Narrative of Edmund Wright; his adventures with and escape from the Knights of the golden circle ...

Front matter

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Chapter I

Introduction — Love of Right — The Author acquires his Education in the North — He Marries a Yankee Woman — Takes her to the Sunny South — Finds his Father a Knight — The Author Bitten by the Snake — Opinions of other Victims — The Serpent Jewel — Illinois Copperheads — Spies in the North — Reuben Stout — Atrocities of the Order — Court of Saint Hive 15

Chapter II

Renewal of Old Acquaintance — Who propagates the Mongrel Breed of Yellow Pine-colored Wenches and Mahogany Male Chattels — There are true Men North and South — Gin and Sugar an Infallible Remedy for Yankee Blood-letting of Southern Chivalry — The Author talks like a Plymouth Rock Boy — Scripture will not do for Slaves — A Yankee Wife Charms the Ire of a Veteran Knight 25

Chapter III

Qualifications for Knighthood — Aristocracy the Standard — Initiation — Satanic Oath — Awful Scene in an Alabama Temple — How the Order Raises the Financial Sinews of the War— The " Gray Cross "—The " Raven's Plume "— " Master of the Rose of of the Circle " — Location of Lodges in Northern States — " Trust not a Coward where the Wind blows cold." 30

Chapter IV

Adherence to the Order, or Death — The South, Right or Wrong — Sectional Prejudices — The Test Oath — Illusions — The Author Astounded, but not Cowarded — The Flaming Serpent — The Final Oath — The Mission of Man, White or Black — The Fiend-like Group — Knight of the " Columbian Star " — Sir Ass — Blasphemy of the K. G 39

Chapter V

Schemes of Knights holding high Official Positions in the Federal Capital — How Stephen A. Douglas was Slaughtered by them — Red Rose Breckinridge flaunts the Emblems of Treason under the nose of an Imbecile President — Floyd, Toombs and Wigfall — Beauregard's intended Castle at West Point — Dirty George N. Sanders — J. D. B. and C. L. V.— A Cairo Rebel Youth and a Peddling Spy— Terrible Atrocities on Tombigbee River — Union Men and Women Smothered in a Cave — Blair, an inhuman fiend, r'enders his account to the Prince of Darkness — 'Liza and Little Jack — The Brains of a Child distributed 54

IV CONTENTS.

Chapter VI

Credulity of a noble veteran Southerner — Perception of a Yankee Wife — She outgenerals in argument her newly-knighted Spouse — The Turning Point — St. Augustine Castle — Commission for the Establishment of New Temples — Villainous Designs, most widely known, the sooner exposed 69

Chapter VII

Advice of a Dying Knight — Removal of the Author to Georgia — Confidence in a Northern Woman — A Letter that told — The North has an inkling of Traitorou Schemes — Extinction of Slavery must bide its time — How Patriots Write — Summons to St. Augustine Castle 74

Chapter VIII

Heresy at Galveston — Detectives — Sealed Instructions — Ex-Clergyman jKnight — A sound Judge — Galveston Knights too smart for St. Augustine — Fool's errand — Postoffice not public — Experience therein — Acts of the Triumvirs — "Under the Pump" — "March of the Crescent" — Detectives in " durance vile." 79

Chapter IX

A Judge brought to Judgment — He Quails Not — Ruse of the Parson — Extraordinary Harangue of the Triumvir Chief — The Lone Star on her Dignity — Galveston not Augustine — The Great Room of the Temple — " Let the Craven Three Approach" — Decree of the Soldan — The Judge all Spunk — He Disappears 89

Chapter X

"The Souvenir of Treachery" — The Judge returns with a tight-fitting Collar — Firmness not to be Intimidated — The Parson Quavers — The Five Signals — " Traitor's Doom " — Villainy Triumphs over Nobility of Soul — Massacre of the Judge — Resolution of the Author — He Vows Retribution and Bides His Time 96

Chapter XI

The Milk in the Cocoanut— The Parson and Author in Better Lodgings — Opportune Discovery of Crinoline and Accompaniments — Hypocrisy — The Parson Emigrates to the Land of Nod — A Clerical Vail Available in an Emergency — Somnolent Guards— Crinoline Challenged— "Who Goes There?" 101

