streamed
into the City all day, Soldiers with bayonets ringed the jail three deep to stand off the shouting,
jeering mob. When they were usable to break through the ring of steel, the mob led by
Copperhead leaders, took its revenge on the City. Public buildings were burned to the ground,
stores looted, houses broken into and hundreds wounded by stray bullets. In the morning the mob
was gone, leaving behind streets littered with rocks, splintered glass and overturned wagons. A
pall of smoke hung over the City.
Across the sides of many buildings was painted "Release Vallandigham". Vallandigham
was whisked to Cincinnati, where several lawyers of distinction defended him. His defense was
that no Military Court could try him as there was no rebellion in his State. In the newspapers
were frequent accounts of bands of armed men galloping about the squares of small towns, firing
pistols and shouting and cheering for Jeff Davis, John Hunt Morgan and Vallandigham. On May
10th, Vallandigham was convicted, found guilty of treason and sent to Ft. Warren in Boston.
Then Lincoln reviewed his case and decided he, (Vallandigham) could do less harm in exile
than at home. He sent him to Gen. Rosecrans' headquarters to be sent through the lines. On the
25th of May he was taken to Murfreesboro, Tenn., and held there under guard. The next day he
was placed on the Shelbyville Pike and before nine wee riding into the Confederate lines to be
escorted to Gen. Braxton Bragg's headquarters at Shelbyville. On June 2nd Vallandigham left
Gen. Bragg's headquarters for Chattanooga. He next appears in Canada, a man without a country.
Felix Stidger probably did more to bring the Copperhead leaders to trial than any other
man, along with a man named S. P. Coffin, who was not trusted by Copperhead leaders and was
ordered by Dr. Wm. Bowlee to be murdered by Stidger. This did not occur, as Stidger had him
removed in time to save his life. (There were four other detectives working with this group, but
I found no record of their activities.) This gives us an idea of the lengths to which the leaders
would go to gain their ends. The same organization prevailed also in Ohio, Illinois, Missouri
and Kentucky.
In the spring of 1864, Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet, willing to believe almost anything
that would aid the Confederacy, had come to the conclusion from the report of the Copperhead
organization, that it could be of great aid if the Northwest was invaded.
On March 16th of that year (1864), Capt. Thomas Henry Hines and several other officers
chosen by Hines'were detached from Morgan's command and instructed by Jefferson Davis and
Secretary of War Seddon, to proceed to Canada in any manner possible to collect and organize
all Confederate soldiers in that country, most of whom were escaped prisoners. With these men
as agents, he and the officers named Lieutenants Bennett, Martin, Headley, Castleman, Young,
Ashbrook and Thompson, who was already in Canada as Commissioner for the Confederate
government. They were to try to organize the Copperheads into a formal group to aid in what is
now known as the Northwest Conspiracy. At the same time, to show that the feeling was
general, a group of 1,500 men in Holmes County, Ohio, defied the Union troops in Columbus to
come and get them. Troops were dispatched from Columbus and in one charge the so-called
Copperhead "Army" was dispersed. But they gained the name in history of "The Holmes County
Rebellion".
Hines made his first report to Sec'y. of War, Seddon, in June 1864, from Toronto. Hines
reported that he had met Thompson and had been requested by him to "submit to you (Seddon)
the proposed plan for a revolutionary movement in the West".
The two regiments now in the process of formation in Chicago, will be placed under
my command, to move upon Camp Douglas and free the prisoners. Simultaneously
with this movement, the Democrats in every county of Illinois, and portions of Indiana
and Ohio will rally to arms. A force of 3,000 Democrats under a competent leader
will march upon Rock Island for the release of the 7,000 prisoners at that place. The
remainder will concentrate upon Chicago and Springfield. State governments of
Indiana, Ohio and Illinois wilt be seized and their executives disposed of. By this
means we hope to have, within 10 days after the movement has begun, a force of
50,000 men. We hope to make a certainty of releasing the prisoners.
Perhaps this dispatch best shows the narrow-mindedness, the provincialism, found in many of
the leaders of the Confederacy. They could never understand that Lincoln's high ideals of "Union
Forever" really inspired a large section of the North. It was this blind prejudice which made
them believe that they could overthrow the Republic. Relying on the ignorance and credulity of
men, in the end they deceived only themselves.
At about the same time that Hines was planning to move on Chicago, Capt. Castleman on
Rock Island, a group under Capt. Robt. M. Martin attempted to burn New York City. Capt.
Kennedy was captured and executed for his part in the New York City conflicts and other spy
work. Another group under John Yates Beall tried to capture the U.S.S. Michigan, the only
gun-boat on the Lakes, raid the Lake Cities and storm the Johnson Island prison. Beall was
captured and executed for his part. Lt. Bennett H. Young robbed three St. Alban's balks, Cal.
Martin and Dr. John W. Headley planned and attempted to kidnap Vice-President Andrew
Johnson in Louisville.
On the 29th day of Aug. 1864 the Democratic Convention was held in Chicago, which was
also to be the time for the uprising of the Copperhead group, but owing to the great number of
Union soldiers in the City, the plan had to be given up to be tried at another time. A very bitter
disappointment to the Confederate leaders.
In the early fall of 1864, the plan of Capt. Thomas H. Hines to bring revolution to the
Northwest received its most severe blow. Carefully conceal- ing the identity of his counter-spy,
Felix Stidger, Col. Carrington, Union Commander at Indianapolis, in one swoop arrested H. H.
Dodd, Dr. Wm. A. Bowles, L. Milligan and other Copperhead leaders in the State. Col.
Carrington made sure there were no leaks in his command. He gathered together a picked band
of provost marshals and detectives and at a melodramatic midnight meeting handed out the arrest
warrants in sealed envelopes. In isolated farmhouses, secret hideouts and City flats, men were
taken from their beds. They were forced to listen in sleepy bewilderment as the warrants
charging treason were read to them, then they were hustled off to the military prison. More than
30,000 rifles, revolvers and cane of powder were found under floors, in hay- stacks, and in
graveyards. The Indianapolis trials opened in early October. Bowles, Dodd, Milligan and the
others entered the court room, which was packed with their friends, all hostile to the
Commission. Outside soldiers stood guard, their bayonets keeping at bay the hundreds who
milled about, "shouting that Bowles and Dodd and the rest must be freed or they would have
their vengeance". The military tribunal was sworn in and took their seats. The first witness
shook the court room. He was Felix Stidger, former Grand Secretary of the Sons of Liberty, and
second in command only to Bowles. Stidger testified for two hours. A recess was taken until the
next day. The following morning the Judge Advocate rose to announce to the court that Dodd had
escaped at 4 o'clock by sliding down to the ground from the second floor by means of a rope
"furnished by his immediate friends". Bowles and Milligan were sentenced to be executed by
hanging. Gallows were erected on the parade ground of Camp Chase. The State bubbled with
excitement. Riders of the "Sons of Liberty" galloped along roads and lanes, calling the faithful
to arms. Men drilled openly in the yards of schoolhouses, behind churches or on village greens.
As Col. Carrington reported, "The State is ripe for revolution". Col. Carrington and even Gov.
Morton and Democrats of both factions sent telegrams to Seward and Stanton, predicting that
widespread rioting and blood- shed would follow the hangings. But at the 11th hour, Lincoln
acted. The death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment and order slowly returned to
the State.
The humiliating failure of the attempted insurrection during the Democratic national
convention in Aug. 1864, convinced the Confederate commissioners in Canada that the Sons of
Liberty could not be depended upon to lead a revolutionary movement in the Northwest ...
Captains Hines, Cantrill, Anderson and a few of the Confederate officers who still lingered in
the vicinity of Chicago, did not consider the situation so hopeless. They continued to believe
that members of the secret organization could be used to advantage in fomenting a revolution in
the rear of the Union armies. They conferred with some of the more radical peace men and found
that they were still disposed to assist in an attack on Camp Douglas for the purpose of releasing
prisoners.
Tuesday, Nov. 8, 1864, the night of the Presidential election, was selected as the time for
this second attempt. Public interest at that time, they thought, would be centered on the result of
the election and the presence of a large body of men from southern Illinois, members of the Sons
of liberty and southern sympathizers, would not create any suspicion in a city the size of
Chicago. Furthermore, the garrison at Camp Douglas had been reduced to 800 men, chiefly of
the veteran reserve corps, with Col. E. J. Sweet, commanding. At this time the prisoners
numbered between 8,000 and 9,000 Confederates, many of whom were reckless bushwhackers
from Morgan's band of raiders. Captain Hines was confident, that if these men could be set at
liberty, they would create consternation in the northwest.
The small Chicago contingent, in the meantime, was employed in the purchase of arms, and
the manufacture of ammunition. The home of Charles Walsh, one of the most active of the Sons
of Liberty, who lived within a block of Camp Douglas was made the store house and the factory
for these amateur revolutionists. The campaign was to be under the direction of Captains Hines
and Fielding, Colonels George St. Leger Grenfel, and Vincent Marmaduke. The plans in general
were the same as those adopted for the uprising on Aug. 29, with the exception that the field of
operation was to include only Indiana and Illinois. At a given signal on the night of election
Camp Douglas was to be attacked from three sides and the Confederate prisoners were to rise in
revolt and overpower the guards; arms were to be seized in different parts of the city; telegraph
wires were to be cut, banks robbed, and a band sent west to free the prisoners at Rock Island
and seize the arsenal. These things accomplished, the forces were to move through Indiana and
Illinois, accumulat- ing strength as the proceeded south, to a chosen rendezvous on the Ohio
where a junction was to be made with the Confederate forces under Forrest, then in Kentucky.
There was some reason for their confidence in a successful attack on Camp Douglas, for,
according to Cal. Sweet's testimony, there were not more than 250 men on duty at any one time.
The Camp, including an area of 60 acres, was surrounded by a board fence 12 ft. high and could
be easily assailed from either side. A band of 500 men on the outside, working in conjunction
with 8,000 seasoned Confederate soldiers on the inside, could readily overpower so small a
garrison. Moreover, the time chosen was a most seasonable one. In the midst of the rejoicing
over the result of the election the firing of signal rockets would not be noticed and the presence
of the citizens down town would leave the region about the Camp practically free of inhabitants.
But the Confederate leaders were again at fault in their estimation of the character of the
men with whom they had to deal. Informers were within their own camp. A majority of the
members of the Sons of Liberty were men of smell calibre and little honor and they admitted
into their confidence - - men who had no scruples against the role of informer. These men
offered to report the transactions of the order for a stipulated sum per report. Col. Sweet
employed not only these men, but two Confederates who were willing to betray their comrades.
(John T. Shanks and Maurice Langhoon.) To verify the reports of these informers he enlisted the
services of Col. Thomas H. Keefe, of the war department secret service, and Capt. E R.P.
Shurly of the veteran reserve corps, acting adjutant general at Camp Douglas. Since the fiasco of
Aug. 29th, Col. Sweet had not ceased his vigilance. He learned through these agents that the plan
for the release of prisoners had not been abandoned . . . At his request Gen. Hooker, commander
of the department, came to Chicago to confer with him. A number of conferences were held with
the military, State and City authorities, all of whom were convinced that a plot for the release of
the prisoners was developing.
The election, it will be remembered, was to take place on Tuesday, Nov. 8th. On the 5th,
Col. Sweet was informed of the arrival of a large number of suspicious characters from Fayette
and Christian counties. On Sunday, the 6th, it became evident that additional bands had arrived
in the city, many of whom were escaped Confederate prisoners of war and soldiers of the rebel
army. Colonel Sweet delayed making any arrests, hoping that by Monday, the 7th, all the leaders
and many more of the men and arms of the expedition might be captured. But he decided, as he
says in his report, that "the great interests involved would scarcely justify taking the inevitable
risks of postponement". He, therefore, sent a dispatch to Brigadier General John Cook,
commanding the district of Illinois, urging him to send reinforcements at once.
Col. Sweet made arrangements at once for a raid on the conspirators. Col. Lewis C.
Skinner, commander of the Eighth Veteran Reserve Corps, was sent with a squad of 50 men to
search and guard the house of Charles Walsh, another squad, under command of Capt.
Pettiplace, was sent to surround the Richmond House, While a third detachment of 100 men,
under Capt. Strong, marched into the heart of the City to preserve order and arrest suspects.
After some difficulty Col. Skinner gained admittance to Walsh's house where he arrested Walsh
and three of the Confederate Officers - Captains Cantrill, Travers, and Daniel. At the Richmond
House, Col. St. Leger Grenfel and J. T. Shanks were arrested - the latter for mere form's sake,
for he was employed by Col. Sweet to spy on Grenfel. At the home of Dr. E. W. Edwards, 70
Adams St., Col. Marmaduke and Capt. Hines were known to be stopping. The former was
arrested, but the latter (Hines) eluded Detective Keefe. Judge Buckner C. Morris, treasurer of
the Sons of Liberty, was next arrested at his home. All of these arrests were completed before
Monday morning, Nov. 7th.
