Civil War Alexandria's Knights of the Golden Circle

1/15/2016 in Virginia by Claudia Swain

The Knights of the Golden Circle were a national secret society formed in the 1830s. It aimed to extend the reach of slavery in the U.S. and annex new slave holding states in Central and South America.

During the Union army’s occupation of Alexandria (1861-1865), young Confederate ladies would have had no one around to drop a handkerchief for other than Union soldiers. Well, that wasn't going to work, not when “the slight difference of color [between gray and blue] symbolized all the difference between heaven and hell.”^[1] So what's the next resort? Obviously, forming a local branch of the secret society known as the Knights of the Golden Circle.
Founded to create and protect a southern slave-holding empire that extended, as the goal, well into Mexico, the KGC welcomed men into its ranks who were militant in character and held strong secessionist values.^[2] The Union looked upon the organization’s activities as "treasonous" and potentially dangerous to the State.^[3] Before you get all excited that the ladies of Alexandria (aged ten to twenty) were running blockades or planning assassinations, know that most of the group's activates involved crochet hooks.
Lest we spill any undue secrets, what follows is the oath the women took upon induction:

I solemnly avow in the sight of those presence that I am a true and loyal citizen of the Confederate States.
I swear that I will give no aid or comfort to any enemy or enemies of the Confederacy, and that to the best of my ability I will aid and support the government of the Confederate States.
I swear that I will not marry one who had borne arms for the United States against the Confederate States, nor a Union man, nor a Black Republican nor a Traitor.
So help me, God.^[4]

As you can see from the oath, members of the Alexandria Knights swore off all men connected with the Union, including those ("Traitors") who took the 'oath of allegiance,' a swearing of loyalty to the Union required by occupation authorities for a citizen to have any privileges. Besides actively avoiding the boys in blue, the women did all they could to help their boys in gray. They spent long hours making bows, neckties, pincushions, etc., sometimes with a "deftly concealed confederate flag embroidered in one corner."^[5] The Knights' best customers were the wives of Union officers, who bought rosettes to adorn their children.
With the money made from selling handicrafts, the Knights collected as much as $128 dollars^[6] (over $3,000 in today’s money according to The Inflation Calculator). The money, along with coats and blankets, was smuggled south to Richmond for the good of the Confederacy.
The closest the clandestine Confederate women came to being high profile was when they pulled off a major heist and robbed Christ Church of its commemorative George Washington plaque. The opportunity arose when local families raised a stink about Union soldiers sitting on their pew cusions in the church. Members of the Knights supervised the removal of these cushions, and in the process, also removed the plaque. They justified the act to themselves by claiming "if we do not take care of it, it will be stolen." The plaque's 'relocation' was eventually discovered and it was returned to the church, where it would eventually be taken away again by Union looters, just as the ladies feared.^[7]
What became of the Knights after the end of the Civil War? Some, including the History Channel, would have you believe that the larger organization went underground in preparation for a second Civil War. But the Alexandria branch faded away without fanfare, presumably never becoming publically known. The following is the statement of an Alexandria citizen in 1886, when asked if the Knights of the Golden Circle was popular anywhere in Virginia: "If it is, it is secret."

Footnotes

1. ^ Miss S. L. Lee, “War Time in Alexandria, Virginia,” in The South Atlantic Quarterly IV(Jan.-Oct. 1905):234 (Durham, NC, 1905).
2. ^ Keehn, David. Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War. (LSU Press: 2013).
3. ^ The Alexandria Gazette, 8 Aug. 1862, p. 2 (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025007/1862-08-08/ed-1/seq-2/)
4. ^ Miss S. L. Lee, “War Time in Alexandria, Virginia,” in The South Atlantic Quarterly IV(Jan.-Oct. 1905):234 (Durham, NC, 1905).
5. ^ Barber, James G. Alexandria in the Civil War. (H.E. Howard, Inc.: 1998).
6. ^ Collins, Mary. The Essential Daughter: Changing Expectations for Girls at Homes, 1797 to the Present. (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002).
7. ^ Miss S. L. Lee, “War Time in Alexandria, Virginia,” in The South Atlantic Quarterly IV(Jan.-Oct. 1905):234 (Durham, NC, 1905).

The Knights of the Golden Circle or K.G.C.

