Friday, February 28, 2014

Knights of the Golden Circle In Situ

Knights of the Golden Circle were fighting for a cause. The establishment of a new nation was that cause and that nation would include but not be limited to areas known as the Golden Crescent. To be successful at hunting their sights, I have found you must consider their purpose. The James Brothers were not the outlaws recorded history designates them to be, but were employees and zealous members of a cause. I was involved with a group years back that had a document showing the monthly stipend that Jesse James received from the KGC. Jesse and Frank were members of their local Baptist church, both were in the choir and Frank even held the position of treasurer! So their larceny was not for wealth, but for their agenda.
Research the groups of that time period such as the KKK (a police arm for the KGC), the Sons of Liberty, the Copperheads, and other secret societies of that time period. Many members of one group were also members of a second secret society. Come to know their names and see where they traveled, positions in local politics, benevolent societies, etc. Come to know their habits, etc. Check out where they stayed and their land holdings (either theirs or any company they were related with). Then begin to see the land they owned, where they stayed and what they did within the light of their cause! Why did Jesse and the gang go all the way to Minnesota to rob a bank when they were traveling south all those times? Do you see how you must observe the large picture before you try to locate a cache area? Even if you have sign in a small area, stand back and get an overview. Most times, signs are on the way to treasure, not on top of the treasure. (X never, never, never marks the spot!) Ask yourself, why were they hiding this particular cache? Was it for easy access and quick recovery? Was it because they intended long term storage for future use? Was it hidden quickly to keep it out of the hands of their enemy? If you can discover this, then you have a leg up in the recovery.
The Knights of the Golden Circle were great deceivers. Knowledge of their operations, signs and methodology has never been openly revealed, but is learned here a little and there a little. When researching their modus operandi and operations, there are several places to search. Local histories, both oral and written, are invaluable. Check with local and national historical societies, museums and senior citizens. Go to the nursing homes and enquire of the oldest citizens what the observations mean that you have noticed. “I saw a pair of boots nailed to the fencepost over at the old Jackson place. Why would someone do that?” I will tell you this, if you are in Arkansas and see that pair of boots, don’t go on that land! Keep walking on past that property without stopping in. By the way, these seasoned citizens want to talk to others, pass on their knowledge, and it will lift their spirits as well. So do a good deed for them while finding out additional information for your project.
Search them out under several groups, perhaps some local names that are not used elsewhere. More popular names such as Sons of Liberty, Copperheads, etc. reveal the international involvement but local groups also carried on the cause. Check out their old secret meeting places. Watch for signs in trees, rocks, rocks laid out in a pattern and if you discover an old ladies outhouse, check for signs around that. How can you tell if it was a ladies? In those days the outhouses were marked on the entry door. The men’s room featured a star on the door and the ladies room featured a crescent moon on the door. I have found meeting information etc. is usually near the ladies outhouse. I am not sure why but I believe it to be due to gentlemen not going near the established ladies room so it was easier to post notifications that are more public and retain secrecy. In those days, ladies did not participate in insurrections as a whole; it was primarily men.

Call for free consultation if you have questions on a KGC Treasure site, 480 463 7464 

Thursday, February 27, 2014

More Negros in the Ku Klux Klan


From
"Jesse James and the Lost Cause"
by Jesse Lee James, published  by Pageant Press, New York, 1961.

Excerpt:  (Near St. Clair, Texas) "...It was right there, at this spot, that we  decided then and there we would join the secret military police  system of the old Southland. That organization was the original Klu- Klux-Klan. Some of us were already members of The Knights of the  Golden Circle. A brand new idea came into being, since our faithful  Negro cooks and camp tenders had helped us without fear. We elected  to include into the Klu-Klux-Klan as many trusted Negroes as we could  gather around us, so believe it or not, in time we had enlisted and trained nearly twenty thousand Negro KKK's into our police system, so  they, the Negroes, could police and supervise their own race of  people, thus freeing us for the more dangerous and critical details  in dealing with the renegade whites, and those lousy Carpetbaggers."

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

Negros in the Ku Klux Klan



I wanted to bring this to your attention because here is an unrelated source that gives some credence to a statement found in the book "Jesse James Was One of His Names" by Del Schrader.

