KGC Symbols

The below is from Jay's forum:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BloodyBillAndersonMystery

It took me two and a half hours to transcribe this important Official
Record to post on this message board so I hope our members appreciate my efforts. :) Please read the entire report carefully as it explains many important things about the KGC. It also tells of their
resolve to go to any lengths to prevent the second inauguration of Lincoln.


http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/moa/browse.monographs/waro.html
run a simple search of this site for the keywords: Knights of the Golden Circle


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BloodyBillAndersonMystery
***


From: The War of the Rebellion Official Records
"OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL,
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA,
Sacramento, August 10, 1864
Brig. Gen. JOHN S. MASON,
Acting Assistant Provost-Marsal-General, San Francisco, Cal.:
SIR: I have the honor to report the result of my investigations of
the secret work of the association called 'Knights of the Columbian
Star,' through Hiram Potter, one of their number. This has been a
very tedious and slow business, for the reason that the whole system
is so cloaked and guarded that but few of the members really know
anything about it. The organization, as near as I can now determine,
is as follows: There is a governor-general for the State, and a
lieutenant-governor-general for each locality, who has a deputy
lieutenant-governor-general to assist him. There are no large
meetings held of the order in their capacity as an association, but
few only of the officers and trusted members get together to initiate
new members and devise the work which is to be carried out. Potter
has only lately learned that there is a third degree, which he has
not yet obtained, but it is proposed to give it to him soon. I may
here remark that it is one of the cardinal principles of the order
that no member of an inferior degree knows of a higher until he is
prepared and expected to receive it. In the first degree, which is
called thirty-three defenders, the candidate is first examined and
[if] found to be a suitable person for their use, he is then sworn in
a solemn and imposing manner. The substance of the obligation is that
he will not support in any election or employ in business an
abolitionist if any other person can be had; that he will obey his
officers in all things; that he will resist the enforcement of any
and all unconstitutional laws by the Administration, his officers
being the judges of the unconstitutionality of the laws; that he will
furnish himself with a rifle or double-barrel shotgun if possible,
and positively to furnis a revolver pistol and bowie knife, and
always to keep on hand a supply of ammunition for a three-days hunt.
After taking this obligation they are invested with the signs,
password, and grip, to enable them to recognize their brothers and
make themselves known, which are: First, to attract attention of any
brother present, take hold of the breast of the coat or about the
third button, carrying the hands about an inch out from the body and
back twice, as if in the act of fitting the coat to your body. The
answer to this sign is to throw the left hand to the small of the
back carelessly. This satisfies the party that they are recognized,
but they will have no communication until they have been further
proved. After selecting a proper place the challenger proceeds to
prove his brother as follows: Q. 'Do you know Jones?' A. 'What
Jones?' Q. 'Preacher Jones.' A. 'Yes.' Q. 'Have you the password?'
A. 'I have.' Q. 'Will you give it to me?' A. 'That is not the way I
obtained it.' Q. 'What will you do with it?' A. 'I will divide it
with you.' Q. 'Well, you divide it, and begin.' A. 'No; you begin.'
Q. No, you begin; the word is yours.' A. 'Death.' Q. 'To.' A. 'All.'
Q. 'Traitors.' They then take hands, the questioner giving the grip,
which is given by inserting the little finger between the little
finger and the next one and then clasping the hands, the questioner
giving one shake and saying 'Right,' the answering man another shake
and saying 'Brother.' This completes the proof of each belonging to
the thirty-third or first degree, and any communication between them
is proper. So far neither man is supposed to know that any other or
higher degree exists. But for the purpose of explanation we will
suppose that they both have the second degree, or what is called the
fifty-seventh degree, meaning 'constitution.' The first hailing sign
in this degree is made by taking off the hat with the left hand,
bringing it down to the side of the head, and placing the right hand
on the top of the head in an easy, careless manner; this is answered
by taking off the hat with the left hand in the same manner. Test
sign follows: The thumb and forefinger of left hand rub the under
lip; the answer is made by touching the pit of the stomach with the
thumb and forefinger of the right hand, as in the act of holding a
pen. This having been properly answered the question may be
asked: 'Have you the password?' Upon the reply in the affirmative the
password is given with the same ceremony as before, being divided.
The word is 'Andalusia,' being divided An-da-lu-sia. The questioner
then asks, 'Have you the sacred password?' and upon an affirmative
answer the same process of getting is observed, with this difference,
that this word is lettered. The word is 'Eloi.' After this grip is
given. The right hand of each is placed together and thrust up until
each grasps the wrist of the other, and the questioner gives one
shake, saying 'Right;' the other party then reaches with the left
hand and takes the left hand of the questioner in the same manner,
giving it one shake, and says 'Brother.' This completes the proof of
membership in the second degree. There are some other signs for
special occasions. Sign of caution or danger: Place the left hand
upon the breast and raise the right vertically, the elbow as high as
the shoulders. Sign of distress: Clasp the hands together, unlocking
the fingers; raise them to the chin, saying, 'Santa Maria.' Sign of