 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

Knights of the Golden Circle Treasure Map Signs

Underground Discovery & Exploration

Knights of the Golden Circle treasure map signs have been guarded carefully over the years. The purpose the treasures were hidden and guarded was for the resurgence of the Golden Crescent. Jesse James, often connected with the Knights of the Golden Circle treasure map signs, was indeed raising capital for the resurgence of the South. Several years ago I was privileged to work with a group of treasure hunters that had discovered a contractual agreement between the leaders of the Knights of the Golden Circle, "KGC", and Jesse James. Jesse was not an outlaw in the traditional sense of the word. He was working for a little under $250.00 per month to rob the Union (`the bad guys') and using the money to restore the new world (territories in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean to be included in the United States as slave states) of the Golden Crescent (`the good guys').

If you look at it in that respect, you will begin to think more like the KGCpeople and understand why they did what they did. Then you can understand why the treasures were hidden with a large cache that was protected by the Sentinel and why there were at least 2 small caches for the Sentinel to get paid from if conventional pay wasn't forthcoming for some reason. This is why there are death traps with the large caches and there are no death traps with the small caches. If you do not understand the death traps of the large caches, I would strongly advise you not to tamper with them. A small cache or two would allow you to live modestly for some time. A large cache may not allow you to live at all. We will discuss death traps in a later article.

One of the reasons that Spanish signs have been altered is due to the theft of over 30 written treasure maps about 1910. These treasure maps were recovered later but in the meantime the on-site signs and symbols from these locations were altered and there are many deceptive signs at the location. Within these deceptions were secret codes to explain the changes to anyone that understood the Knights of the Golden Circle signs and symbols. So when you interpret on-site signs and symbols, you must be advised to look for any drawing, unusual tree formation, rock or picture that is out of sync with the rest of the map figures. This may be the one figure that changes the entire map.

Need an expert to verify your Knights of the Golden Circle Treasure Map? Email the form below with a time and number and Dr. Melancon will call you.

Knights of the Golden Circle Treasure Map Signs , Article 5 ©2010, Dr. John Melancon
http://undergrounddiscovery.com/13/knights-of-the-golden-circle-treasure-map-signs

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 letter sheds light on Ky. life

Nancy Stearns Theiss, Special to the Courier-Journal 1:38 p.m. EDT April 4, 2016

Excerpted: "The Knights of the Golden Circle, that she referred to, was a very short-lived rebellion group that existed after the Civil War, during the uneasy period of reconstruction. The letter highlights the aftermath of tension and uneasiness created by the Civil War. Some excerpts of this letter have been omitted.

Canton, Missouri July 27th 1865

My Dear Nephew..........Let me tell you I have been reading a book called Knights of the Golden Circle by one of their order.  Says this rebellion commenced 30 years ago - they were first called Southers Rights Club now K of the GC - they are sworn to kill union people in every shape or form convenient, either by poison, might night murder or any way so they exterminate them – to work secretly and underminedly(sp).  At the given time, were to break out all over the U.S. and they’d exterminate the whole union which they did in many places, but thanks be to our heavenly Father have not succeeded.  They did not yet get as much help north as expected - neither foreign help: so they could not gain the day.  They intended after conquering the U.S. to go to Mexico and there establish a limited Monarchy.  But the Almighty did not answer Jef Davis prayers."


http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/oldham/2016/04/04/civil-war-letter-sheds-light-ky-life/82607722/
 
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

New York Times April 2, 1862

NEWS FROM WASHINGTON.; OUR SPECIAL WASHINGTON DISPATCHES. April 2, 1862

WASHINGTON, Tuesday, April 1.

THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE.

"It appears from official correspondence that toward the close of last year, a letter, written by a Dr. HOPKINS, came into possession of the State Department. It was therein stated that an organization had been formed, by which the members of the Knights of the Golden Circle were to rush into the army and service of the Federal Government, and thus gain influence and position for carrying out their treasonable schemes; and, further, that Ex-President PIERCE was among its prominent members. When this letter was received, a note was sent to Ex-President PIERCE, inclosing an extract from it, saying: "Your name is connected with a secret league, the object of which is to overthrow the Government. Any information on the subject will be acceptable." Mr. PIERCE, in reply, expresses his surprise that even seeming credence should have been given to the charge; appeals to his general course as a complete refutation of the slander, and remarks that he never belonged to any secret league, society or association, and further objects to the form of the note. Secretary SEWARD, in reply, explains that this was written by WM. HUNTER, chief clerk of the Department; explains the circumstances under which he signed it; regrets that it gave offence, and offers an apology."



http://www.nytimes.com/1862/04/02/news/washington-further-modification-tax-bill-proposal-abolish-slavery-district.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Knights_of_the_Golden_Circle

