Caveat Lector!
http://www.tomrizzo.com/history-up-close-the-mysterious-knights-of-the-golden-circle/
History Up-Close: The Mysterious Knights of the Golden Circle
Words like powerful, secret, subversive, spy, and underground always grab my attention, but more so when their used in relation to American history. These kinds of words serve as emotional touchstones, promising hidden – but dark and foreboding – tales of action and adventure.
Words like powerful, secret, subversive, spy, and underground always grab my attention, but more so when their used in relation to American history. These kinds of words serve as emotional touchstones, promising hidden – but dark and foreboding – tales of action and adventure.
Stories of secrets and spies are great fun, and high adventure –from John le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, to Ian Fleming’s exotic and improbable James Bond. My first novel – Last Stand At Bitter Creek –
is about a Union Army spy whose mission is compromised, and finds
himself in the crosshairs of a relentless, rogue cavalry commander with
secrets of his own to protect.
SECRET, SUBVERSIVE, AND SOUTHERN
My imagination kicked into high gear when I recently came across a story about the little-known Knights of the Golden Circle.
The group, a “very large, powerful, secret and subversive southern
organization,” allegedly came close to changing the course of American
history with plans to restart the Civil War. But, mystery and skepticism
surrounds the history of the KGC.
Some say the KGC got its start in 1854 with the purpose of financing the “second rising of the South.”Others
point out that the Knights established depositories for major treasure
and goods in every state, Canada, Mexico, and various places in Central
and South America. In this book, The Mysterious and Secret Order of the Knights of the Golden Circle, Roy William Roush, contends the group left huge caches of gold throughout the country, still awaiting discovery.
JESSE JAMES INVOLVEMENT IN KGC DEBUNKED
In another book he wrote, Jesse James and Lost Treasures of the Knights of the Golden Circle, Roush suggests the James gang held membership in the KGC. The book, which sells for $24.90. however, came under stinging criticism by Leaves of Gas,
the official blog for the family of Frank and Jesse James. Reviewer
Nancy Samuelson said twenty-of the 81-page book are “either filled with
full-page photos or illustrations or left entirely blank.”
Samuelson’s review says there’s no evidence that Roush has “any acquaintance with any serious history” of the KGC or Jesse James.
She contends the book is laced with “drivel” about other issues
involving the outlaw, and warns that readers should take a pass on the
“utter nonsense” included in the book regarding his alleged involvement
in the KGC.
CIVIL WAR ENDS KGC PLANS
According to the Texas State Historical Association,
the secretive organization wanted to create “a golden circle of slave
states” that would span the southern US, West Indies, Mexico, and parts
of Central America. The term Golden Circle was
a geographical reference for this empire that would stretch about 2,400
miles in diameter, with its based of power in Havana, Cuba.
The Civil War, however, destroyed the KGC’s cause and its purpose, according to the association. Furthermore, no evidence exists that the KGC survived the war “in any meaningful way” and, essentially, dissolved.