recognition on horseback: Grasping the left breast of the coat with
left hand, giving two moves of the hand and coat about two inches and
back, the party answering salutes with right hand. There is a night
sign, made by clasping the hands and calling out 'Ho!' which is
answered by saying 'Hi!' Before being invested with these signs the
candidate is carefully examined as to his age, occupation, residence,
former place of residence, birthplace, what military service he has
done, his opinions upon the political views of the day, State rights,
slavery, the right to resist unconstitutional laws, &c. If this
examination is satisfactory, he is sworn. The oath is very long and
elaborate. The substance only can be given, which is to resist the
election of Lincoln for President by all possible means, including
the force of arms; to adhere to and obey the call of the governor-
general of the State or the lieutenant-governor-general of your
district in all cases and at all times; that you will resist any and
all unconstitutional laws by the Administration; that you will adhere
to and support the old State rights doctrines and the right of each
State to protect itself, and assist it to carry out the right to
maintain slavery or any other domestic institution to which it is
entitled, by force of arms if necessary; that you will resist with
arms any attempt upon the part of the U.S. authorities to execute any
unconstitutional law of any kind or character, your officers being
the judges of the unconstitutionality. In addition to this, Potter
says he has ascertained that there is a third degree, and has the
promise of having it conferred upon him. Beriah Brown, editor of the
Press in San Francisco, is the present governor-general of the State;
C.L. Weller, who has lately been arrested, is lieutenant-governor-
general of the State, or of the district of San Francisco; not
certain as to the extent of his jurisdiction. It is contemplated to
elect a governor-general of the Pacific Coast, including Nevada
Territory and Idaho, who shall have the general supervision of the
order. Joseph P. Hoge, of San Francisco, is talked of for that
position. This will not be done until after the nomination at the
Chicago Convention, when a meeting of the governors and lieutenant-
governors is to be held at some point not yet known. Each member of
the order pays money into the treasury, and when parties cannot get
arms for themselves they are to be furnished by the society, the
intention being that every man who is with them shall be armed for
instant service when required by his officers. They only make one
member of the fifty-seventh degree for from three to seven of the
thirty-third degree, and it may well be imagined that the third
degree is still less in number than the second and still more
dangerous, all the power resting in a small council or single
governor. The officers in the Sacramento district are: General J.L.
English, lieutenant-governor-general; J.C. Goods, deputy; Thomas
Edwards, secretary, and A.A. Bennett, treasurer. Ex-Governor John
Bigler is a prominent member, and has lately left as a delegate to
the Chicago Convention; he is reported as having carried $160 in
money to be delivered to the rebel sanitary fund; the money was sent
from here to Maggie Perry, in San Francisco, to be delivered to
Bigler there. John R. Ridge, at present of Nevada City, was a
traveling agent of the order, and is now an officer in the Nevada
district. Doctor Fox, of San Francisco, is one of the most active
agents of the order in the State. He estimates that there are 24,000
men at present in the order and reliable for their purposes, and that
this order, with the Knights of the Golden Circle and the men they
can control, will reach 50,000. The actual number is very hard to
arrive at by any one below the head of the order, or a general agent,
as the utmost secrecy prevails between all its parts, and all are
subject to the power of an officer whom they do not know. Amongst
themselves it is freely talked of that there will be war in
California; they expect it and are all the time providing for it.
General J.L. English here talks peace, and the other officers and
prominent men say he is an old fogy and afraid he will lose his
property. Whenever they feel strong enough to make resistance to the
laws they intend to do it. This seems to be the tendency of all the
circumstances that come to my knowledge, and their conversation
reported by Potter will bear no other construction. There is also a
regular system of raising money to be transmitted East under pretense
of giving to the rebel sanitary for rebel prisoners. Since I reported
to you that trouble was expected in San Francisco at the time of the
meeting an order has been issued by Governor Brown (as is reported)
that all Democrats cease to carry arms until further orders, but to
have them always ready where they can find them. In relation to the
arms heretofore spoken of, the only further information we have been
able to gain is that the muskets, 'about 1,000,' were under the
control of Don Juan de Dias, a Mexican, who disappeared about two
weeks since, and whether the arms went with him or not cannot be
ascertained. The result of my observation is that the secret
political organization is very powerful and very dangerous. Second,
that the moving power which controls it is in sympathy with and
acting for the benefit of the Southern rebellion. Third, that it is
most important now to ascertain exactly who they are and what they
are doing. Fourth, that more men should be employed in this service
unknown to each other, so that their information may be compared.
Almost any man who takes upon himself these obligations is more or
less unreliable to us, and I do not feel safe in relying altogether
upon one man, more especially as I have some reason to believe that
he does not push his inquiries as fast as he might, or else keeps
back something that he ought to inform us of.
I submit, then, this matter to you, in addition to what I have
heretofore reported, for your consideration and advice.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant.
ROBERT ROBINSON,
Captain and Provost-Marshal."