When 'Airships' Invaded Texas

More than 40 years before Orson Wells scared the bejabbers out of Americans with a fictional radio program on a Martian invasion of Earth, Texas was ravaged by reports of "airships" thought to be, in some cases, of extraterrestrial origin.
Between April 13 and 17, 1897, there were 38 reported sightings of "airships" in 23 counties, mostly in North Central Texas. Nine counties reported multiple sightings, with Hill County accounting for four, including two in Hillsboro and one each in Whitney and Osceola. Tarrant, Fannin and Ellis counties had three each, and Grayson, Bowie, Collin, Hunt and Johnson counties had a pair apiece. Single sightings were reported from Lamar, Wise, Denton, Hunt, Parker, Dallas, Kaufman, Wood, Erath, Navarro, McLennan, Freestone, Milam, Travis and Jefferson counties.

Newspapers of the day reported the sightings straight-faced, although one can read more than a little tongue-in-cheek writing into some of the dispatches from community correspondents.

Descriptions of the airships varied somewhat, but there was a general consensus that they had cigar-shaped bodies or cabins 50 to 60 feet long with propellers at each end, large bat-like wings, and huge floodlights fore and aft. Most witnesses saw neither pilot nor crew, but in some cases, not only did observers see people manning the ships, but talked to them. The Dallas Morning News' correspondent at Waxahachie reported a long conversation between Judge Love of the community and an airship crew, which claimed to be from the North Pole.

At Greenville, correspondent C.G. Williams reported the leader of the ship's crew was from "a little town in the interior of New York." The airship was being test flown across the country. Its inventor implored Williams, "Don't give this thing away. We are experimenting with this vessel. So far, it is a success ..."

A report from Waxahachie held that the machine was being operated by a woman, and the observer thought "his satanic majesty or Beelzebub (had) something to do with this traveler in the lower stratum of ether."

In Farmersville, an eyewitness saw three men in the cabin and heard them singing "Nearer My God to Thee." The trio reportedly also was passing out temperance tracts.

As might be expected, not all North Texans were convinced of the authenticity of the reports. In Ennis, Dr. E. Stuart, "an acknowledged authority in metaphysics," passed off the reported sightings as due to "hypnotism and bad whiskey."

When questioned about the feasibility of manned flight, one aeronautical authority in Dallas was asked if he had seen the ship. "I have not," he asserted. "I don't drink and I never come downtown after dark."

There was speculation from several sources that the sightings were the first in a series of events heralding the final days of Earth as prophesied in the Bible.

Of course, Texans always have to one-up each other, and the airship craze provided a perfect setting. In Hill County, two farmers near Abbott did not see an airship, but they did witness a man and six boys float from out of the sky. "They drifted down as easily and gracefully as birds alighting until within a few feet of the ground about fifty yard from (us), where they remained stationary a few seconds and reascended into the heavens out of sight," came the report.

Then on April 19, S. E. Haydon, a correspondent for the News reported that an airship had struck a windmill in Aurora in Wise County and exploded. The body of a small man, identified by a local authority as a Martian, was recovered from the wreckage and buried. Pieces of the ship were collected for display and sale and attracted many spectators.

The Aurora incident, labeled a hoax by 20th-century historians, is the most celebrated of the encounters with airships in Texas. Researchers of unidentified flying objects have spent a great deal of time attempting to verify the presence of the airship, to find remains of the craft, and to locate the body of the supposedly alien pilot. In 1986, a not-too-good movie, The Aurora Encounter, was made. And the following year, science-fiction writer Howard Waldrop produced a short story in Omni magazine about a fictional landing of Martian airships in Texas prior to the Spanish-American War of 1898.

About a week after the last sighting in North Central Texas, a group of churchgoers in Merkel, just west of Abilene, saw an airship drop an anchor that caught on a railroad tie. After a few minutes, a small being clambered down the rope, cut the line and the airship sailed off, never to be seen again. The Merkel Mail ran a story on it, but the Taylor County News in nearby Abilene ignored it.
Many explanations have been given for the rash of airship sightings. One holds that it was a great hoax perpetuated by railroad men, who planted reports of sightings at various stops. Indeed, "Truthful" Scully of Fort Worth, a railroad conductor, gave a vivid report of a grounded airship being repaired by a small man near Hawkins Tank in Wood County.
Or it may have been a form of spring madness that gripped North Central Texas along with much of the Midwest. Or it could have been an invasion from outer space.
— written by Mike Kingston for the Texas Almanac 1990–1991.

http://texasalmanac.com/topics/history/when-airships-invaded-texas

A Union Awash in Conspiracies

A Union Awash in Conspiracies
 By Nicole Etcheson

The Civil War era had its share of conspiracies – some real, some imagined – but few were as feared as the Knights of the Golden Circle, a shadowy pro-Confederate organization intent on leading an armed uprising in the Midwest.