 Excerpt: Chapter 8 - The Odyssey of John Wilkes Booth
"Not many people in either the North or South knew that right after the end of the Civil War we recruited twenty-thousand Negro KKK members. They were the most intelligent and reliable blacks we could find. Our theory was that Negroes would take orders easier from other Negroes. They weren't burning crosses or flogging, they were giving counsel and even financial help to the freed, but bewildered slaves. They kept busy knocking stupid ideas out of Negro heads put there by unscrupulous Carpetbaggers."

Compare the statement from the book with the article written below.

Negro Members of the KKK
Updated 3/27/10
http://www.kkklan.com/negroklan.htm

My first source of Negro Klan membership is the book, "The Ku Klux Spirit", by J.A. Rogers, noted Negro historian of the 1920's. The Ku Klux Spirit was first published in 1923, by Messenger Publishing Co. It was republished in 1980, by Black Classic Press. On page 34 of his book we find the amazing passage: "A fact not generally known is that there were thousands of Negro Klansmen. These were used as spies on other Negroes and on Northern Whites."

    Very interesting. In the 1920's, there were plenty of original Klansmen still living as well as many other people of both races who lived during the Reconstruction Era. J.A. Rogers would have been able to interview many. Why would a Black historian make such a thing up? And if he did make it up there would have been plenty of people who would have objected. His book would not have survived to this day. Yet, it did.

    My second source is a book written by a Carpetbagger, Albion Winegar Tourgee (1838-1905). In 1880 he published his book, "A Fool's Errand", (New York: Fords, Howard and Hubert). It was republished in 1989 by Louisiana State University Press as, "The Invisible Empire". On page 79 of his book we find the passage: "There were no Colored men in the band (of Klansmen) that night. Their hands were not covered. I could see their boots and pants, and I could judge from their hands and feet. Most of them were genteel people, besides being white people. I could also have told by their language if there had been any Colored people among them. Their language was that of white men, and cultivated men."

   OK, why claim that no Colored men were riding with the Klan that night unless the witness had seen Colored men with the Klan on another occasion? The men were in their robes since the witness had to look at their uncovered hands to see that no Colored men were among them. If he's not telling the truth, why would a Carpetbagger, of all people, ever make such a thing up?

     My third source is, "Ku Klux Klan, It's Origins, Growth, and Disbandment", by J.C. Lester (one of the six original founders of the first Ku Klux Klan) and D.L. Wilson (another early Klansman). The book was first published in 1884. (I have an original copy). Reprints of this book are available from us for $7.00. The book was re-printed in 1905. In that edition, Walter L. Fleming, Ph.D., added an introduction. Again in 1905, there were still plenty of original Klansmen and others who had lived during the Reconstruction Era. In the introduction we find Fleming's statement: "Many of the genuine Unionists later joined in the movement (the KKK), and there were some few Negro members, I have been told."

   Now here we are told that there were "some few Negro members". Above we were told that there "were thousands of Negro Klansmen." But that is relative. When one considers that the original KKK had over 400,000 members "some few Negro members" could have totaled several thousand!

    My fourth source is an more modern book, "Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography", by Jack Hurst. On page 305 we find this interesting quote: "...(the Klan was) reorganized to oppose radical proponents (the Radical Republicans) of what it perceived to be Black domination, NOT to scourge Blacks themselves. Although it has been written that Ku Klux Klan ranks were open only to the more than 100,000 honorably discharged ex-Confederate veterans, the hierarchy in some areas and some instances seems to have accepted and even recruited Blacks, provided they went along with Conservative-Democratic political philosophy. In Memphis of late 1868, sixty-five Blacks organized a "Colored Democratic Club" under the watchful eye of Klansman-editor Gallaway - - who according to an account in the Appeal, "made a motion on behalf of the White men present, that they give employment and protection to Colored democrats."

    So, the Klan not only accepted and recruited Blacks in some areas, but a Klan leader made a motion that White men give employment and protection to Colored democrats. That in itself speaks volumes. Yes, volumes of ignored facts of Klan, Negro, and American history.