***
~Jay~
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BloodyBillAndersonMystery

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.)

http://usnatarchives.tumblr.com/post/49190003647/the-knights-of-the-golden-circle-was-a-secret

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. "

MAJOR E. L. BICKLEY, of Tuscumbia, Alabama

    I thought y'all might be interested in this history on one of our Alabama Bickley's from Virginia. it comes from the "Memorial Record of Alabama. A concise account of the state's political, military professional and Industrial progress, together with the personal memoirs of many of its people. In Two Volumes. Illustrated. Brant & Fuller, Madison Wis., 1893. Volume I. pp. 687-691"

  While it only briefly mentions G.W.L.Bickley and the KGC it gives an excellent representation of the family that influenced him. I have more to write and hope that this one is not too lengthy but will post again if any find this interesting.
Confederately
William Rozier



MAJOR E. L. BICKLEY, one of the prominent and well known business men of
Tuscumbia, Ala., proprietor and senior partner of the firm of Bickley & Raiford,
the largest hardware store in the city, was born in Clinch Valley, Scott county,
Va., June 30, 1843. He is a son of Chas. W. Bickley, who was born May 16, 1798,
at the old Bickley Mills homestead in Castles Woods, Russell county, VA. His
father, Charles Bickley, came from eastern Virginia, was the son of John who was
the son of William Bickley, who was the first of the Bickley family to settle in
America, at Williamsburg, Va., in 1670. He was a knight of the garter of
Northamptonshire, England. Charles Bickley the grandfather was a soldier in the
Revolutionary war, and his son Chas. Wesley, the father of the subject of this
sketch, though but a beardless boy of fourteen, volunteered his services for the
war of 1812.

After the wars were over he remained in Castles Woods with his father until
1823. He went to Scott county and bought what is yet known as the Bickley
homestead in Clinch Valley, promising $1,500 for about 500 acres of river bottom
land, made a cash payment of 4400 (about all he was worth) and had five years
time granted him in which to pay the deferred amount, his neighbors predicting
that he had simply lost or would have to forfeit his first payment, as it would
be impossible for him without any operative capital to meet his obligations.

He knew no such thing as failure, however, and went to work, built him an
humble cabin, felled the timber, and made a fair crop, the first year. On March
16, 1825, he married Miss Mary P. Burdine, who was born in Russell County, Va.,
February 16, 1809. She was the daughter of Rev. Ezekiel Burdine, and itinerant
Methodist preacher, who from the year 1809 to 1812 traveled a circuit, the
territory of which now, constitutes the whole of the Holston conference.

Charles Wesley, with his new made bride, returned to their new home on the
Clinch, March 20, 1825. Realizing their situation, surroundings and obligations,
they met the issues of life as a reality, and with their united efforts and
labors they were enabled to and did meet the obligations in the purchase of the
home, discounting the last note a year before it was due. They were the parents
of eleven children, nine of whom lived to maturity, and seven of whom are still
living, four sons and three daughters. Both were consistent members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, south.

Politically the father was an uncompromising democrat of the Breckinridge
wing. After accumulating a competency for old age and seeing the children (all
living) self sustaining, the mother died of diphtheria, December 29, 1866, and
the father remaining at the old home with his son until May 17, 1880, when he
passed from earth to his reward. The eldest of their children, Chas. Washington,
was born July 3, 1827, and went west in 1852, was married to Miss Laura R.
McFarland of Jackson county Mo., November 1, 1857. They had born unto them the
following named children: Otelia, Charles D., Leroy Hopkins, Laura Emmagene,
Willie E., Katie L., Jennie, Oscar, Paralee, and Hettie.

At Pikes Peak and other points in the Rocky Mountains his health was impaired
and he came back to Alton, Ill., and from thence back to the Old Dominion; he is
still living near the home of his youth. Nancy Elizabeth, born May 28, 1829,
married to Col. James H. Godsey, an attorney at law of Prestonburg, Ky.,
September 6, 1853; they afterwards moved to Platte City, Mo., where they lived
until the opening of the Civil war. Col. Godsey raised and organized the Fourth
regiment, Missouri infantry, which he commanded under General Price and was
killed in the battle of Osage, Kan., in 1863.

Mrs. Godsey with her sons Willie and James returned to the old home, April,
1865, where she remained with her parents until May 18, 1868, when she married
John W. Banner, of Russell county, Va., and is still living at St. Paul. Her
oldest son, W. E. Godsey, of Spring Valley, Ala., is an employee of the B., S. &
T. R. R. company; his brother, James H., Jr., is engaged in stock raising in
Tazewell county, Va., and the younger brother, and only child of J. W. Banner,
is with his parents on the farm. The third child, Martha J., was born December
1, 1831. Was married to Rev. W. P. Queen of the Holston conference; they raised
two children, both girls. Mr. Queen was the representative of Scott County in
the senate of Virginia at the time of his death. Mrs. Queen with her youngest
daughter, Mattie, is still living at the Queen homestead, near Hagan Sulphur
Springs. The fourth child was Mary Ann Eliza, born September 20, 1834, and died
March 20, 1843. Emily Burdine and John Hopkins (twins) were born February 1,
1837. Emily died August 31, 1871. John H. was living at old Estillville (now
Gate City) in 1861, with Col. H. A. Morison; he volunteered and went out with
Capt. H. Clint Wood's company of infantry., Col. Samuel J. Fulkerson's
Thirty-seventh regiment, twelve months Virginia troops, Confederate States army,
was with Stonewall Jackson at Laurel Hill, Mt. Arry, Gettysburg,
Chancellorsville, after which he was transferred to cavalry, and commanded
company C, Thirty-fourth battalion Virginia cavalry until the close of the war.
Was married to Miss Rhoda Thompson, of Ryecove, Scott County, Va., January 10,
1867. They had born unto them the following named children, viz.: Anna Bell,
Mary Ellen, Charles W. Lee, William Elbert, Clarence, Myrtle and Grover
Cleveland.