These prisoners were examined at Camp Douglas by Col. Sweet and his assistants The
testimnyy convinced him that the Sons of Liberty furnished the inspiration for this attempted
insurrection and that some of the leaders were in consultation with the rebel officers. These
arrests completely crushed
The Knights of the Golden Circle Research and Historical Archives
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Knights_of_the_Golden_Circle
http://knights-of-the-golden-circle.blogspot.com
http://knightsofthegoldencircle.webs.com
by Dr. John W. Miller
©1996 The Cincinnati Civil War Round Table
Copperhead, a sinister word when used during the time of the War between the States.
It usually struck terror and consternation to the hearts of the Union Administration. A ray of
hope and possibly a way out, to the Confederacy.
The names Copperhead or Butternuts were used to cover all groups of Peace Societies,
Peace Democrats, Peace at any Price, or militant groups working to overthrow the existing
government and interfere by force, or otherwise with the conduct of the War between the States.
They were instrumental in bringing about one of the most controversial issues of the War.
Were they traitors to the Union, or were they people fighting for freedom of action, of speech
and the pursuit of their own convictions?
In the words of Lincoln, "were they testing whether that Nation, or any Nation, so
conceived and so dedicated could long endure."
Many Northern political leaders and writers thought the Slave States had a perfect right to
accede and were glad they were doing so.
Senators and Congressmen made speeches in the Halls of Congress, such as Pendleton,
Long, Greeley and others, that nowhere in our Constitution did it say that any State had agreed or
were they duty bound to remain in the Union if they wished to do otherwise. I do not believe that
our Constitution as it stands today, has any rule or disciplinary action to follow if a State wished
to secede.
In fact, some went so far as to say that in all probability the Founding Fathers had planned
it this way. That if any State in due time felt that they could do better alone or in another group,
they were perfectly free to leave the Union.
The confusion of ideas and impulses in the South was equalled by the hysterical state of the
North in the face of actual secession.
The abolitionists, or most of them, thought that nothing at all ought to be done to bring back
the seceded Statea. They felt that the Northern people should thank God that secession had
helped the Union to get rid of slavery. Horace Greeley wrote ponderously in the New York
Tribune that secession was justifiable, and that he was glad the slave Statea were saying
good-bye. Wendell Phillips delivered an impassioned, erratic speech in which he declared that
a War against the South could end only in disaster. The people of the North would not fight, he
said, and the only result of a War would be the conquest of the North by the South, with slavery
fastened on the country forever.
New York City was a center of disunion sentiment. Its Mayor, Fernando Wood, proposed
in black and white that in case of hostilities, the Metropolis should dissociate itself from the
Uhion and become a free and neutral City. The bankers and politicians whom W. B. Russell met
in New York on his arrival from England held similar views. "They told me", he wrote in the
London Times, "that the majority of the people of New York, and all the respectable people,
were disgusted at the election of such a fellow as Lincoln to be President, and would back the
Southern Statea if it came to a split".
The story of the Copperheads, gaudy with secret symbols, passwords and other
conspiratorial paraphenalia, is bloody and full of mighty terror. Beneath the theatrical props
were real violence and fanticism. The true scope of the Copperheads will probably never be
known. When Richmond was burning, Secretary of State, Judah Benjamin burned the record of
his and Hines' secret dealings with the Copperhead leaders. However, Hines kept copies of
many of his reports and letters, which he sent to his wife with instructions to hide them.
The Knights of the Golden Circle Mayor may not have been the outgrowth of the Southern
Rights Clubs of the 1830's. Six ships, all equipped for piracy, were sent out on the high seas by
the Clubs, but they were seized and burned by the British.
In 1854 a wonderful old humbug, George W. L. Bickley, took over the Clubs and organized
the Knights of the Golden Circle, with headquarters in Cincinnati, Bickley had an impressive
list of medical degrees - all forged, of course, - and a suitcase of secret signs, symbols and a
"book of rites". Under his management the Knights spread like wildfire all through the Cotton
South. From hocuspocus rituals they turned to violence and conquest when they tried to promote
the extension of slavery by the conquest of Mexico.
Secession wee their goal in 1860. "Castles" as the Knights called their lodges, sprang up in
non-seceding States. Bickley, active in this work in Kentucky, was threatened with arrest and
fled to Virginia. But the movement flourished in Kentucky and became a real danger to the Union
Army after war broke out.
Not all the Knights knew the secret aims of their leaders. Many solemnly went through the
fantastic rituals, swore their oaths, believing themselves to be only Democrats preserving the
freedom of the ballot against tyrannica1 Republicans. Only those who took the last two
advanced degrees of the ritual were told - then only orally - of the violent goals their leaders
had set. Armed sentries, sometimes the strength of a full Company, guarded the meeting places.
In Illinois the Knights were openly gathering recruits for the Confederate Army in 1861. In
Iowa they burned the homes of men who joined the Federals. In Des Moines the U. S. Marshall
found evidence that the Knights were gunnrunning into Missouri for Quantrill's guerrillas. In
August, 1862 the Chicago Tribune declared the movement had 20,000 members. Missouri
membership was reported from 10,000 to 60,000 with Castles springing up in every section of
the State.
Althought I find no connection between the two groups, long before the hysteria of
secession and actual warfare which brought the Copperheads into being, a group of men in our
government dreamed of an empire to stabilize slavery in the area. They took the first opportunity
to do just that. Their idea was that an imaginary Golden Circle be drawn, 16 degrees latitude
and 16 degrees longitude, with its center at Havana, Cuba. It reached north into Pennsylvania
and Ohio, also including the slave States, and South - - to the Isthmus of Darien. It embraced the
West Indian Islands and those of the Carribean Sea with a great part of Mexico and Central
America. The idea was, to purchase Cuba if possible, otherwise take it by force. Their first
opportunity came when the U. S. Merchant vessel Black Warrior wee seized and condemned by
authorities at Havana (28th Feb. 1864) for an error in her manifest. A clamor for war with Spain
broke out among expansionists in Congress. Pierre Soule' U. S. Minister to Spain, presented a
claim for damages, followed by an ultimatum demanding immediate satisfaction. Secretary
Marcy checked Soule', and in 1855 the U. S. accepted a Spanish apology and reparation. Soule'
was instructed by Marcy to meet at Ostend, Belgium, with John Y. Mason, and James Buchanan,
U. S. Minister to France and Great Britain, respectively, for the purpose of shaping a policy on
the acquisition of Cuba. The meeting with the approval of President Pierce, resulted in the
Ostend Manifesto. Declaring Cuba indispensable for the security of slavery, the Ministers
recommended that the U. S. should make every effort to buy Cuba, should Spain refuse, "then by
every law, human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from her, if we possessed the
power."