    That is all I have for documentation that there were Negro members of the original Ku Klux Klan. But, that in itself, is enough to prove their existence! The only thing to do now is to discover more documentation of what may very well be the least known chapter in Black  American history. I said before that Americans do not know their own history. In time I will add this to my web page, but how many of you know that there were millions of White slaves (not bonded servants, but true slaves for life) in this country? That there were free Negroes who owned slaves? That there were free Negroes who fought gallantly for the Confederate States? That the Confederate Army did not discriminate against, or pay unequally its Negro soldiers? This and more, in time will be added. But for now, back to the Klan.

    When the Klan was revived in 1915 it was originally just for Protestant White men. In time the Klan added the Women of the Ku Klux Klan, teenager and children's groups, groups for the foreign born and Colored men.

     Concerning the Colored Klansmen of the 20th century my first source is, "Women of the Klan, Racism and Gender in the 1920's", by Kathleen M. Blee. (1991, University of California Press). On page 169, we find the passage, " Even more strangely, the Klan tried to organize an order of Black Protestants, a Klan "Colored division" in Indiana and other states. Despite promises that the new order would have "all the rights of membership" of the White Klan, much preparation went into ensuring that the values of white supremacy would be preserved as the Klan expanded its racial base. The group was to wear red robes, white capes, and blue masks and was prohibited from being seen in public with White Klansmen or handling any membership funds."

   Well, if any of you ever find such a red, white, and blue robe in an antique shop or old trunk somewhere it would be as significant an historical find as discovering an original Klan robe. Likewise with any photos of the Colored Klansmen, newspapers articles, or anything else pertaining to them. Let me know if you do. (I think I'll make a couple reproductions of their robes for display.) It is presently unknown just how far the Colored Man's Klan went or how long they lasted. When the men's Klan had to disband in 1944, the separate Women of the Ku Klux Klan organization did not. They changed their name to the Women's Christian Patriotic Association and continued up to the 1960's. Could this order of Black Protestants have changed its name and still be with us to this day with its origins unknown to historians as well as its own present members?

    Now to further add to this my next source of information is from the KKK, itself. In their book, "K.K.K. Friend or Foe: Which?", by attorney Blaine Mast and published in 1924 a chapter is dedicated to discussing the KKK and its relationship to the Black population. In this chapter we see the passage:

   "The KKK claims that there is no good reason why the Colored people may not form a Ku Klux Klan of their own, and, as far as the writer knows, such an institution may exist in America. Indeed, we were credibly informed that some months ago a Klan gathering took place in an adjoining state, which was attended by some 20 colored men, for a general invitation had been extended. Those Negroes were so favorably impressed with what a distinguished speaker said, and with the general character and demeanor of the meeting, that they approached the speaker and others in authority and inquired if it were not possible for the Colored people to form a Klan of their own race. If they could get permission to organize they were anxious to do so and hoped for assistance from the officers of the KKK. So, in this particular instance, at least, some Colored men had no fear in associating with Klansmen."

   The chapter then went on to outline the ground work for such a Black Klan. It is of interest that in the same book, another chapter is dedicated to discussing the possible formation of a Jewish branch of the Ku Klux Klan. A reprint of this book is available from us for $7.00.

    We have recently made a new historical find concerning Negroes in the KKK that you will find surprising. It appears that in some cases Whites and Blacks belonged to the same local chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. Our source of information is from the book: Hard Times by Studs Terkel (1970, New York). The book is about the conditions in this country during the Great Depression. On page 239 we read:

    "The Ku Klux was formed on behalf of people that wanted a decent living, both black and white. Half the coal camp was colored. It wasn't anti-colored. The black people had the same responsibilities as the white. Their lawn was just as green as the white man's. They got the same rate of pay. There was two colored who belonged to it. I remember those two coming around my father and asking questions about it. They joined. The pastor of our community church was a colored man. He was Ku Klux. It was the only protection the working man had. ....... One time a Negro slapped a white boy. They didn't give him any warning. They whipped him and ran him out of town. If a white man slapped a colored kid, they'd have dome the same thing. They didn't go in for beating up Negroes because they were Negroes. What they did was keep the community decent to live in. What they did object to was obscenity and drinking."
http://www.kkklan.com/negroklan.htm

KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE


 The Knights of the Golden Circle or K.G.C. had its beginnings in the formation of Southern Rights Clubs in various southern cities in the mid-1830s. These clubs were inspired by the philosophies of John C. Calhoun (1782–1850). Calhoun had an illustrious political career serving as a congressman from his home state of South Carolina, a state legislator, vice president under the administrations of both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, and a U. S. senator. In addition to the Southern Rights Clubs, which advocated the re-establishment of the African slave-trade, some of the inspiration for the Knights may have come from a little-known secret organization called the Order of the Lone Star, founded in 1834, which helped orchestrate the successful Texas Revolution resulting in Texas independence from Mexico in 1836. Even before that, the K.G.C.'s roots went back to the Sons of Liberty of the American Revolutionary period.

