Everything about The Knights Of The Golden Circle totally explained
The
Knights of the Golden Circle (
KGC) was a
secret society originally founded to promote the interests of the
Southern United States and prepare the way for annexation of a "
golden circle" of territories in
Mexico,
Central America, and the
Caribbean which would be included into the
United States as southern or
slave states. During the
American Civil War, Southern sympathizers in the
North, known as "
Copperheads," were accused of belonging to the Knights of the Golden Circle. By
1863, membership in organizations influenced by it came to include many citizens and active politicians north of the
Ohio River.
Early history
The association was founded by
George W. L. Bickley, a
Virginia-born doctor, editor, and "adventurer" who lived in
Cincinnati. He organized the first
castle, or local branch, in Cincinnati in
1854 and soon took the order to the South, where it was well received. It grew slowly until
1859 and reached its height in
1860.
Its original object was to provide a force to colonize the northern part of Mexico and the
West Indies and thus extend pro-slavery interests, and the Knights became especially active in
Texas. Bickley's main goal was the annexation of Mexico. Hounded by creditors, he left Cincinnati in the late 1850s and traveled through the East and South promoting an expedition to seize Mexico and establish a new territory for slavery. He found his greatest support in Texas and managed within a short time to organize thirty-two chapters there.
In the spring of 1860, the group made the first of two attempts to invade Mexico from Texas. A small band reached the
Rio Grande, but failed.
Civil War and demise
The South’s
secession and the outbreak of the Civil War prompted a shift in the group's aims from freebooting in Mexico to support of the new
Confederate government. For example, on
February 15,
1861,
Texas Ranger Ben McCulloch began marching toward the Federal arsenal at
San Antonio, Texas, with a
cavalry force of about 550 men, about 150 of whom were Knights of the Golden Circle representing six different castles. While volunteers continued to join McCulloch the following day,
U.S. Army Gen.
David E. Twiggs decided to surrender the arsenal peacefully to the secessionists. KGC members also figured prominently among those who, in 1861, joined Lt. Col.
John Robert Baylor in his temporarily successful takeover of southern
New Mexico Territory, while other KGC members followed
Brig. Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley on the 1862
New Mexico Campaign, which sought to bring the whole New Mexico Territory into the Confederate fold. In fact, both Baylor and Trevanion Teel, Sibley's
captain of
artillery, had been among the KGC members who rode with Ben McCulloch.
Appealing to the Confederacy's friends in the North, particularly in areas that were suffering economic dislocation, the Order soon spread to the southern state of
Kentucky as well as the northern states of
Indiana,
Ohio,
Illinois, and
Missouri. Its membership in these states, where it became strongest, was largely composed of
Peace Democrats, who felt that the Civil War was a mistake and that the increasing power of the Federal government was leading to
tyranny. In the summer of 1863, a
military draft that had been authorized by
Congress was put into operation by President
Abraham Lincoln. This act, together with the suspension of the writ of
habeas corpus, the arrest of seditious persons, and other measures that the Government deemed necessary for the maintenance of national authority, were denounced by the leaders of the party opposed to Lincoln's administration as
unconstitutional and outrageous.
During the 1863
Gettysburg Campaign, scam artists in south-central
Pennsylvania sold fearful
Pennsylvania Dutch farmers paper tickets purported to be from the Knights of the Golden Circle for a dollar. Along with a series of secret hand gestures, these tickets were supposed to protect the possessions and horses of the ticket holders from seizure by invading Confederate soldiers. When
Jubal Early's infantry division passed through
York County, Pennsylvania, they scoffed at these ticket holders and took what they wanted anyway, often paying with Confederate currency or drafts on the Confederate government.
Cavalry commander
J.E.B. Stuart also reported these alleged KGC tickets in his official report on the campaign.
In late 1863, the Knights of the Golden Circle was reorganized as the Order of American Knights and again, early in 1864, as the Order of the Sons of Liberty, with Ohio politician
Clement L. Vallandigham, most prominent of the Copperheads, as its supreme commander. In most areas only a minority of its membership was radical enough to discourage enlistments, resist the draft, and shield deserters. Numerous peace meetings were held and a few agitators, some of them encouraged by Southern money, talked of a revolt in the Old Northwest, which, if brought about, would have ended the war. Southern newspapers wishfully reported stories of widespread disaffection, and
John Hunt Morgan's 1863
Great Raid into
Indiana, and Ohio was undertaken in the expectation that the disaffected element would rally to his standard. Governor
Oliver P. Morton of Indiana and General
Henry B. Carrington effectively curbed the Sons of Liberty in that state in the fall of 1864. With mounting
Union victories late in 1864, the order's agitation for a negotiated peace lost appeal, and officially dissolved.
Famous members
Popular culture
A comic book series based on
The Wild Wild West TV series featured the Knights of the Golden Circle enlisting the aid of
Dr. Miguelito Loveless to assassinate President Grant and the president of Brazil during the Philadelphia
Centennial Exposition of 1876.
The four-part serial entitled "The Night of The Iron Tyrants" was published in 1990-91, scripted by novelist
Mark Ellis, penciled by
Darryl Banks.
The plot of the series was optioned for motion picture development.
The Knights of the Golden Circle were featured as the villains of the graphic novel "Batman: Detective No. 27" by
Michael Uslan and
Peter Snejbjerg and published by
DC Comics in 2003.
The Knights of the Golden Circle are featured as the villains in the CD-ROM game PONY EXPRESS RIDER, published by
AMERIKIDS USA
and
McGraw-Hill's new division,
McGraw-Hill Home Interactive.
The Knights of the Golden Circle were portrayed as the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination in the movie .
Sources
Further Information
Get more info on 'Knights Of The Golden Circle'.
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