They still live at the old Bickley homestead on the Clinch, and the land that
his father bought, in 1823, for three dollars per acre is now worth fifty
dollars per acre. The captain established a post office in connection with a
lucrative mercantile business at the old home. Henry Powell was the seventh
child, and born February 10, 1840, died April 20, 1840. Elbert La Fayette was
the eighth. Margarette Minerva Ellen and Joseph Wellington were twins, born
February 21, 1846. Ellen was a gentle, loving Christian child, professed
religion and joined the Methodist church, south, when but a girl and lived a
consistent, cheerful member of the same; died in the triumphs of faith in the
Saviour she had so early learned to love, and had so faithfully served, which
was the greatest delight and joy of her short earthly life. She died May 24,
1870, leaving the saviour of her life, both precept and example, as a rich
legacy, to her bereaved and sorrowing brothers, sisters and a host of other
relatives and friends. Joseph W. being the youngest son, had some advantages
more than his elder brothers, his education was more liberal, finishing up at
Emory & Henry College.

He was married to Miss Mary E. Petty, late of Texas (at the time of Cuba), May
24, 1874, they subsequently made their home in Virginia at the old homestead
until about the year 1877, they removed to Alabama, where they now live at
Hunter, having with the aid of General Joseph Wheeler, M. C., established this
new post office, of which J. W. Bickley was the first postmaster appointed, and
has served the office as such ever since. He has also run a general supply store
in connection with a farm.

They have a family of six children: the eldest, Miss Leila E., is about grown;
second daughter, Miss Elberta, and Mary A.; George W. L., the first son was
named for his kinsman, Dr. George W. L. Bickley, late of Baltimore, Maryland.
Dr. G. W. L. Bickley, it will be remembered, was the originator and organizer of
the order of Knights of the Golden Circle, about the year 1848, with the purpose
of invading Mexico and making himself emperor of the same; he however failed to
carry his scheme of conquest; notwithstanding the organization had reached a
formidable point numerically, he was betrayed and his plans and purposes
exposed. He wrote a history of Tazewell county, Va., in 1852, where he was
living at that time, and was president of the Jeffersonville Historical society,
he also published a work on botany, besides writing a number of novels and other
miscellaneous matter of journalism.

The fourth and last daughter is Josephine, and the baby boy Seldon Preston
Hopkins, who is now six years old. The youngest daughter, eleventh and last
child of Charles W. and Mary P. Bickley, was Melissa Catharine, born April 18,
1848. She was married to the Rev. J. M. Massey, of the Holston conference,
November 5, 1868; they now live at Dungannan on the Clinch, Mr. Massey having
located, studied and gone into the practice of medicine.

They had only one child, a daughter, Ellena, who married John Hagan, son of the
Hon. Patrick Hagan, of southwest Virginia fame and notoriety as a lawyer and
capitalist. We now come back to the proper and central subject of this sketch,
viz., the early life training, education and personal character of Elbert
Lafayette, fourth son of Chas. Wesley and Mary P. Bickley. His early training in
the home of his parents so impressed him as to develop, and establish in his
character the principles of industry, economy, prudence and piety. Inheriting
the most potent features of his father's character, with strong convictions, and
indomitable energy of purpose, he as it were forged his way, and built character
from his boyhood.
School facilities were very poor, and the most schooling he got was by walking
about three miles to an old log schoolhouse, and this through snow and slush.
After having made a full hand on the farm through the crop season, which he
always did, leading the hands of the plantation from the age of twelve until he
was grown, in the fall of 1855, on a camp-meeting occasion in Castles Woods, he
joined the Methodist Episcopal church, south, and has lived an acceptable member
ever since.

He was at Stony Point Academy at school the winter of 1861-2, and in the spring
he felt an impulse to go into the confederate army, and with the approval of his
parents left home in March, 1862, going out as special courier with Maj. Ben F.
Bradley, Humphrey Marshall's brigade—was in the first battle at Princeton; in
West Virginia; the following May was with Gen. John H. Morgan at Perryville and
Hickman, Ky.; in Bragg's campaign the following fall. He was kept in West
Virginia along the mountain passes most of the year 1863, having been
transferred to Col. V. A. Witcher's Fifty-fourth Virginia cavalry, and was with
Gen. Joseph Wheeler through Tennessee and Alabama. Thence back to Virginia under
Gen. Preston, serving as adjutant of the Thirty-fourth battalion, Virginia
cavalry.