The Knights were founded in the 1850s by George W.L. Bickley, a phrenologist and doctor who had relocated from Indiana to North Carolina in the 1840s. Originally, the organization promoted a Southern version of Manifest Destiny, the extension of a slave empire into Central America. The Knights, organized into local chapters called “castles,” supported filibustering, or the armed invasion of Latin American countries to acquire slave territory for the United States, and secession. The historian David C. Keehn believes the Knights, who included lawyers, politicians and doctors, were involved in raising men and arms to help Southern governors seize forts in their states. In 1860-61, the Knights were, according to Keehn, the “strong arm of secession.”

As the war progressed, the Knights took root among Midwesterners; Indiana was, according to the historian Jennifer Weber, the “hotbed” of the conspiracy. In Putnam County, Ind., men drilled at night in isolated rural areas. The local Republican newspaper called these “the midnight prowlings” of “the treasonable and traitorous … Knights of the Golden Circle,” and accused the Knights of mobbing and intimidating draft officers. In July 1863, Bickley was arrested in New Albany, Ind., as a Confederate spy; he spent the rest of the war in prison, although he never came to trial. (The historian Frank Klement, the leading critic of Republican conspiracy theories of that era, said that was intentional: Trying the feckless Bickley would have revealed that the Knights posed no real threat.)
An 1865 cartoon drawing a connection between the Knights of the Golden Circle and Lincoln's assassination.Credit Library of Congress
 Bickley’s arrest didn’t stop the Knights, though. In 1864, the Confederate government hoped to use them to set off an uprising to influence the Union presidential elections. The uprising was timed for late August so as to coincide with the Democratic National Convention, to be held in Chicago. Confederate agents had met in Canada with Midwestern members of the Knights; Capt. Thomas H. Hines, an officer in the Confederate Kentucky cavalry, was to lead the insurrection. The plan, which got into the advanced stages but was never carried out, called for coordinated uprisings in Illinois and Indiana, the liberation of Confederate prisoners from camps in Chicago and Indianapolis, and perhaps even the creation of a Northwest Confederacy — a separate Midwestern government that would ally with the South.

The Knights were not the only underground organization to gain notoriety in the Midwest. Early in the war another organization, the Sons of Liberty, emerged in parts of the Union in opposition to what they believed was a threat to civil liberties posed by the Lincoln administration. The Sons were strong in areas of the Midwest, such as Indiana and Illinois, which had been settled from the Upper South, but it is unclear whether sympathy for the South — the belief that abolitionist Republicans had brought on a war in order to emancipate the slaves — meant actual willingness to aid the Confederate cause. Republican politicians used a fear of the Knights to place any organization that was critical of the war effort into the same treasonous column.

The line between the two groups was hard to discern. So-called mutual aid societies helped draft resisters, but so, allegedly, did the Knights and the Sons of Liberty. At the same time, a member of the Sons admitted that “It was the general idea that it was necessary to arm to resist the encroachments of the Administration.” He left unclear whether resisting encroachments meant just obstructing the draft or went as far as an armed uprising against the United States government. Even the adjutant general of Indiana, W.H.H. Terrell, concluded that many members of the Sons “never knew the treasonable schemes into which they were intended to be driven.” Still, Terrell insisted that among the rank and file, “there was not one who did not know that the object of the Order was to assist the rebellion and resist the Government.”

That didn’t stop politicians from fearing, and hounding, the Sons of Liberty. Gov. Oliver P. Morton of Indiana was convinced that the state was filled with armed traitors, and that the Sons intended to assassinate him. In particular, he targeted Harrison H. Dodd, a printer, active Democrat and the grand commander of the Indiana Sons of Liberty. Like many antiwar Democrats, Dodd argued that Republicans had shut down civil liberties, including harassing Democrats at the polls, in the name of the war effort. But while Indiana Democrats largely agreed with Dodd’s assessment of the Morton and Lincoln administrations’ tyranny, most were not prepared to engage in armed resistance. In early August 1864, after Dodd proposed such resistance at a meeting of the Sons, appalled Democratic Party leaders made him promise not to act.