The Knights of the Golden Circle was reorganized in Lexington, Kentucky, on July 4, 1854, by five men, whose names have been lost to history, when Virginia-born Gen. George W. L. Bickley (1819–1867) requested they come together. Strong evidence suggests that Albert Pike (1809–1891) was the genius behind the influence and power of the Masonic-influenced K.G.C., while Bickley was the organization's leading promoter and chief organizer for the K.G.C. lodges, what they called “Castles,” in several states. During his lifetime, Boston-born Pike was an author, educator, lawyer, Confederate brigadier general, newspaper editor, poet, and a Thirty-third Degree Mason. From its earliest roots in the Southern Rights Clubs in 1835, the Knights of the Golden Circle was to become the most powerful secret and subversive organization in the history of the United States with members in every state and territory before the end of the Civil War. The primary economic and political goal of this organization was to create a prosperous, slave-holding Southern Empire extending in the shape of a circle from their proposed capital at Havana, Cuba, through the southern states of the United States, Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. The plan also called for the acquisition of Mexico which was then to be divided into fifteen new slave-holding states which would shift the balance of power in Congress in favor of slavery. Facing the Gulf of Mexico, these new states would form a large crescent. The robust economy the KGC hoped to create would be fueled by cotton, sugar, tobacco, rice, coffee, indigo, and mining. These seven industries would employ slave labor.

In early 1860 newspapers across the country reported that the Knights of the Golden Circle were recruiting troops in numerous cities to send to Brownsville, Texas, for the planned invasion of Mexico. History is unclear about what went wrong with this invasion, but most historians agree that the well-laid plans never materialized and the invasion never happened. Some say that it failed because George Bickley was unable to provide adequate troops and supplies, but with a civil war looming on the horizon, the invasion’s failure may have been caused by the K.G.C. leaders believing they could not go to war on two fronts simultaneously. They called off their plans for Mexico and started preparing for war with the North.

When tensions between the North and South were at a breaking point and the Civil War had not yet begun, the Knights of the Golden Circle held their convention in Raleigh, North Carolina, from May 7–11, 1860. George W. L. Bickley, as president of the K.G.C., presided at this historic event. The records of this convention have survived until the present day and provide an excellent view of this order's divisions or degrees, goals, accomplishments, and size.

The K.G.C.'s first division was described as being "absolutely a Military Degree." The first division is further divided into two classes: the Foreign and Home Guards. The Foreign Guards class was the K.G.C.'s army and was composed of those who wanted "to participate in the wild, glorious and thrilling adventures of a campaign in Mexico." Those of the second class or Home Guards had two functions: to provide for the army's needs and "to defend us from misrepresentation during our absence."

The second division or class was also divided into two classes which were the Foreign and Home Corps. The Foreign Corps was to become the order's commercial agents, postmasters, physicians, ministers, and teachers and to perform the other occupations that were vital to the achievement of K.G.C. goals. The second class of this degree was the Home Corps. Their job was to advise and to forward money, arms, ammunition, and other necessary provisions needed by the organization and its army and to send recruits as rapidly as possible.

The two classes of the third division or degree were the Foreign and Home Councils. The third division is described in the convention's records as being "the political or governing division." The responsibilities of the Foreign Council were governmental, and it was divided into ten departments similar to those of the United States federal government.

One little-known historical fact that is presented in the records from the 1860 K.G.C. convention is that the Knights had their own well-organized army in 1860, before the Civil War had even begun, so they were prepared in the event of war with the North. In May of 1860 the Knights of the Golden Circle reported a total membership of 48,000 men from the North, who supported "the constitutional rights of the South," as well as men from the South, with an army of "less than 14,000 men" and new recruits joining at a rapid rate.