The aggressive pronouncement of the document was the work of Soule'. The document
brought Marcy's disavowal, and Soule' resigned. Publication of the Manifesto aroused Northern
feeling and intensified Spanish resentment of the administration's annexationists policy. The
newly born Republican party pointed to the Manifesto as proof that a Southern-dominated
administration had surrendered to pressure for more slave territory, Buchanan's participation
recommended him to Southern Democrats.
What were the economical and social reasons that made secession seem so important to the
South? And a possible creation of a New Empire?
I find the best estimation of this has been made by the historian Dr. Woodward, and I quote,
- There were somewhere near 1,600,000 white families in the South, lesa than 400,000 held
slaves. Three-fourths of the southern families held no slaves and had no direct interest in its
continuance. About 10,000 families owned the great slave plantations and constituted the
wealthy and ruling class of the slave States and they wanted to keep it that way.
The rank and file of the Copperhead movement were the smaller farmers and poor artisans
of the region, if measured by the accumulation of wealth. They, like the poor whites of the South,
saw another vision from that which was seen by the followers of Lincoln. Why were they so
strong in the middle west? The census of 1860 shows that about 6% of the white population of
Ohio were immigrants or descendants of immigrants from slave States, chiefly, Virginia and
Kentucky, and from 12 to 25% from the same states in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.
The name Copperhead and Butternut, first came into use in 1861 and it depended on which
side you were, as to meaning. If you were a Union sympathizer it was likened to the Copperhead
snake that struck without warring, and the Butternut wood was so soft it was useless. If you
were a Southern aympathlzer, the head cut out of a copper penny indicated freedom, and a
butternut cut in half showed two perfectly shaped hearts joined together which could not be
separated either by law or war.
Different peace societies had many different names: Knights of the Columbian Star,
American Knights and Sons of Liberty, Corps de Belgium, The Democratic Invincible Club,
Democratic Reading Room, Knights of the Mighty Host, Knights of the Circle of Honor and
Mutual Protective Society. These names were obviously used to confuse as to their real
purpose. Their Lodges or Castles, as they were called, were scattered over a number of
Western States. They were strongly entrenched in Southern California, and a number of Lodges
were reported in Michigan, Iowa, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland and
Delaware. In several counties in Pennsylvania and even as far north as Boston, the agents tried
to get a foothold. Who sent these agents out, I have been unable to determine, but they certainly
were active. Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and Ohio were the hot beds of the
Copperhead movement.
By 1863, Vallandigham speaking in Dayton on the strength of the Copperheads, estimated
their number to be 500,000 in the United States, and this according to Judge Advocate Holt was
very near the truth. They were organized in almost every county and by this time had set up a
military organization. Indiana, alone, was divided into four military districts by a man named
Dr. Wm. Bowles, a wealthy physician from French Lick, who planned, when the time came, to
murder all State and City Officials and take over the government. They used the same signs as
the Confederate Army, such as hand-grips, marking houses that were known to be Copperheads
and firing four shots, counting to fifty between shots. When in trouble, the penalty for any traitor
to the Copperhead cause, was to have his body cut into four pieces and cast to the four winds. It
is amazing, in the light of al1 this, that some men had the courage to divulge these and other
secrets and to become Federal counter-spies within the organization. Among them was a young
clerk named Felix Stidger, under order from Col. Carrington, who was the Union Commander at
Indianapolis. If Hines was the Confederacy's most dangerous agent, Stidger was his Northern
counterpart. When Stidger's reports arrived, Col. Carrlngton, a judicious man of sober
judgement thought his investigator's imagination had run away with him. But when Stidger
predicted that certain Federal supply warehouses would be burned, and they were burned, then
Col. Carrington acted.
On March 19, 1863, Col. Carrington, in a direct wire to Lincoln, reported of Morgans next
raid, that he (Morgan), will leave the command and quietly reappear to raise the standard of
revolt in Indiana. Thousands believe this and his photograph was hung in many homes. In some
counties his name was daily praised. It would appear, then, that by this time the purpose of
Morgan's raids had expanded. Now according to Col. Carrington's information, the
Confederates - or at least Morgan - had made some sort of alliance with the Copperheads for a
revolt in the Northwest. On April 1st, Gen. Burnslde, who had been given the command of the
department of Ohio after the Fredericksburg debacle, issued his famous Order No. 38, which
authorized the death penalty for Confederate Couriers carrying secret mails, recruiting officers
of secret societies and "persons found concealed in lines belonging to service of the enemy".
The following day 3,000 wildly chearing Copperheads greeted Vallandigham at an
open-air meeting in Dayton, to watch the former Congressman spit on a copy of the Order and
hear him denounce Gen. Burnside as a "Usurper of American Freedom". That afternoon Gen.
Burnside heard of the speech. He immediately ordered the Provost Marshall of Ohio to arrest
Vallandigham. The hour of midnight was melodramatic enough, but Vallindigham added a few
tricks. Grabbing a pistol and barricading himself and his wife in a bedroom, he fired several
shots from a window, shouting "Asa, Asa, Asa", into the darkness. What the words meant, no
one knows. But it is said they were signals to secret agents who were watching his house night
and day in case a Burnside man attempted to arrest him. The Soldiers smashed in a door,
arrested Vallandigham and took him to a Dayton Military prison. Word swept across the
countryside. In towns and villages men fastened the copper Indian head of a penny in their
lapels, armed themselves with rifles and pistols and marched on Dayton. Thousands streamed
into the City all day, Soldiers with bayonets ringed the jail three deep to stand off the shouting,
jeering mob. When they were usable to break through the ring of steel, the mob led by
Copperhead leaders, took its revenge on the City. Public buildings were burned to the ground,
stores looted, houses broken into and hundreds wounded by stray bullets. In the morning the mob
was gone, leaving behind streets littered with rocks, splintered glass and overturned wagons. A
pall of smoke hung over the City.
Across the sides of many buildings was painted "Release Vallandigham". Vallandigham
was whisked to Cincinnati, where several lawyers of distinction defended him. His defense was
that no Military Court could try him as there was no rebellion in his State. In the newspapers
were frequent accounts of bands of armed men galloping about the squares of small towns, firing
pistols and shouting and cheering for Jeff Davis, John Hunt Morgan and Vallandigham. On May
10th, Vallandigham was convicted, found guilty of treason and sent to Ft. Warren in Boston.