Chapter XII

Missy Clary personified — Liberty Regained — Widows plenty in Galveston — Influence of the Almighty Dollar on " Widder Kindercut" — Hoops Discarded in the land of Dreams — Hunger requires no Luxury — Uncalled for room-mate — Price of an Escaped Prisoner in the Lone Star State 105

Chapter XIII

Modesty severely Tested — Caution comes to the Rescue — Waking Dreams between the Sheets — Proximity of the Sex murders Sleep — Disguised Crinoline in Jeopardy — Galveston Femiuines not quite such Fools as they seem — The Author must needs "cave," and resorts to the Golden Charm — He makes a Virtue of Necessity, and bargains for a more Masculine Metamorphosis 110

Chapter XIV

Suspense — " Widder Kindercut " on the Alert — Down the Cellar — Suspicious Bundle — Another Disguise Essential to Safety — One Hundred Dollars Pass Like a Dose of Salts — Kindercut Personified Lowers the Dignity of Texan Valor — Whisky a Remedial Agent in Desperate Cases — How Sary Concealed False Whiskers — Capillary Adornments Rather Expensive 114

Chapter XV

Galveston in the background, and Lafitte's Fort tho hoped-for Haven of Safety — The Hand Bill — Short "Shutes " have their Impediments — "Devil's Hole " prepares for a Siege — Quagmires hold tight — Friendship in the rough not to be Sneezed at — Booty and Beauty — Rendezvous in the Cactus 119

Chapter XVI

Thoughts of Home — Preparations to Reach it — Another Disguise — Trail of the Pursuers Discovered — Break Camp on a Venture — Embarkation under a Salute not Bargained for — Sea Fight — Skillful Maneuvering of a Small Craft — The Enemy Submerged, and all is over — Haven on a Rocky Coast 124

Chapter XVII

Inaccessible Harbor — Backwoodsmen ever ready with Resourses — Perilous Ascent — Catastrophe to a Heroic Adventurer — He finds a Watery Grave — Up or Down — Desperate Efforts for Life, or Certain Death — Visions of Starvation — A night of Horriblo Suspense 128

Chapter XVIII

Coveted Supplies Intercepted — Their Rescue at the Cost of Blood — Human Snakes — Feast Beside the Corpse of a Noble Scout — He Bequeaths His Body as a Decoy to Entrap the Murderous Band — His Death Terribly Avenged, and a Hecatomb of the Villains Follow Him to the Dark Waters — A Parley with One-sided Conditions — Again on the Tramp for Civilization — Arrival at the Crescent City 132

Chapter XIX

Revolution in the Order and a new Dispensation inaugurated — Disunion of the States the determined purpose of the Traitors — Return to St. Augustine — Exciting Scenes

VI CONTENTS.

— The Parson re-appears upon the Stage — He imparts most heart-rending intelligence — Wife and Child murdered and the Author desolate 137

Chapter XX

Conspiracy to accomplish the Author's Death — Villainy under the guise of Friendship — A high-souled Yankee Wife Nohly defends her Virtue and baffles the purposes of a Southern Knave — His murderous attempt upon her Life — Poisoning of her Child — The Mother soon follows her to the Realms of Bliss 143

Chapter XXI

Terrible Scene of Domestic Desolation — A Heart-broken Parent — Sorrow among the Tombs — Progress of Escape — Arrival at Charleston — Soldan of Galveston Castlo holds a high position in the Army of Rebeldom — Again in a Loyal State — Incidents in the Quaker City — Traitors in the North and their Disloyal Purposes—Northern Lovers of the Union, beware of the insidious wiles of Villains in your midst — Is coperheadism Democracy? — Conclusion 147

ASTOUNDING DISCLOSURES!

T E HJL IP L E S

OF THE

Chapter I

Introduction — Love of Right — The Author acquires his Education in the North — He Marries a Yankee Woman — Takes her to the Sunny South — Finds His Father a Knight — The Author Bitten by the Snake — Opinions of other Victims — The Serpent Jewel — Illinois Copperheads — Spies in the North — Reuben Stout — Atrocities of the Order — Court of Saint Hive.

