150 YEARS AGO: General demands end to guerrilla hunter’s ‘villainous conduct’

[CCCalco]

150 YEARS AGO: General demands end to guerrilla hunter’s ‘villainous
conduct’
By RUDI KELLER

June 8, 2014

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/civil_war/150_years/years-ago-general-demands-end-to-guerrilla-hunter-s-villainous/article_c3dd0628-eeb6-11e3-976c-001a4bcf6878.html

EXCERPT: "ST. LOUIS — Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans again insisted that
President Abraham Lincoln send a responsible agent to personally receive
a report on the activities of secret societies dedicated to overthrowing
the government.

The previous day, Lincoln had assured Rosecrans the report would be safe
in the hands of an express courier.

“The nature of the information is too grave involving the interests of
the country and the safety of individuals to admit of transacting the
business through the express,” Rosecrans responded.

Provost Marshal General John Sanderson was working on a report detailing
the activities of an organization known variously as the Knights of the
Golden Circle or the Order of American Knights. Waves of arrests were
already underway. Two suspects from Callaway County, Thomas Howard and
his son, John Howard, both denied involvement when they were
interrogated this day.

The older Howard, 67, said he kept to his business as a physician and
did not engage in politics. “I have no knowledge of any lodge of the
Knights of the Golden Circle in Fulton,” he said in his deposition. “I
am not a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle. I belong to no
secret political organizations.”

One agent, operating under the name William Taylor, reported from Renick
that Maj. Reeves Leonard had arrested several members from that town and
placed them on parole in Fayette."


The Knights of the Golden Circle Research and Historical Archives
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Knights_of_the_Golden_Circle
http://knights-of-the-golden-circle.blogspot.com
http://knightofthegoldencircle.wordpress.com