Then Lincoln reviewed his case and decided he, (Vallandigham) could do less harm in exile
than at home. He sent him to Gen. Rosecrans' headquarters to be sent through the lines. On the
25th of May he was taken to Murfreesboro, Tenn., and held there under guard. The next day he
was placed on the Shelbyville Pike and before nine wee riding into the Confederate lines to be
escorted to Gen. Braxton Bragg's headquarters at Shelbyville. On June 2nd Vallandigham left
Gen. Bragg's headquarters for Chattanooga. He next appears in Canada, a man without a country.
Felix Stidger probably did more to bring the Copperhead leaders to trial than any other
man, along with a man named S. P. Coffin, who was not trusted by Copperhead leaders and was
ordered by Dr. Wm. Bowlee to be murdered by Stidger. This did not occur, as Stidger had him
removed in time to save his life. (There were four other detectives working with this group, but
I found no record of their activities.) This gives us an idea of the lengths to which the leaders
would go to gain their ends. The same organization prevailed also in Ohio, Illinois, Missouri
and Kentucky.
In the spring of 1864, Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet, willing to believe almost anything
that would aid the Confederacy, had come to the conclusion from the report of the Copperhead
organization, that it could be of great aid if the Northwest was invaded.
On March 16th of that year (1864), Capt. Thomas Henry Hines and several other officers
chosen by Hines'were detached from Morgan's command and instructed by Jefferson Davis and
Secretary of War Seddon, to proceed to Canada in any manner possible to collect and organize
all Confederate soldiers in that country, most of whom were escaped prisoners. With these men
as agents, he and the officers named Lieutenants Bennett, Martin, Headley, Castleman, Young,
Ashbrook and Thompson, who was already in Canada as Commissioner for the Confederate
government. They were to try to organize the Copperheads into a formal group to aid in what is
now known as the Northwest Conspiracy. At the same time, to show that the feeling was
general, a group of 1,500 men in Holmes County, Ohio, defied the Union troops in Columbus to
come and get them. Troops were dispatched from Columbus and in one charge the so-called
Copperhead "Army" was dispersed. But they gained the name in history of "The Holmes County
Rebellion".
Hines made his first report to Sec'y. of War, Seddon, in June 1864, from Toronto. Hines
reported that he had met Thompson and had been requested by him to "submit to you (Seddon)
the proposed plan for a revolutionary movement in the West".
The two regiments now in the process of formation in Chicago, will be placed under
my command, to move upon Camp Douglas and free the prisoners. Simultaneously
with this movement, the Democrats in every county of Illinois, and portions of Indiana
and Ohio will rally to arms. A force of 3,000 Democrats under a competent leader
will march upon Rock Island for the release of the 7,000 prisoners at that place. The
remainder will concentrate upon Chicago and Springfield. State governments of
Indiana, Ohio and Illinois wilt be seized and their executives disposed of. By this
means we hope to have, within 10 days after the movement has begun, a force of
50,000 men. We hope to make a certainty of releasing the prisoners.
Perhaps this dispatch best shows the narrow-mindedness, the provincialism, found in many of
the leaders of the Confederacy. They could never understand that Lincoln's high ideals of "Union
Forever" really inspired a large section of the North. It was this blind prejudice which made
them believe that they could overthrow the Republic. Relying on the ignorance and credulity of
men, in the end they deceived only themselves.
At about the same time that Hines was planning to move on Chicago, Capt. Castleman on
Rock Island, a group under Capt. Robt. M. Martin attempted to burn New York City. Capt.
Kennedy was captured and executed for his part in the New York City conflicts and other spy
work. Another group under John Yates Beall tried to capture the U.S.S. Michigan, the only
gun-boat on the Lakes, raid the Lake Cities and storm the Johnson Island prison. Beall was
captured and executed for his part. Lt. Bennett H. Young robbed three St. Alban's balks, Cal.
Martin and Dr. John W. Headley planned and attempted to kidnap Vice-President Andrew
Johnson in Louisville.
On the 29th day of Aug. 1864 the Democratic Convention was held in Chicago, which was
also to be the time for the uprising of the Copperhead group, but owing to the great number of
Union soldiers in the City, the plan had to be given up to be tried at another time. A very bitter
disappointment to the Confederate leaders.
In the early fall of 1864, the plan of Capt. Thomas H. Hines to bring revolution to the
Northwest received its most severe blow. Carefully conceal- ing the identity of his counter-spy,
Felix Stidger, Col. Carrington, Union Commander at Indianapolis, in one swoop arrested H. H.
Dodd, Dr. Wm. A. Bowles, L. Milligan and other Copperhead leaders in the State. Col.
Carrington made sure there were no leaks in his command. He gathered together a picked band
of provost marshals and detectives and at a melodramatic midnight meeting handed out the arrest
warrants in sealed envelopes. In isolated farmhouses, secret hideouts and City flats, men were
taken from their beds. They were forced to listen in sleepy bewilderment as the warrants
charging treason were read to them, then they were hustled off to the military prison. More than
30,000 rifles, revolvers and cane of powder were found under floors, in hay- stacks, and in
graveyards. The Indianapolis trials opened in early October. Bowles, Dodd, Milligan and the
others entered the court room, which was packed with their friends, all hostile to the
Commission. Outside soldiers stood guard, their bayonets keeping at bay the hundreds who
milled about, "shouting that Bowles and Dodd and the rest must be freed or they would have
their vengeance". The military tribunal was sworn in and took their seats. The first witness
shook the court room. He was Felix Stidger, former Grand Secretary of the Sons of Liberty, and
second in command only to Bowles. Stidger testified for two hours. A recess was taken until the
next day. The following morning the Judge Advocate rose to announce to the court that Dodd had
escaped at 4 o'clock by sliding down to the ground from the second floor by means of a rope
"furnished by his immediate friends". Bowles and Milligan were sentenced to be executed by
hanging. Gallows were erected on the parade ground of Camp Chase. The State bubbled with
excitement. Riders of the "Sons of Liberty" galloped along roads and lanes, calling the faithful
to arms. Men drilled openly in the yards of schoolhouses, behind churches or on village greens.
As Col. Carrington reported, "The State is ripe for revolution". Col. Carrington and even Gov.
Morton and Democrats of both factions sent telegrams to Seward and Stanton, predicting that
widespread rioting and blood- shed would follow the hangings. But at the 11th hour, Lincoln
acted. The death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment and order slowly returned to
the State.
The humiliating failure of the attempted insurrection during the Democratic national
convention in Aug. 1864, convinced the Confederate commissioners in Canada that the Sons of
Liberty could not be depended upon to lead a revolutionary movement in the Northwest ...