In the course of every man's career through life, opportunities are presented to him, when, if embraced, he may enlighten his fellow-man.

The school of experience is a hard one, and has been most essentially so to the writer. Still, the hard lessons he has learned will not deter him from imparting to his fellow-men the knowledge he has acquired.

Throwing aside all other lessons learned, some most pleasurable and others equally abhorrent to my innate love of right, I at once essay a theme, which duty to myself, mankind and my country, impels me to perform.

" The Knights op the Golden Circle." — To add to the imperfect history and workings of this institution already given to the world, I, who blush that it was my misfortune to have been lured into the meshes of tl\e most damnable organization ever conceived of outside of the lowest depths of pollution, propose to enter the inner temple, in which I have been time and again, and portray a few of the horrid scenes there witnessed.

Before fully encountering the task I have planned, in my mind, it may not be amiss to say a word or two as to myself.

Born of parents whose lot had been cast in a Southern section of this once great and happy Republic, and whose forefathers, from the days of the Revolution, had been honored with, and had given honor to, the high positions they held, by men whose offspring are now in open rebellion against the Union of their fathers' love, I passed the earlier years of my life in the Sunny South. Atlanta, Georgia, was the place of my birth; a pretty little town, and will so continue, unless the blight of secession overshadows it with its all-pervading curse. The circumstances of my father enabled him to give me an opportunity to acquire an education and to " see the world."

In those days, to visit Charleston and New Orleans was the hight of my ambition. The visit to both was made, and I returned home. On the part of my mother it was suggested that I had not yet seen enough of the world, and that by all means I should go North and see the outside barbarians, called ''Yankees." Well, suffice it to say, I went to the " land of steady habits," to learn, or rather to teach the people there what we knew in the South, but at once I found I knew nothing.

Disgusted with my ignorance, of which I felt conscious, I determined to remain in the North until I could hear from home. I visited Fanuiel Hall, the libraries and other noble institutions of Boston ; took a trip to the Empire City, looked into some of her great manufactories, saw the shipping of her port, and wondered where all the boxes of dry goods, hardware and many other manufactures, came from, especially as I was impressed with the belief that to my native South all America, if not all] the world, was indebted for everything useful, needful or luxurious.

Time rolled on, and remittances reached me from home, with permission to remain in the North awhile, if I thought I was adding to my store of knowledge. I thought so, especially as I had acquired a very good knowledge of the fair and intellectual daughter of a "Yankee." Enough, we were married. She wished to seethe Sunny South, and so did I. In a week or two she saw her motherin-law, and I my mother ; but my father was not at home. He was on a visit, as mother informed me, to a conclave of the K. G. C. in a neighboring town.

To me K. G. C. was all Greek.

"You will have to join the order," says mother. "Your father will expect it, and so will all your friends."

Before I had time to reply to mother, the door opened and in rushed my father. Though I at once recognized him, I was forcibly struck with his manner and appearance. When 1 left home he was sedate, affable and courteous to all ; now he appeared a beinsj wholly unlike his former self.

" Got back, Ned, have you ?" was his first salutation.

I arose, offered him one hand, and with the other drew my wife from her seat, and introduced her to him.

" Been getting married, have you. Hope you haven't brought any Abolition woman to disgrace our family."

I told him that, though she was of a Northern family, neither she nor they were Abolitionists.

"Don't talk nonsense to me; all Yankees are Abolitionists, and it has been so decided by our noble order of K. G. C. You must join the order at once, or I will disinherit you. Will you do so at our next meeting ?"

Totally ignorant of the character and purposes of the organization, I, without hesitation, assented. Then was it that I fell into the coils of the venomous serpent, which soon, as I will relate, held me as a charmed bird within its baleful influence, until, by the blessing of God and the glorious impressions implanted in my bosom while in the North, I burst the accursed fetters, and once more stand erect as an American freeman, with the full determination to expose, so far as in me lies, the hell-engendered machinations, orgies and purposes of that disgrace upon civilization, Christianity and decency ; that emanation from the arch-fiend himself, when, in his bitterest mood, he would avenge his fall from the presence of the Almighty — I mean the organization known to devils, and alas ! to men, as

" THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE."

