The Knights of
the Golden Circle
Who
were they?
Doing
research, I ran across this interesting piece of information and after reading
and seeking what I could find about the KGC, I decided to use these facts to
create a fiction story titled Bed of Conspiracy.
The Knights of the Golden
Circle (KGC) was a secret society in the mid 19th century in the United States.
In 1854 an Indiana doctor named George W.L. Bixley who later ran the
organization out of Cincinnati, Ohio formed this new secret society. The purpose
was to save the south as everyone knew that a war would arrive, facing off the
industrialized north against the agriculture south.
The original objective of the
KGC was to annex a ‛Golden Circle’ of territories in Mexico, Central America,
Confederate States of America, and the Caribbean as slave states to be lead by
Maximillian I of Mexico.
As abolitionism in the United
States increased after the Dred Scot Secession of 1857, the members proposed a
separate confederation of slave states with the U.S. 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.
Whew…that’s a big ticket to
fulfill. They would need men, munitions and money…tons of money. And that’s
where the James boys came in. After the war, they began robbing trains and
banks, even ones here in Kentucky, such as the Russellville, Elkton and Glasgow
banks. But where did all that money go? Civil War Era gold coins, worth $5000
back then, were later found in Baltimore, Maryland in 1935 buried under a house
that was owned by a prominent KGC member before and after the War.
According to some historians,
numerous KGC symbols have been found that were carved into rocks and trees in
various areas of Kansas and Missouri. This would lead someone to believe that
the loot was buried nearby.
Other tales abound: that Bob
Ford never killed Jesse James and that instead James pulled one of the biggest
hoaxes in American history by getting away with his own murder. Jesse James
became James Courtney and settled in Texas. Later, he would disappear for weeks
at a time to go dig up the loot the gang had stashed across the west when his
family needed the money.
My novel takes place in 1876
when the James Boys were still active as was the underground KGC. During this
time, a lot of Southern Sympathizers were converging on Washington DC to over
throw the government and assassinate President Grant. This would become the 6th
and final attempt on his life.
Ahhh…history! Ya gotta love
it!
Until next time…Happy Trails!
Author’s Note
To
me, this is a very interesting little-known fact of our nation’s history that I
have taken liberty with to spin a yarn
about placing the story during the summer of 1876. The Knights of the Golden
Circle were formed in 1854 and became a large subversive southern society that
had organizations all over the country, totaling over 45,000 members at one
time, including a large cell or castle as they referred to them, of
members in Baltimore, Maryland. They stood with the fight for the south’s
agriculture way of life against the northern influences and takeovers. Many
factors were involved leading to the Civil War, and it depends upon which
historical point of view you wish to believe. Even today these arguments are
still being heatedly debated. John Wilkes Booth was a very outspoken member of
the KGC. After the Civil War, The Knights of the Golden Circle went underground and became an active secret society with deadly
force, excelling in sabotage, infiltrating our Government and maintaining a
very efficient spy network. There were and are many stories that continue to
surface about Jesse and Frank James, who were also members of KGC and the banks
and trains they robbed and what happened to the loot that was meant to fund the
secret society’s future endeavors. I began this yarn three years ago but was
called away by more demanding characters who wanted their stories told. A
couple of months ago, I resurrected it as these characters said it was time to
tell their narrative. I have taken the liberty of spinning my own fictitious
account with some of these facts. I hope you enjoy the story.
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