Captains Hines, Cantrill, Anderson and a few of the Confederate officers who still lingered in
the vicinity of Chicago, did not consider the situation so hopeless. They continued to believe
that members of the secret organization could be used to advantage in fomenting a revolution in
the rear of the Union armies. They conferred with some of the more radical peace men and found
that they were still disposed to assist in an attack on Camp Douglas for the purpose of releasing
prisoners.
Tuesday, Nov. 8, 1864, the night of the Presidential election, was selected as the time for
this second attempt. Public interest at that time, they thought, would be centered on the result of
the election and the presence of a large body of men from southern Illinois, members of the Sons
of liberty and southern sympathizers, would not create any suspicion in a city the size of
Chicago. Furthermore, the garrison at Camp Douglas had been reduced to 800 men, chiefly of
the veteran reserve corps, with Col. E. J. Sweet, commanding. At this time the prisoners
numbered between 8,000 and 9,000 Confederates, many of whom were reckless bushwhackers
from Morgan's band of raiders. Captain Hines was confident, that if these men could be set at
liberty, they would create consternation in the northwest.
The small Chicago contingent, in the meantime, was employed in the purchase of arms, and
the manufacture of ammunition. The home of Charles Walsh, one of the most active of the Sons
of Liberty, who lived within a block of Camp Douglas was made the store house and the factory
for these amateur revolutionists. The campaign was to be under the direction of Captains Hines
and Fielding, Colonels George St. Leger Grenfel, and Vincent Marmaduke. The plans in general
were the same as those adopted for the uprising on Aug. 29, with the exception that the field of
operation was to include only Indiana and Illinois. At a given signal on the night of election
Camp Douglas was to be attacked from three sides and the Confederate prisoners were to rise in
revolt and overpower the guards; arms were to be seized in different parts of the city; telegraph
wires were to be cut, banks robbed, and a band sent west to free the prisoners at Rock Island
and seize the arsenal. These things accomplished, the forces were to move through Indiana and
Illinois, accumulat- ing strength as the proceeded south, to a chosen rendezvous on the Ohio
where a junction was to be made with the Confederate forces under Forrest, then in Kentucky.
There was some reason for their confidence in a successful attack on Camp Douglas, for,
according to Cal. Sweet's testimony, there were not more than 250 men on duty at any one time.
The Camp, including an area of 60 acres, was surrounded by a board fence 12 ft. high and could
be easily assailed from either side. A band of 500 men on the outside, working in conjunction
with 8,000 seasoned Confederate soldiers on the inside, could readily overpower so small a
garrison. Moreover, the time chosen was a most seasonable one. In the midst of the rejoicing
over the result of the election the firing of signal rockets would not be noticed and the presence
of the citizens down town would leave the region about the Camp practically free of inhabitants.
But the Confederate leaders were again at fault in their estimation of the character of the
men with whom they had to deal. Informers were within their own camp. A majority of the
members of the Sons of Liberty were men of smell calibre and little honor and they admitted
into their confidence - - men who had no scruples against the role of informer. These men
offered to report the transactions of the order for a stipulated sum per report. Col. Sweet
employed not only these men, but two Confederates who were willing to betray their comrades.
(John T. Shanks and Maurice Langhoon.) To verify the reports of these informers he enlisted the
services of Col. Thomas H. Keefe, of the war department secret service, and Capt. E R.P.
Shurly of the veteran reserve corps, acting adjutant general at Camp Douglas. Since the fiasco of
Aug. 29th, Col. Sweet had not ceased his vigilance. He learned through these agents that the plan
for the release of prisoners had not been abandoned . . . At his request Gen. Hooker, commander
of the department, came to Chicago to confer with him. A number of conferences were held with
the military, State and City authorities, all of whom were convinced that a plot for the release of
the prisoners was developing.
The election, it will be remembered, was to take place on Tuesday, Nov. 8th. On the 5th,
Col. Sweet was informed of the arrival of a large number of suspicious characters from Fayette
and Christian counties. On Sunday, the 6th, it became evident that additional bands had arrived
in the city, many of whom were escaped Confederate prisoners of war and soldiers of the rebel
army. Colonel Sweet delayed making any arrests, hoping that by Monday, the 7th, all the leaders
and many more of the men and arms of the expedition might be captured. But he decided, as he
says in his report, that "the great interests involved would scarcely justify taking the inevitable
risks of postponement". He, therefore, sent a dispatch to Brigadier General John Cook,
commanding the district of Illinois, urging him to send reinforcements at once.
Col. Sweet made arrangements at once for a raid on the conspirators. Col. Lewis C.
Skinner, commander of the Eighth Veteran Reserve Corps, was sent with a squad of 50 men to
search and guard the house of Charles Walsh, another squad, under command of Capt.
Pettiplace, was sent to surround the Richmond House, While a third detachment of 100 men,
under Capt. Strong, marched into the heart of the City to preserve order and arrest suspects.
After some difficulty Col. Skinner gained admittance to Walsh's house where he arrested Walsh
and three of the Confederate Officers - Captains Cantrill, Travers, and Daniel. At the Richmond
House, Col. St. Leger Grenfel and J. T. Shanks were arrested - the latter for mere form's sake,
for he was employed by Col. Sweet to spy on Grenfel. At the home of Dr. E. W. Edwards, 70
Adams St., Col. Marmaduke and Capt. Hines were known to be stopping. The former was
arrested, but the latter (Hines) eluded Detective Keefe. Judge Buckner C. Morris, treasurer of
the Sons of Liberty, was next arrested at his home. All of these arrests were completed before
Monday morning, Nov. 7th.
These prisoners were examined at Camp Douglas by Col. Sweet and his assistants The
testimnyy convinced him that the Sons of Liberty furnished the inspiration for this attempted
insurrection and that some of the leaders were in consultation with the rebel officers. These
arrests completely crushed
The Knights of the Golden Circle Research and Historical Archives
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Knights_of_the_Golden_Circle
http://knights-of-the-golden-circle.blogspot.com
http://knightsofthegoldencircle.webs.com
Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War by David C. Keehn is now available via Project Muse. Project Muse is available only to select Universities for use by scholars, faculty and students and is accessed only by registered users at those Universities through verified IP addresses.
Project MUSE is a leading provider of digital humanities and social science content for the scholarly community. Since 1995 the MUSE journal collections have supported a wide array of research needs at academic, public, special, and school libraries worldwide. MUSE is the trusted source of complete, full-text versions of scholarly journals from many of the world's leading university presses and scholarly societies, with over 120 publishers currently participating. UPCC Book Collections on Project MUSE, launched in January 2012, offer top quality book-length scholarship, fully integrated with MUSE's scholarly journal content.
Our Mission:
Project MUSE's mission is to excel in the broad dissemination of high-quality scholarly content. Through innovation and collaborative development, Project MUSE anticipates the needs of and delivers essential resources to all members of the scholarly community.
An Essential Resource
High quality, peer-reviewed, stable content
Content written by the most prestigious authors and scholars in their fields
Books and journals from non-profit scholarly publishers, including university presses and societies
Once content goes online in MUSE, it stays online, permanently
Designed by the academic community, for the academic community
Founded as a non-profit collaboration between libraries and publishers
Affordable tiered pricing structure enables libraries to customize their offering
License designed with library needs in mind
User-friendly platform for research and discovery
Search books and journals in one place and at the same time
Linking relationships with indexing/abstracting/search services facilitate access to MUSE content
Alerts and social networking options for sharing discoveries with colleagues
Free access to book and journal Tables of Contents and sample full-text journal articles and book chapters without a subscription.
http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780807150054
Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War
By David C. Keehn
Publication Year: 2013
Based on years of exhaustive and meticulous research, David C. Keehn’s study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret southern society that initially sought to establish a slave-holding empire in the “Golden Circle” region of Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. Keehn reveals the origins, rituals, structure, and complex history of this mysterious group, including its later involvement in the secession movement. Members supported southern governors in precipitating disunion, filled the ranks of the nascent Confederate Army, and organized rearguard actions during the Civil War. The Knights of the Golden Circle emerged around 1858 when a secret society formed by a Cincinnati businessman merged with the pro-expansionist Order of the Lone Star, which already had 15,000 members. The following year, the Knights began publishing their own newspaper and established their headquarters in Washington, D. C. In 1860, during their first attempt to create the Golden Circle, several thousand Knights assembled in southern Texas to “colonize” northern Mexico. Due to insufficient resources and organizational shortfalls, however, that filibuster failed. Later, the Knights shifted their focus and began pushing for disunion, spearheading pro-secession rallies, and intimidating Unionists in the South. They appointed regional military commanders from the ranks of the South’s major political and military figures, including men such as Elkanah Greer of Texas, Paul J. Semmes of Georgia, Robert C. Tyler of Maryland, and Virginius D. Groner of Virginia. Followers also established allies with the South’s rabidly pro-secession “fire-eaters,” which included individuals such as Barnwell Rhett, Louis Wigfall, Henry Wise, and William Yancey. According to Keehn, the Knights likely carried out a variety of other clandestine actions before the Civil War, including attempts by insurgents to take over federal forts in Virginia and North Carolina, the activation of pro-southern militia around Washington, D. C. and a planned assassination of Abraham Lincoln as he passed through Baltimore in early 1861 on the way to his inauguration. Once the fighting began, the Knights helped build the emerging Confederate Army and assisted with the pro-Confederate Copperhead movement in northern states. With the war all but lost, various Knights supported one of their members, John Wilkes Booth, in his plot to abduct and assassinate President Lincoln. Keehn’s fast-paced, engaging narrative demonstrates that the Knights proved more substantial than historians have traditionally assumed and provides a new perspective on southern secession and the outbreak of the Civil War
The Knights of the Golden Circle Research and Historical Archives
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Knights_of_the_Golden_Circle
http://knights-of-the-golden-circle.blogspot.com
http://knightsofthegoldencircle.webs.com
Project MUSE is a leading provider of digital humanities and social science content for the scholarly community. Since 1995 the MUSE journal collections have supported a wide array of research needs at academic, public, special, and school libraries worldwide. MUSE is the trusted source of complete, full-text versions of scholarly journals from many of the world's leading university presses and scholarly societies, with over 120 publishers currently participating. UPCC Book Collections on Project MUSE, launched in January 2012, offer top quality book-length scholarship, fully integrated with MUSE's scholarly journal content.
Our Mission:
Project MUSE's mission is to excel in the broad dissemination of high-quality scholarly content. Through innovation and collaborative development, Project MUSE anticipates the needs of and delivers essential resources to all members of the scholarly community.
An Essential Resource
High quality, peer-reviewed, stable content
Content written by the most prestigious authors and scholars in their fields
Books and journals from non-profit scholarly publishers, including university presses and societies
Once content goes online in MUSE, it stays online, permanently
Designed by the academic community, for the academic community
Founded as a non-profit collaboration between libraries and publishers
Affordable tiered pricing structure enables libraries to customize their offering
License designed with library needs in mind
User-friendly platform for research and discovery
Search books and journals in one place and at the same time
Linking relationships with indexing/abstracting/search services facilitate access to MUSE content
Alerts and social networking options for sharing discoveries with colleagues
Free access to book and journal Tables of Contents and sample full-text journal articles and book chapters without a subscription.
http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780807150054
Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War
By David C. Keehn
Publication Year: 2013
Based on years of exhaustive and meticulous research, David C. Keehn’s study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret southern society that initially sought to establish a slave-holding empire in the “Golden Circle” region of Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. Keehn reveals the origins, rituals, structure, and complex history of this mysterious group, including its later involvement in the secession movement. Members supported southern governors in precipitating disunion, filled the ranks of the nascent Confederate Army, and organized rearguard actions during the Civil War. The Knights of the Golden Circle emerged around 1858 when a secret society formed by a Cincinnati businessman merged with the pro-expansionist Order of the Lone Star, which already had 15,000 members. The following year, the Knights began publishing their own newspaper and established their headquarters in Washington, D. C. In 1860, during their first attempt to create the Golden Circle, several thousand Knights assembled in southern Texas to “colonize” northern Mexico. Due to insufficient resources and organizational shortfalls, however, that filibuster failed. Later, the Knights shifted their focus and began pushing for disunion, spearheading pro-secession rallies, and intimidating Unionists in the South. They appointed regional military commanders from the ranks of the South’s major political and military figures, including men such as Elkanah Greer of Texas, Paul J. Semmes of Georgia, Robert C. Tyler of Maryland, and Virginius D. Groner of Virginia. Followers also established allies with the South’s rabidly pro-secession “fire-eaters,” which included individuals such as Barnwell Rhett, Louis Wigfall, Henry Wise, and William Yancey. According to Keehn, the Knights likely carried out a variety of other clandestine actions before the Civil War, including attempts by insurgents to take over federal forts in Virginia and North Carolina, the activation of pro-southern militia around Washington, D. C. and a planned assassination of Abraham Lincoln as he passed through Baltimore in early 1861 on the way to his inauguration. Once the fighting began, the Knights helped build the emerging Confederate Army and assisted with the pro-Confederate Copperhead movement in northern states. With the war all but lost, various Knights supported one of their members, John Wilkes Booth, in his plot to abduct and assassinate President Lincoln. Keehn’s fast-paced, engaging narrative demonstrates that the Knights proved more substantial than historians have traditionally assumed and provides a new perspective on southern secession and the outbreak of the Civil War
The Knights of the Golden Circle Research and Historical Archives
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Knights_of_the_Golden_Circle
http://knights-of-the-golden-circle.blogspot.com
http://knightsofthegoldencircle.webs.com
Monday, May 20, 2013
What we thought: 150 years ago
By From the editorial archives of Sauk Valley Media
Monday, May 20, 2013
The Gazette
May 16, 1863
Bishop dared to do his patriotic duty
Disloyalty rebuked
Bishop Symit, the Roman Catholic bishop of Dubuque, a week ago last Sunday afternoon openly denounced the secret order of the Knights of the Golden Circle.
