Shadow of the Sentinel: One Man's Quest to Find the Hidden Treasure of the Confederacy

A Navy man and nephew of the secret Knights of the Golden Circle society recounts his efforts to crack the society's system of codes and symbols to identify treasure sites across the American south and west, discussing in the process the group's clandestine history and links to Jesse James. 50,000 first printing.

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.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Buried treasure! Secret societies! The South shall rise again! Yes, all the red-blooded elements of a boy's adventure story crowd this tale, except that, tall as it is, it purports to be true. While growing up in the 1950s, Brewer learned at his grandpa's knee that rebels cached gold in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas to finance round two of the Civil War. After a career in the navy, Brewer dedicated himself to pursuing the story, written up here by reporter Getler. This exceedingly recondite story involves Scottish Rite Freemasonry, codes, cabalistic carvings on trees, Jesse James, a furtive entity called Knights of the Golden Circle, and a helluva lot of speculation. Still, Brewer is convinced the Confederacy's hidden treasury is still out there waiting to be dug up; alas, he unwisely confided one location to a rogue who allegedly absconded with the multimillion-dollar rebel stash. But Brewer perseveres, secret maps in hand, searching in, aptly enough, Arizona's Superstition Mountains. A saga that inveigles more than it convinces. Gilbert Taylor
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