An attack having been made on the garrison at Winfield, W. Va., Maj. McFarland
was run in and hemmed behind the blockhouse with half a dozen other men—cut off
from the command. Adjt. Bickley planned and led a charge upon the garrison in
the night, and succeeded in liberating Maj. McFarland, losing Lieut. J. L.
Williams and two or three other men. For this Maj. Bickley was presented with a
beautiful sword, which he yet has and prizes very highly.

After the surrender of the confederate State of America, Maj. Bickley returned
to the old home, spent the summer of 1865 in agricultural pursuits, and, not
being satisfied with his education, he resolved to go to school one more
session, which he did, at the rye cove academy during the winter of 1865-66.
Leaving school he spent two years with Col. H. A. Morison at Estillville (as
clerk in a dry goods store), and from thence with Dickenson & Alderson, in
Russell county, where he was given general control of their mercantile business,
until the year 1869, when he engaged in the stock business, and after going east
with and selling a drove of cattle in Loudon county, he returned to the
southwest and continued his journey, passing the old home with the purpose of
visiting his uncle, Joseph Bickley, at Indianapolis, Ind.

Stopped off at Tuscumbia, Ala., and visited a cousin, T. B. Bickley, of Spring
Valley. While there he met and was introduced to Miss Sue Jackson, daughter of
James and Sarah (Hodges) Jackson, whom he subsequently married February 14,
1871. Returning to Virginia with his bride they spent one summer and the
succeeding fall returned to Alabama, locating in what is now Spring Valley, in
Colbert County. Here he opened and established a mercantile business, which he
runs successfully in connection with agriculture; he also, through the
assistance of Maj. Joseph A. Sloss, member of congress, of his district,
established a post office, the first the community had ever had.

Remaining at Spring Valley until 1888, he then removed to Tuscumbia, where he
erected a handsome residence where he now lives. Mr. Bickley was raised to the
master's degree in Free Masonry by Catlett Lodge No. 34, at Estillville, Va., in
1866, and took the degrees as a Knight of Honor about the year 1875, and in 1889
was made a Knight of Pythias by Colbert lodge, No. 12, and of which he is now
the V. C. C. Mrs. Bickley, whilst delicately constituted, and almost an
incessant sufferer, has borne it all patiently, and has been truly a helpmate to
her husband temporally and spiritually. Her life has been a benediction to him
and we might say to all with whom she has come in contact.

With no children of their own they have adopted a niece, Miss Katie L.,
daughter of his elder brother, C. Washington Bickley, having taken her when but
a child of six or seven. She is much the same as if their own, educating her in
the Deshler Female Institute, Tuscumbia, and finishing in the Huntsville Female
College. She is the pride of the household and truly an affectionate, dutiful
child—the staff and comfort of her uncle and aunt—as they pass down the stream
of time.

Confederately
William Rozier

G.W.L. Bickley: The K.G.C. Confidence Game

Review of A Secret Society History of the Civil War 

by Mark A. Lause 

© University of Illinois Press 2011. 

ISBN 978-0-252-03655-2

Yet another academic book which would benefit by a better label such as Old Boys' Clubs, Lost-n-Found Causes, Fools' Gold & Brotherhood-in-Arms, Arm-in-Arm.

Mark Lause, a professor of history at the University of Cincinnati, has written a well-researched and wickedly revealing volume as regards the secret societies which were in operation behind the scenes of the American Civil War. Of particular note are the tales Lause tells of a trio of individuals and their respective organizations; George Lippard’s Brotherhood of the Union, Hugh Forbes’ Universal Democratic Republicans, and George Washington Lafayette Bickley’s Knights of the Golden Circle [KGC].

Gorgeous George, Golden Knights, Counterfeit Confederacy Ring, Etc.

Lause, who concentrates upon the Cincinnati connection, con man Bickley, that in turn makes the KGC the centerpiece of his tome, comments about its wartime role with the rebels: “The Confederates turned Bickley down, but the South did have a secret service that was active in the North during the war. The United States government was convinced the Knights of the Golden Circle were a big part of this Confederate secret service and spent resources tracking down the organization. However, it wasn’t the case, since the Knights and their numbers were greatly inflated by Bickley”.