In his character as a confessor, he had learned of its existence there, and that its object was evil towards our government. He at once exposed it, and told his hearers that those of them who had been duped into joining this conspiracy should come forth from it immediately.
He gave all such members of his church two weeks to leave it. All who then continued in it, would be excommunicated. The bishop then appealed to his hearers to stand by the government, and not to be led by the wicked politicians in any schemes for its overthrow.
Dubuque is the headquarters of the Knights in Iowa, and this blow from a quarter whence they little expected it, is a crushing one on their schemes of wickedness.
All honor to the bishop who dares to do his duty and openly rebuke the doings of this treasonable organization.
Serves him right
[Clement] Vallandigham, the great Copperhead mogul, has been sentenced to the Tortugas for two years by Gen. Burnside. He can there talk treason to lizards and tadpoles to his heart’s content.
The sentence is a just one, and all loyal men will endorse Gen. Burnside for it; but it shows he has little respect for the natural inhabitants of that pleasant locality.
Good bye, Val; our love to your future comrades.
P.S. – The Philadelphia Inquirer of the 14th says that the president has changed the sentence by sending Vallandigham south during the war. Conscientious Lincoln.
The original Copperhead
The first Copperhead, without doubt, made his appearance in the Garden of Eden.
The first, however, that made his appearance in this country was Benedict Arnold.
On the 20th of October, 1780, while the war of the Revolution was progressing, he issued a “proclamation to the citizens and soldiers of the United States,” appealing to them to turn against Washington, Hancock and their compatriots, just as certain politicians are now appealing to the people to turn against the government.
Meagher bows out
Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher, the renowned Irish orator and gallant commander of the Irish Brigade, has tendered his resignation. The brigade has been so reduced by repeated conflicts in the Army of the Potomac that it now numbers less than one thousand men, and the general does not wish to risk the lives of the remaining few by asking them to follow where he may choose to lead.
He does not, however, withdraw from the service, but offers himself to the government in another capacity.
Stonewall’s death
Late Richmond papers confirm the reports of the death of [Confederate Gen.] Stonewall Jackson. He died on Sunday last, from the effects of the amputation of his left arm, and pneumonia.
http://www.saukvalley.com/2013/05/14/from-our-archives-bishop-dared-to-do-his-patriotic-duty/abh9ww5/
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Secession, Civil War by David C. Keehn
There is another presentation in Richmond, Virginia as well:
Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Secession, Civil War
Thursday, June 13 (noon)
By David C. KeehnBanner Lecture Series
Thursday, June 13 (noon)
By David C. KeehnBanner Lecture Series
The Knights of the Golden Circle was a mysterious southern-based society that set out in 1859 to establish a slave empire in Mexico. In late 1860, it shifted its focus to supporting the secession movement and intimidating Unionists in the South. According to David Keehn, once the war began, the Knights helped build up the nascent Confederate army and carried out various clandestine actions, including an attempt to assassinate Abraham Lincoln as he passed through Baltimore in 1861. Keehn, an attorney from Allentown, Pa., is the author of Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War.
Tickets are $4-$6
Virginia Historical Society
428 North Boulevard
Richmond, Virginia
23220
Tel: 804.358.4901
Friday, May 17, 2013
Knights of the Golden Circle Bar and Grill
If you find yourself going to Bismark Missouri you might want to plan your trip around the opening of the new "Knights of the Golden Circle Bar and Grill".
We will give you more details later.
We will give you more details later.
David C. Keehn will speak before the Filson Historical Society
Author David C. Keehn will speak before the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Kentucky on May 21st. Mr. Keehn, I believe, has written the most comprehensive authoritative book on the history of the Knights of the Golden Circle to date and if you are in this area I urge you to attend this meeting.
Reservations are required.
Filson Historical Society
1310 S. Third St., Louisville, KY, 40208
“Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War”
– David C. Keehn
Based on years of exhaustive and meticulous research, David C. Keehn’s study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret southern society that initially sought to establish a slave-holding empire in the “Golden Circle” region of Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. Keehn reveals the origins, rituals, structure, and complex history of this mysterious group, including its later involvement in the secession movement.
David C. Keehn is an attorney from Allentown, Pennsylvania, with a history degree from Gettysburg College and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.
Start: May 21, 2013 6:00 pm
End: May 21, 2013 7:00 pm
Venue: The Filson Historical Society
Phone: 502-635-5083
Address: 1310 S. Third Street
Louisville, KY, 40208
Cost: $5.00 for non-members
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Knights of the Golden Circle, David C. Keehn
Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War
Video streaming by Ustream
Knights of the Golden Circle, David C. Keehn
"The Knights of the Golden Circle was a secret Southern society that sought to establish a slave-holding empire in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America.
Join us on Wednesday, May 1, at noon as author David C. Keehn provides the first comprehensive analysis of the society and how they carried out clandestine actions to support the southern cause. Even with the war all but lost, various Knights supported one of its members, John Wilkes Booth, in his plot to assassinate President Lincoln.
(If you aren’t in DC, you can watch line on our Ustream channel. The program will also be archived later on that page.)
The public program is free and will be held in the National Archives in Washington, DC. Enter through the Special Events door on Constitution and Seventh.
A book signing will follow the program. "
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Short History of the Golden Circle by Occidental Dissent
Caveat Lector
ccc
South Carolina
This is a topic that OD (Occidental Dissent) will be returning to at some point in the future:
Short History of the Golden Circle
Posted on May 8, 2013 by Hunter Wallace
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