MARC Record from harvard_bibliographic_metadata

LEADER: 04668cam a22004454a 4500
001 013679494-7
005 20131108112815.0
008 120710s2013 laua b 001 0 eng
010 $a 2012027974
020 $a9780807150047 (cloth : alk. paper)
020 $a9780807150054 (pdf : alk. paper)
020 $a9780807150061 (epub : alk. paper)
020 $a9780807150078 (mobi : alk. paper)
035 0 $aocn799253832
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dDLC
042 $apcc
043 $an-us---$an-usu--
050 00 $aE458.8$b.K44 2013
082 00 $a973.7/13$223
100 1 $aKeehn, David C.
245 10 $aKnights of the Golden Circle :$bsecret empire, southern secession, Civil War /$cDavid C. Keehn.
260 $aBaton Rouge :$bLouisiana State University Press,$c2013.
300 $avii, 308 p. :$bill. ;$c24 cm.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 261-290) and index.
505 0 $aPrologue: the shadowy knights -- Powerful antecedents -- Formal organization -- The drive for Mexico -- A regional coalition -- Transforming to secession -- The paramilitary's core -- Seizure of federal forts and arsenals -- The plot to seize the District of Columbia -- Rustling Texas out of the Union -- Spreading secession -- Call to arms -- The struggle for Kentucky -- A rejuvenated KGC?
520 $a"Based on years of exhaustive and meticulous research, David C. Keehn's study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret southern society that initially sought to establish a slave-holding empire in the "Golden Circle" region of Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. Keehn reveals the origins, rituals, structure, and complex history of his mysterious group, including its later involvement in the secession movement. Members supported southern governors in precipitating disunion, filled the ranks of the nascent Confederate Army, and organized rearguard actions during the Civil War. The Knights of the Golden Circle emerged in 1858 when a secret society formed by a Cincinnati businessman merged with the pro-expansionist Order of the Lone Star, which already had 15,000 members. The following year, the Knights began publishing their own newspaper and establishing their headquarters in Washington, D.C.
520 $aIn 1860, during their first attempt to create the Golden Circle, several thousand Knights assembled in southern Texas to "colonize" the northern Mexico. Due to insufficient resources and organizational shortfalls, however, that filibuster failed. Later, the Knights shifted their focus and began pushing for disunion, spearheading prosecession rallies, and intimidating Unionists in the South. They appointed regional military commanders from the ranks of the South's major political and military figures, including men such as Elkanah Greer of Texas, Paul J. Semmes of Georgia, Robert C. Tyler of Maryland, and Virginius D. Groner of Virginia. Followers also established allies with the South's rabidly prosecession "fire-eaters," which included individuals such as Barnwell Rhett, Louis Wigfall, Henry Wise, and William Yancy.
520 $aAccording to Keehn, the Knights likely carried out a variety of other clandestine actions before the Civil War, including attempts by insurgents to take over federal forts in Virginia and North Carolina, the activation of prosouthern militia around Washington, D.C., and a planned assassination of Abraham Lincoln as he passed through Baltimore in early 1861 on the way to his inauguration. Once the fighting began, the Knights helped build the emerging Confederate Army and assisted with the pro-Confederate Copperhead movement in northern states. With the war all but lost, various Knights supported one of their members, John Wilkes Booth, in his plot to assassinate President Lincoln. Keehn's fast-paced, engaging narrative demonstrates that the Knights' influence proved more substantial than historians have traditionally assumed and provides a new perspective on southern secession and the outbreak of the Civil War."--Jacket.
610 20 $aKnights of the Golden Circle$xHistory.
650 0 $aSecret societies$zUnited States$xHistory$y19th century.
650 0 $aSecession$zSouthern States$xHistory$y19th century.
650 0 $aGovernment, Resistance to$zUnited States$xHistory$y19th century.
651 0 $aUnited States$xHistory$yCivil War, 1861-1865$xSocieties, etc.
651 0 $aUnited States$xHistory$yCivil War, 1861-1865$xUnderground movements.
655 7 $aHistory.$2fast
730 0 $aProject Muse UPCC books$5net
899 $a415_565387
899 $a415_565102
988 $a20130509
906 $0DLC