Induced, as I have already stated, in an unguarded moment, I consented to become a " Knight," and through the influence of my father I was readily admitted to membership in the initiatory degree of the order. Step by step I advanced until the goal of infamy had been attained. In my soul I was fully convinced that the career I was pursuing was most infamous ; but, having entered upon it, I determined to pursue it to the bitter end; and the proud satisfaction I now have is to atone for my error and persistence . therein, by thus warning others against falling into the infernal vortex that engulfed me, until the light of returning reason enabled me to escape from that sink of iniquity.

As it is the intention of the writer, to defer for future chapters of his hastily written work, an exposition of the origin, purposes, rites, ceremonies and iniquities of the hell-begotten bands, who, in numerous localities constitute the Golden Circle, he proposes to prelude the leading subject matter of the book, with a few details of others, who, like himself, were ensnared by the serpent.

An intelligent friend having learned that this work was in the course of preparation, has handed the following, as a hastily written statement of his experience with the " Knights : "

" Having been a sufferer in everything by which pain can be inflicted upon weak humanity, and all attributable to that hell-born legion of the Knights of the Golden Circle, who accomplished the destruction of my home, and were the cause, fell and accursed, of the murder of my wife and infant boy, a brother and a dear friend ; I believe I would be held recreant to manhood, did I not lay bare many facts which occurred in the immediate vicinity in which I lived for several years. The atrocious and damnable deeds practised upon the unwary, weak and inoffensive people, who stood in the path over which these fell destroyers stalked, appals my every sense, even now, when my bitterest woes have been somewhat temporized by the hand of time, in its slow progress toward eternity. A sense of duty, like an incumbent necessity, demands that I should expose most fully, the infernal machinations which the Knights of the Circle employ to entrap their victims, or to ensnare those whom they afterward employ as mere tools, with which they inflict tortures upon all those who are opponents to this association; whose compact is a deed of horrid darkness, and one of such a desperate nature, that no man possessing a spark of virtue, could believe it born of earth.

" Far and wide have these so-called Knights and their emissaries, traveled over this once happy land, planting their castles wherever the blighting cause of secession found advocates, and, like the serpent that charms its prey, the more readily to secure its capture, they have allured thousands of good but unwary men, into their meshes of destruction, from which but few escape. Take heed then, men of America, and be counseled, for these fiends are around and about you, gnawing at the very vitals of your liberties. You may not have seen its sycophantic smile and fair exterior, that when it would destroy you seems a very paradox of honesty. You, good and loyal reader, have cast your lines in happier places than have fallen to the lot of thousands of your fellow Americans ; for, although in New York and Philadelphia, and Boston and Cincinnati, and even in such cities as Portland, Springfield, Albany, Brooklyn, Indianapolis and Detroit, there are feeble organizations of the Knights, a wholesome public sentiment has kept them in tolerable subjection.

" But, men of the North, be vigilant, watchful as the angels of the night that guard you when devils plot and plod through darkness and light. From many, many woes and tortures — tortures that emaciate the body, unsettle the mind and damn the soul to eternal agony — I would save you !

" Can it be possible that any one who, having mind enough to comprehend the smallest things of earth, will deny that there. exists a horrid complot, a foul conspiracy that strikes at the very roots of our liberties, that seeks to rudely tear asunder the glorious legacy of a united brotherhood of States, that was signed and sealed with the best blood of our noble forefathers; that labors untiringly to disrupt our county and tear in twain our nation ?

" Who will deny this ?

"Do we not each day, as time speeds on, hear the morning gun and the evening gun of the enemy on our borders ? Do we not from every battlefield hear of tortures and wounds of our sons and brothers, and those who are dear to us % And the great record of the heroic dead ! On fame's imperishable tablets, the myriads of names that stand out in letters of light, of those who freely gave their lives an offering to liberty, prove that an effort of the most fiendish desperation, on a scale of hellish magnificence unprecedented in the history of the world, has been made by the leaders of the secession movement, to undermine and overthrow, at all hazards, the Union and the Constitution.

" Who will deny this ?

" Who ? Why the Knight and the Copperhead — arcades ambo ! They are those who are the friends of the Union (as they want it), and the Constitution (as it never tvas and never will be). The Knights of the Golden Circle are the fathers and mothers of Secession, and the Copperheads are their weak and sickly bantlings. They would not attack the Union nor injure the Constitution! Oh, no ! not they ! Like Judas, they would betray with a kiss ; and like Brutus, stab you to the heart while smiling in simulated friendship ! They are not bound by any compact, except with members of their own order, and all their oaths, and bonds and protestations to others, are made without faith !

" Who is «ihe foe that to-day flaunts a strange banner in our faces, as the emblem of a separate nationality in our young Republic ? "Whose serried ranks menace our homes, and threaten to make them the scene of a bloody conflict? Do we know this enemy ? Is he merely the Southerner, who thinks his rights are assailed, and who fears an abridgment of some of his esteemed privileges ? Is it the disciple of the true democracy, who takes a bold stand for the rule of the people ?

" No, no, none of these !

" On the red field of Antietam, there was an officer of exalted rank in the Southern army, whose hair of silvery grey gave dignity to his appearance, and whose counsels commanded the respect of his companions in arms. Among the marks of his rank, there sparkled a strange jewel, a golden serpent coiled in a circle, and crested with jet enamel. The eyes of the serpent were formed of beautiful diamonds, that fired and sparkled with every movement, of the wearer. The ornament conveys no riddle. The darkness of the night is black to our sense of seeing ; so was the crest of the serpent. The coil was a golden circle. What more simple? Knight of the Golden Circle ! But why the emblematic serpent ?

"In the midst of the bloody slaughter of that bravely contested field, the man of the silvery locks and serpent emblem, led a division to charge the center of the Union army. He rode madly, and wildly urged his men to the fray ; but a movment on the part of the Northern troops to flank his command had escaped his attention, till he found himself hemmed in with only two regiments to second his efforts, the balance of the division engaged against great odds, and his situation was desperate in the extreme. At that moment, a new rallying cry from their foes, greeted the ears of the Union boys. 'Red Rose ! Red Rose ! to the rescue ! " Mark the result : The fire on the Southerners almost entirely ceased, and a m

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General with two regiments, that were justly prisoners to the skill and prowess of the Union arms, marched away to rejoin their division, with little more trouble than they would have had in the ordinary evolutions of a dress parade ! The Red Rose is not peculiar, then, to the Southern clime. It blooms also at the North, and was represented in both armies at Antietam !

" In the Union Army there was a regiment known as ' One Hundred and Ninth Illinois.' Where is it, and what is its record ? It was raised in that gloriously loyal and truly patriotic State, nominally in response to the call of our Government for men to fight the battles of the Union ; but ye who. doubt the power and influence, and intentions, and damnable purposes of the Legion of the Circle, mark the result ! Every man of that regiment, from its colonel to the extreme tattered end of its last hanger-on, was connected with lodges, temples, or hives of the Knights ; and after betraying into the hands of our foes full details of all our plans, and assisting them to rob us of large' amounts of property, they went over, every man, — body, soul, and breeches, — to the army of the Secessionists ! Innumerable facts, of the same general character, are patent to the world.

" Who conveys, in untranslatable cipher, or cunningly-devised hieroglyphics, information to our Southern foe of all our plans and movements ? We can not and must not shut our eyes to the humiliating fact that they receive such information daily ; but how do they get it ? Spies sent from the South ? Never ! A thousand Southern spies could not effect, for the cause of Secession, what is now done for it, by those in sympathy with its foul purposes in our very midst.

The serpent with the glittering eyes has coiled its slimy folds around weak men and bad men, at the North, and is dragging them away, unceasingly, to its great prototype and master, the devil. The serpent with the glittering eyes is the king of the Copperheads ! They bow down to him, and do his bidding ; and grow weary with " watching over the border," that he may profit thereby.

" Men of the North, beware of the serpent !

" What is the record of Reuben Stout, a member of the Sixtieth Indiana Infantry ? He, poor boy, was shot at Johnson's Island, in October last (1863) for desertion ; but, before his death, he made a confession. He was allowed to go home on furlough, and when there, he states with his dying breath, he was met by several Copperheads, who persuaded him not to return, and promised him protection. They told him that it was a vile ' Abolition war,' for the benefit of the negro against the white man, or for negro equality. That the man who would fight in such a cause, lowered himself below the grade of the African. They induced him to join the Knights of the Golden Circle, and he states that one of the obligations of the order bound him to do all he could against the war, — to resist the draft, if one should be made ; and likewise to resist and oppose all confiscation and emancipation measures, in every possible way. The members were also sworn to stand by each other in all measures of resistance, and to do all they could to prevent another man or dollar going from the State for the further prosecution of the war. This was the lesson that men, who should have had discretion, taught this inexperienced boy; and, acting in accordance with such teachings, when a squad attempted to arrest him, he killed one of the party. Compared with those Indiana Copperheads, he was guiltless ; and they should have suffered the punishment. If the devil does not get them, there is little use of having a devil any longer !

" Of course, these references to individual cases will be understood as simply in elucidation of general facts. Incidents of the same character might be recited to the extent of an ordinary volume, and even then leave the story incomplete. Still these facts are not appreciated. There is an undefined impression or slow belief in the minds of a majority of the people that there is something wrong in the management of things; that there is a bad leak somewhere, but they are above believing in a conspiracy at the North, to play into the hands of the enemy. The plain, unvarnished facts are understood by but few, but with that few there is no mistake.

" Mark it !

"There is a powerful secession organization at the North, growing daily more powerful, and using every means at their command for the success of the so-called Confederates. We may call them Copperheads, Knights of the Golden Circle, Butternuts, or whatever else we please, the facts lead to the same aggregate result, and the names are sufficiently synonymous to be included under one general classification.

" Mark it again, men of the North !

"Not to leave any one in the dark regarding this writing, I have been for years a member of the Order of Knights. I knew the organization in its infancy, when the Secession of the Southern States was only hinted at in whispers among a chosen few; when not more than sixty men in the whole land knew ther-e was such a purpose in the mind of anybody ; and when, in all the cotton states but one, such an idea would have been scouted as the rankest treason. It is no freak of these latter days. It is older than South Carolina nullification, for that was the still-born offspring of its epileptic conception. Since that time, it has daily grown in strength and stature, spreading its, branches far and wide, until it has made its power felt in nearly every State of America. It is a powerful Order, and the danger lies in the fact that its power is vastly underrated by the unitiated.

" I have sufficient reason to know what its power is. I have seen it exercised in more ways than I have inclination to recite. I have known it to part husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, to tear asunder the bonds of the church, to murder the weak', and drive the indigent forth to starve ! I have seen it rob virtue of its brightest jewels, and murder chastity in sportive glee ! The.blood of its victims, sacrificed for opinion's sake, would float an pgosy ; and, altogether, the history of its crimes form a record so damning that it would disgust and appal a thousand generations of Neros and Borgias ! It has tracked me thousands of miles — > twice across the Atlantic, once beyond the Rocky Mountains, ovei half the States of the North, and its bloodhounds are to-day on my track, I have no doubt.

" Less than a week ago, I recognized a peculiar sign made by a gentleman in the streets of the city where I am now writing. I answered it instinctively, without thought. He came close to me, and spoke as follows :

" Up Court 3. On the white."

" I bowed, and passed on. I walked slowly till I came to a corner of the square, and then I didn't walk slowly. I made all haste to my boarding-house, and changed my clothes completely, disguising myself in clothing I had procured for the purpose against a time of need. My informant had told me, in the above apparently-senseless message, that there was to be an immediate meeting of the Court Street Hive, for the reason that there was a Southern traitor among us. Too well I knew who that traitor was, and what the action of the meeting would be could they catch him. My life would not be worth praying for ; but they were not shrewd in the selection of a messenger to carry the summons, and so I have again escaped. my God ! how long shall such things prosper in a free country ?