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Phineas C. Wright, The Order of American Knights, and The Sanderson Exposé Frank L. Kle7nent The title "Much Ado About Nothing" might well be applied to the story of the Order of American Knights, supposedly a subversive society of Civil War days. It was really a story compounded of a few facts, some fiction, and considerable political propaganda. The complex and rather bizarre story of the American Knights centers around the names of two inconspicuous men. The first was an enigmatic entrepreneur named Phineas C. Wright—he built a makeshift molehill. The other, a second-rate politician who became a third-rate army officer, was John P. Sanderson—he built Wright's molehill into a mountain. Sanderson's public career dated back to Pennsylvania and the prewar years. After dabbling in law, politics, newspaper work, and KnowNothingism , Sanderson joined the Republican party and tugged at Simon Cameron's coattails. He secured a clerkship in Cameron's War Department in 1861 and a colonelcy less than a year later. The congenial colonel moved from one unimportant assignment to another, for West Pointers who held commands would not trust him with a field assignment . In 1863, while in Louisville, Sanderson met Major General William S. Rosecrans and gained a staff appointment just before Rosecrans ' army began its ill-fated invasion of Georgia. