From the Publisher

"In Shadow of the Sentinel, Bob Brewer and investigative journalist Warren Getler tells the fascinating story of the Knights of the Golden Circle and the hidden caches the KGC established across the country. Brewer reveals how, with agonizing effort, he eventually deciphered the fiendishly complicated KGC codes and ciphers, which drew heavily on images associated with Freemasonry. (Many of the key KGC post Civil War leaders were Scottish Rite Masons, who used the cover of that secret fraternity to conduct their activities.) Using his knowledge of KGC symbolism to crack coded maps, Brewer has located several KGC caches and has recovered gold coins, guns, and other treasure from some of them." Shadow of the Sentinel is the most comprehensive account yet of the activities of the KGC after the Civil War and, indeed, into the 1900s. Getler and Brewer suggest that the clandestine network of KGC operatives was far wider than previously thought, and that it included Jesse James, the former Confederate guerrilla whose stage and bank robberies helped to fill KGC treasure chests.

From The Critics

Publisher's Weekly

Conspiracy connoisseurs tired of contemplating whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone will feast on this tale of the 19th-century doings of the Knights of the Golden Circle. According to treasure hunter Brewer (aided by Bloomberg News editor-at-large Getler), who attempts to unravel their secrets in hopes of finding millions of dollars of hidden gold, the KGC was a sinister group of influential Southerners intent on engineering the secession of Southern states. They supposedly conspired to split the 1860 Democratic convention so that a weak candidate would emerge, guaranteeing Lincoln's election and support for secession-a deep game indeed. Losing the Civil War sent them underground, where, the authors say, political theorist and KGC member Jesse James, whose death they faked, led them to amass a fortune primarily through the pedestrian crimes of bank and stagecoach robbery and, more creatively, by collecting a multimillion-dollar award from Mexican Emperor Maximilian as repayment for aiding Maximilian's tottering regime. They hid their treasure, preserving knowledge of its whereabouts through a series of devilishly complex symbols known only to initiates for the day the South would rise again. Brewer believes some of his relatives were "sentinels" charged with protecting the KGC's hidden treasure. As fanciful as the group's history sounds (and the authors admit it is heavily based on circumstantial evidence), Brewer is convincing that the code existed and that he deciphered some of it, and his treasure hunting meets with modest success. In the end, this is a curiosity that will strain many readers' credibility, but leave a lingering "Maybe." Photos, maps. Agents, Matt Bialer and Robert Gottlieb. (June) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Getler (editor at large, Bloomberg News) chronicles the history of the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC), a Confederate secret society that hid postwar rebel treasure and outlaw booty across the South and West in hopes of someday financing a second civil war, together with co-author/treasure hunter Brewer's decades-long quest to locate these rich depositories. Based partially on anecdotal and circumstantial evidence, with a healthy measure of conjecture thrown in, this study makes some bold claims with regard to the KGC's historical influence: that the organization orchestrated member J.C. Breckinridge's Democratic candidacy in 1860, that it was behind New York City's anti draft riots of 1863, that it used the Ku Klux Klan as both a stalking horse and its militant arm following hostilities, and that it was involved in Lincoln's assassination. Members and fellow travelers, North and South, range from George McClellan to Jesse James. Brewer's searches carry him from Arkansas's Ouachita district to Arizona's Superstition Mountains. Readers may find numerous accounts of KGC cipher and cryptic Masonic-linked inscriptions on trees and rocks both somewhat baffling and repetitive, and the transitions between KGC history and Brewer's treasure-hunting activities are less than seamless. Recommended for dedicated treasure hunters, adventure collections, and large libraries.-John Carver Edwards, Univ. of Georgia Libs. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.