Shortly before the Civil War began, the state of Texas was the greatest source of this organization's strength. Texas was home for at least thirty-two K.G.C. castles in twenty-seven counties, including the towns of San Antonio, Marshall, Canton, and Castroville. Evidence suggests that San Antonio may have served as the organization’s national headquarters for a time.

The South began to secede from the Union in January 1861, and in February of that year, seven seceding states ratified the Confederate Constitution and named Jefferson Davis as provisional president. The Knights of the Golden Circle became the first and most powerful ally of the newly-created Confederate States of America.

Before the Civil War officially started on April 12, 1861, when shots were fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and before Texas had held its election on the secession referendum on February 23, 1861, Texas volunteer forces, which included 150 K.G.C. soldiers under the command of Col. Ben McCulloch, forced the surrender of the federal arsenal at San Antonio that was under the command of Bvt. Maj. Gen. David E. Twiggs on February 15, 1861. Knights of the Golden Circle who were involved in this mission included Capt. Trevanion Teel, Sgt. R. H. Williams, John Robert Baylor, and Sgt. Morgan Wolfe Merrick. Following this quick victory, volunteers who were mostly from K.G.C. companies, forced the surrender of all federal posts between San Antonio and El Paso.

Perhaps the best documentation as to the power and influence of the Knights of the Golden Circle during the Civil War is The Private Journal and Diary of John H. Surratt, The Conspirator which was written by John Harrison Surratt and later edited by Dion Haco and published by Frederic A. Brady of New York in 1866. In this journal, Surratt goes into great detail when describing how he was introduced to the K.G.C. in the summer of 1860 by another Knight, John Wilkes Booth, and inducted into this mysterious organization on July 2, 1860, at a castle in Baltimore, Maryland. Surratt describes the elaborate and secret induction ceremony and its rituals and tells that cabinet members, congressmen, judges, actors, and other politicians were in attendance. Maybe the most significant revelation of Surratt's diary is that the Knights of the Golden Circle began plotting to kidnap Abraham Lincoln in 1860, before Lincoln was even inaugurated in 1861, and continued throughout the Civil War, resulting in President Lincoln's assassination by fellow Knight Booth on April 14, 1865.

After trying unsuccessfully to peacefully resolve the conflicts between North and South, the Knights of the Golden Circle threw its full support behind the newly-created Confederate States of America and added its trained military men to the Confederate States Army. Several Confederate military groups during the Civil War were composed either totally or in large part of members of the Knights of the Golden Circle. One notable example of K.G.C. military participation in the Civil War included the Confederate's Western Expansion Movement of 1861 and 1862 led by Lt. Col. John Robert Baylor and Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley.

In 1861 Albert Pike travelled to Indian Territory and negotiated an alliance with Cherokee Chief Stand Watie. Prior to the beginning of hostilities, Pike helped Watie to become a Thirty-second Degree Scottish Rite Mason. Watie was also in the K.G.C., and he was later commissioned a colonel in command of the First Regiment of Cherokee Mounted Rifles. In May 1864 Chief Watie was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the Confederate States Army making him the only Native American of this rank in the Confederate Army. Watie's command was to serve under CSA officers Albert Pike, Benjamin McCulloch, Thomas Hindman, and Sterling Price. They fought in engagements in Indian Territory, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, and Missouri.

One of the most feared organizations of all Confederates, whose members were in large part Knights of the Golden Circle, was what was called Quantrill's Guerrillas or Quantrill's Raiders. The Missouri-based band was formed in December 1861 by William Clark Quantrill and originally consisted of only ten men who were determined to right the wrongs done to Missourians by Union occupational soldiers. Their mortal enemies were the Kansas Jayhawkers and the Red Legs who were the plague of Missouri. As the war raged on in Missouri and neighboring states, Quantrill's band attracted hundreds more men into its ranks. Quantrill's Guerrillas became an official arm of the Confederate Army after May 1862, when the Confederate Congress approved the Partisan Ranger Act. Other leaders of Quantrill's Guerrillas included William C. “Bloody Bill” Anderson, David Pool, William Gregg, and George Todd. Some of the major engagements this deadly guerrilla force participated in included the Lawrence, Kansas, raid on August 21, 1863, the battle near Baxter Springs, Kansas, in October 1863, and two battles at and near Centralia in Missouri in September of 1864. The bulk of Quantrill's band wintered in Grayson County, Texas, from 1861 through 1864.