When authorities raided Dodd’s office soon after, they discovered boxes labeled “Sunday-school books” that contained revolvers and ammunition. Dodd and six other Democrats were arrested: J.J. Bingham, editor of The Indianapolis Sentinel; Dr. William A. Bowles, the founder of the first Knights castle in Indiana; Horace Heffren, editor of The Salem Democrat; Stephen Horsey; Andrew Humphreys, a former state legislator; and Lambdin P. Milligan, a lawyer.
Morton insisted that the imminent threat of an uprising required the arrests. Democratic critics, and later historians, have noted that the ensuing trials served as excellent Republican political propaganda, constantly keeping the equation of Democrats with treason before the voters. The trials lasted from September through December — in other words, throughout the entire state and national election cycle.

In mid-September, a military commission convened to try Dodd. He protested, to no avail, that as he was a civilian, the court lacked the authority to try him. A few days before the state elections in October, Dodd escaped and fled to Canada. Gen. Henry Carrington, the commander of the military District of Indiana, announced that by escaping, Dodd had confessed his guilt, and instructed Hoosiers to “rebuke this treason. The traitors intend to bring war to your homes. Meet them at the ballot-box, while Grant and Sherman meet them in the field.” Dodd was found guilty in absentia and sentenced to hang.

Bingham, however, was released after agreeing to testify for the prosecution. Heffren also was freed. Bowles, Horsey and Milligan were convicted and sentenced to death. Andrew Humphreys was also convicted but sentenced to imprisonment and hard labor.

Many historians believe that the arrests were largely political in nature; Governor Morton, running for election, certainly exploited the Sons for political capital by tying them to the much more dreaded Knights. Morton’s Democratic opponent was a former state attorney general, Joseph E. McDonald. While Morton admitted that his old friend McDonald was not a member of the Sons, he charged that half the Democratic ticket and most of McDonald’s supporters were members. Morton was so confident of success that he traveled to other states to campaign for their candidates. He won the election by 20,000 votes.

Having done so much to secure the convictions of the conspirators, Morton now asked for mercy. In 1865 he sent John U. Pettit, the speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, to Washington to request that President Andrew Johnson commute the sentences. On Morton’s behalf, Pettit argued that the war was over, the civil courts were functioning and Indiana did not want to be the first state to carry out a military execution. “The rebellion had been put down,” Morton explained. “The great peril had passed by.”

Lambdin P. Milligan became the most famous of the convicted conspirators. Although his life had been spared, his attorneys brought his trial by a military commission before the United States Supreme Court, which found, in ex parte Milligan, that a civilian cannot be tried by a military court in a jurisdiction where the civil courts are still in operation. The prisoners were released in April 1866. Milligan sued for damages and, in 1871, a jury awarded him $5.
Ex parte Milligan has been hailed by some as a bulwark of civil liberties, protecting citizens from arbitrary trial by military authorities. In practice, the Milligan decision has not been broadly used. During World War II, the Supreme Court upheld the military trial of a Nazi saboteur who was an American citizen on the grounds that by fighting for Germany, he had become an enemy combatant and therefore no longer merited the protection Milligan offered. More recently, most of those tried before military commissions in the war on terror were not American citizens, and therefore did not come under ex parte Milligan. Even in ruling that Yaser E. Hamdi, an American citizen captured in Afghanistan, had the right to challenge his detention, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor distinguished between prisoners taken in a war zone and Milligan’s civilian status.
Historians have long debated the seriousness of the Sons’ conspiracy, and even the threat posed by the Knights themselves. Emma Lou Thornbrough concluded that Dodd and the other conspirators were engaged “in a treasonable, if harebrained plot,” but suspected that Morton and the Republicans exaggerated the danger for political effect. Frank Klement went the farthest in impugning Republican motives, insisting that Morton and Carrington built “KGC aircastles” in order to rally voters to the Union cause, and that the Sons “existed more on paper” — especially the papers Carrington issued — “than in practice.” But recently, that conclusion has been rolled back, a bit, and historians such as Robert H. Churchill, Stephen E. Towne and Jennifer Weber have argued that the Sons of Liberty posed a real threat. Weber points out that reports of the 1864 uprising were so prevalent throughout the Midwest, and came from sources without political interests, that “it is nearly impossible to believe something was not afoot.”

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Nicole Etcheson is a professor of history at Ball State University and the author of the prize-winning “A Generation at War: The Civil War Era in a Northern Community.”
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/a-union-awash-with-conspiracies/?_r=0