What was the kgc

Mayor Brown and Marshal Kane were soon arrested and thrown into jail without trial. Kane would serve over a year in prison. During the course of the war, from neutral territory, Kane and his cohorts would orchestrate multiple attacks against the Union such as fire bombings, train derailments, and even bank robberies.

Kane was suspected of being the mastermind behind an aborted plot to free two thousand rebel prisoners from a Union military prison on Lake Eerie. The Montreal office seems to have approved the idea, and to have advanced Booth some seed money to organize the plot. After months of recruiting his team, securing weapons, and preparing an escape route, Booth was ready to act. By March Booth and his conspirators were involved in at least two attempts to seize Lincoln as he traveled down Washington, D.

These attempts appear to have been foiled by Lincoln having a change of plans. Then, as Booth and his henchmen planned for yet another attempt at seizing Lincoln and holding him hostage, Union forces succeeded in surrounding Richmond. This forced Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet to flee via the rail line to Danville.

The Davis party took with them the Confederate treasury and the gold of several Virginia banks for safekeeping. Alerted to a sudden change in plans by a Confederate courier, Colonel Kane rode his horse south day and night in time to rendezvous with the retreating Jeff Davis train in Danville.

A few days later, the Davis train departed Danville and headed south to Greensboro, N. Kane stayed behind. So did 39 very heavy barrels 9, pounds total filled with Mexican silver coins, the profits from the sale of Confederate cotton. Kane remained in Danville for nearly four years. The whereabouts of the Danville silver to this day is unknown.

Once back in Baltimore, Kane was quickly appointed to the municipal water board, known as the Jones Falls Commission. He likely secured this appointment with the blessing of Charles Webb.

Saulsbury, now owner of the home with 5, gold coins buried in the basement. In , Kane would run for and win the office of Mayor of Baltimore. One of his first moves in office would be to appoint his longtime friend Charles Webb as tax collector for the city. Webb had always declined political office until the position of city collector was tendered him by Mayor Kane. But Kane died in office soon after. Booth, who had lived just four blocks from the treasure site, was already long dead.

Saulsbury, only 46, died suddenly at his Eden Street home with his wife knowing nothing of the 5, gold coins buried in their basement. Captain Mattison succumbed soon after. One after one, the wealthy conspirators grew old and passed away. At a Freemason memorial service for Grand Master Charles Webb, his Masonic brothers recited a poem in his memory — a poem written by Albert Pike, the most powerful Freemason of his generation and the long suspected head of the secretive Knights of the Golden Circle.

With the early s death of Thomas Armstrong, the man likely responsible for the stash of coins found on-site at The Fountain Hotel in , no one is left who was originally involved with the burial of the coins in the cellar at the treasure house on South Eden.

During the Civil War , leaders of the K. Elkanah Greer of Marshall, for example, served with distinction as colonel of the Third Texas Cavalry , a unit in the cavalry brigade commanded by future governor L. Sullivan Ross.

If such a plot existed, nothing came of it, suggesting that the rumors were just that or that the K. Victory by the Union in the Civil War destroyed the cause for which the K.

Bickley, who served as a surgeon in the Confederate Army before being arrested as a spy in Indiana in July and held until October, died in August Reports of K. Perhaps the greatest historical significance that can be assigned to the K.

Secretive organizations such as the K. It should come as no surprise then that the K. These investigators also allege that many famed characters from the Civil War era, including John Wilkes Booth and Jesse James, belonged to and acted under the influence of the Knights. Some argue that the Knights buried millions of dollars in stolen U. Army payrolls in locations across the Southwest, where the money now worth billions remained under guard into the mid-twentieth century and perhaps even now.

These conspiracy stories associated with the Knights of the Golden Circle are now part of the historical record associated with the organization, but none of them can be reliably documented. Donald S. The confidence of his followers had been seriously eroded before Abraham Lincoln's election as president in November diverted the nation's attention to the secession crisis.

Gatling , a native of Murfreesboro, was suspected of participation in the KGC, but the allegation appears to have been unfounded. Frank L. I have a letter opener that has " Golden Circle Society" inscribed on it and I'm wondering if it is from that era Did the KGC bury large amounts of treasure? You bet! You can read all about it in the new book Knights' Gold. Comments are not published until reviewed by NCpedia editors at the State Library of NC , and the editors reserve the right to not publish any comment submitted that is considered inappropriate for this resource.

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