The K.G.C. played the major role in what is referred to as the Northwest Conspiracy. The Confederate plan was to use the great numbers of Knights in the Northern states to foster a revolution that would spread across Indiana, Illinois, New York, Ohio, and any other state in the North where it was feasible. The Baker-Turner Papers, part of the U.S. War Department’s conspiracy files, revealed much of the history of this widespread movement but were kept sealed for ninety years. James D. Horan, the first person ever allowed access to the U.S. War Department's Civil War conspiracy files and the Baker-Turner Papers in the early 1950s, published Confederate Agent: A Discovery in History in 1954, which details the Northwest Conspiracy. His work used these previously-sealed documents and information gathered by numerous investigators, including the private papers of Capt. Thomas H. Hines, C.S.A., of Kentucky, who was the mastermind behind the huge conspiracy.

Throughout the Civil War, one of the Knights of the Golden Circle's most important roles came in its infiltration of Union forces. Nowhere in the country was this influence more apparent than in the state of Missouri where K.G.C. members filled the ranks of the Enrolled Missouri Militia which was commonly known as the Paw Paw Militia. A newspaper article from the Daily Times of Leavenworth, Kansas, July 29, 1864, serves as a good example in their interview with a member of the Paw Paw named Andrew E. Smith. Smith said:

I am 22 years old and live in Platte county, about two miles west of Platte City I was a member of Captain Johnston's company of Pawpaw militia, under Major Clark, and served about six months.... I am a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle. I joined them at Platte City, and was sworn in by David Jenkins of that place. All of the Pawpaw militia, so far as I know, belong to them....

Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. Most historians accept this date of surrender as the official end of the Civil War. The Knights of the Golden Circle as an organization, however, continued to work to achieve their goals, which included a prosperous South, for many decades after the Civil War. What had been a secret society adapted to changing conditions and, after the war, became even more secretive than ever before.

In October 1864 U. S. Judge Advocate Joseph Holt submitted a detailed warning to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton about the dangers posed by the Knights of the Golden Circle that was, by that time, operating under various aliases. This document is commonly called the Holt Report, but its real title is A Western Conspiracy in aid of the Southern Rebellion.

After the war's end, the K.G.C. went underground and used many aliases to hide their activities which included making preparations for a second civil war should that option be necessary. Some K.G.C. members accompanied Confederate Gen. Joseph O. Shelby to Mexico. Some soldiers returned to their homes, while others relocated to more remote frontier areas like West Texas where they could help build towns and cities that conformed to their ideals. Some Knights like Jesse Woodson James, older brother Frank James, and Cole Younger turned to robbing Northern-owned railroads, businesses, and banks after the Civil War.

The Knights of the Golden Circle, according to most authorities, ceased its operations in 1916 for two primary reasons. The United States had entered World War I, and by that time most of the old Knights of the Golden Circle had died.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: An Authentic Exposition of the “K.G.C.” “Knights of the Golden Circle,” or, A History of Secession from 1834 to 1861, by A Member of the Order (Indianapolis, Indiana: C. O. Perrine, Publisher, 1861). Donald S. Frazier, Blood & Treasure: Confederate Empire in the Southwest (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1996). Warren Getler and Bob Brewer, Rebel Gold: One Man’s Quest to Crack the Code Behind the Secret Treasure of the Confederacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004). Dion Haco, ed., The Private Journal and Diary of John H. Surratt, The Conspirator (New York: Frederic A. Brady, Publisher, 1866). Joseph Holt, Report of the Judge Advocate General on “The Order of American Knights,” alias “The Sons of Liberty.” A Western Conspiracy in aid of the Southern Rebellion (Washington, D.C.: Union Congressional Committee, 1864). James D. Horan, Confederate Agent: A Discovery in History (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1954). Jesse Lee James, Jesse James and the Lost Cause (New York: Pageant Press, 1961). K.G.C., Records of the KGC Convention, 1860, Raleigh, N.C. (http://gunshowonthenet/AfterTheFact/KGC/KGC0571860.html), accessed May 5, 2010. Dr. Roy William Roush, The Mysterious and Secret Order of the Knights of the Golden Circle (Front Line Press, 2005).