Lause, who focuses upon the fact that while Bickley and the KGC were never ever really a fifth-column force for the Confederacy, figures what they supposedly stood for played at least a part toward inspiring the actor John Wilkes Booth to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, remarks: “Booth is thought to have been either a member or sympathizer with the Knights of the Golden Circle who were in Baltimore at that time. A man named George Sanders, who was a member of the Confederate secret service, was reputed to have been Booth’s contact via the group. And Sanders was a member of another secret society that advocated assassination”.

Lause, who also shows that on the other side of the coin, some secret societies, such as the Prince Hall Masons, started by a black veteran of the American Revolution and comprised of African-Americans, which not only supported the abolition of slavery but sustained the Underground Railroad as well, states: “Because slaves were members along with middle-class, free blacks, the group routinely rowed across the Ohio River in secret in order to safely hold meetings in a free state.”

Mark Lause, after all is said and done, gives serious students, a scholarly glimpse, interestingly so, of a generous sampling of the intrigues, including but not limited, of course, to Bickley’s KGC con game, that took place backstage throughout the American Civil War.

Sources:

• Brewer, Bob & Getler, Warren; Shadow of the Sentinel: One Man’s Quest to Find the Hidden Treasure of the Confederacy © Simon & Schuster 2003 andRebel Gold: One Man’s Quest to Crack the Code Behind the Secret Treasure of the Confederacy © Simon & Schuster 2004.
• Bridges, C. A.; The Knights of the Golden Circle: A Filibustering Fantasy ©Southwestern Historical Quarterly 1941.
• Crenshaw, Ollinger; The Knights of the Golden Circle: The Career of George Bickley © American Historical Review 1941.
• Dunn, Roy S.; The KGC in Texas, 1860-1861 © Southwestern Historical Quarterly 1967.
• Frazier, Donald S.; Blood and Treasure: Confederate Empire in the Southwest © Texas A& M University Press 1995.
• Hicks, Jimmie; Some Letters Concerning the Knights of the Golden Circle in Texas, 1860-1861 © Southwestern Historical Quarterly 1961.
• Klement, Frank; Dark Lanterns: Secret Political Societies, Conspiracies and Treason Trials © Louisiana State University Press 1984.
• http://suite101.com/article/counterfeit-csa-civil-war-confidence-game-a400218

Virginia Bickley's descend from Sir Francis Bickley

presented by William Rozier

April 26, 2013

The Arms of Sir Francis Bickley:

Arms: Argent a chevron embattled, counter-embattled, between three griffins heads erased sable, each charged with a plate.

Crest: A hind's head ppr. collared argent.

  George Washington Lafayette BICKLEY, (b. July 18. 1823 d. August 10, 1867) was the son of George BICKLEY (d. June 10, 1830), and Martha LAMB, (this why some mistake the L in his name for Lamb.)

His grandfather was Joseph BICKLEY, (b. 8 FEB 1742)

His great grandfather was John BICKLEY, (b. 7 DEC 1713 in Caroline or, King and Queen County, d. 16 September 1793 in Pedlar Mills, Amherst Co)

His gggrandfather was Joseph BICKLEY (Sr), (b. 1679/1685 in Attleborough Hall, Norwich, Norfolk, England, d. 1751 in King William Co, Virginia)

  Joseph Bickley (Sr) was the eldest surviving son of Sir Francis Bickley, (d.1657), Baronet of Attleborough Hall, Norfolk. Sir Francis Bickley married Mary, daughter and co-heir of Sir Humphrey WINCH.

Joseph Bickley (Sr) immigrated to Virginia and in 1703 was in King and Queen county, later moved to King William, and finally settled in Louisa county, where he was the first Sheriff in 1742, and Judge there in 1745. He married Sarah Gessedge, the widow of Richard Gessedge. Sarah bore Joseph Bickley (Sr) a son, William, who succeeded as sixth Baronet on the death of his uncle. Sir William Bickley died Sept.3, 1771, the title going to his eldest son Joseph Jr, who thus became the seventh Baronet

  Joseph Bickley (Sr) fathered the following: William, 6th Baronet, Joseph Jr, John, Frances, Charles, Francis and James Bickley. 

Confederately,

William Rozier