Bloody Bill Anderson Mystery group:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bloodybillandersonmystery

Jay Longley and Colin Eby

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, February 24, 2014

Another interesting video on the KGC by David C. Keehn


Caveat Lector

Please remember that the following comments are not ours, we are simply reposting them from http://www.iriejamradio.com/what-s-trending/trending-around-the-web/4768-the-confederates-hope-to-re-establish-slave-states-through-the-secret-society-called-knights-of-the-golden-circle-featuring-jesse-james-and-john-wilkes-booth


THE CONFEDERATES HOPE TO RE-ESTABLISH SLAVE STATES THROUGH THE SECRET SOCIETY CALLED 'KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE' FEATURING JESSE JAMES AND JOHN WILKES BOOTH

Check this out
The Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) was a secret society established in the late 19th century and operated between Canada and southern US states.
The original objective of the KGC was to annex a golden circle of territories in Mexico, Central America, northern South America, and Cuba and the rest of the Caribbean for inclusion in the United States as slave states.
As anti-slavery agitation increased after the Dred Scott Decision was issued, the members proposed a separate confederation of slave states, with US states south of the Mason-Dixon line to secede and to align with other slave states to be formed from the golden circle. In either case, the goal was to increase the power of the Southern slave-holding upper class to such a degree that it could never be dislodged.
During the American Civil War, some Southern sympathizers in the Northern states such as Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, were accused of belonging to the Knights of the Golden Circle, and in some cases they were imprisoned for their activities.
Too bad, the plan failed and will never happen.
the-kgc-slave-proponents.jpg
Southern proponents for modern day slavery claim they have restored the KGC and have the cache of gold and money which was stolen by Jesse James who is purported to have been stealing from the Union trains to give to the KGC.
John Wilkes Booth, the dude who killed president Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, was an inducted member of the society and had plotted a massive scheme to capture 3 top government leaders and kill them publicly in Canada. The modern day confederates claim that Booth was not the person killed in the barn by the feds and that he lived out his days in Canada.
No one knows these claims to be fact but the delusional KKK racists believe the offspring of both Jesse James and John Wilkes Booth are now aligning to execute the plan to re-instate slavery.
Such a high level of stupidity!

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The Curse of Cain, the untold story of John Wilkes Booth





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

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

America Unearthed: Lincoln’s Secret Assassins
Premiere February 15, 2014 on H2

When Scott Wolter gets a call from his friend John DeSalvo, an avid collector of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia, he has no idea that he’s about to embark on a quest to learn whether there were a lot more people than just John Wilkes Booth behind the assassination of one of America’s most influential presidents. Evidence Wolter uncovers suggests Booth was part of an infamous group of Confederates who formed a secret society called the Knights of the Golden Circle; a group that included influential politicians and rogue raiders like Jesse James. The evidence Scott complies suggests a new twist on the motives behind Lincoln’s killing, and takes him on a wild ride through the history of the South at the time of the Civil War as seen through the eyes of the Knights of the Golden Circle

Upcoming Airings:
February 16, 2014 - 01:00-02:00AM ET
February 22, 2014 - 11:00-12:00AM ET
February 23, 2014 - 03:00-04:00AM ET

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

CIVIL WAR TIMELINE: A reason for hope

February 09, 2014 6:00 am 
Compiled by P. Michael Jones, director of the General John A. Logan Museum in Murphysboro

A report on the Union troops of Southern Illinois (known at the time as Egypt) 150 years ago during the WBTS.

EXCERPT:"Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had been a blow to Southern Illinois’ volunteers, the majority of whom had joined the army to save the Union not aide Lincoln in abolishing slavery. Copperheads and Knights of the Golden Circle back home knew this and hammered away at the soldiers’ friends and families to pressure them to just come home and let Lincoln and the abolitionists fight their own war. The desire to desert must have been especially strong on enlisted men who watched their officers get to do just that by simply resigning their commissions. Their only option was desertion."

http://thesouthern.com/news/local/civil-war-timeline-a-reason-for-hope/article_aeb79cd0-914c-11e3-b4d3-0019bb2963f4.html

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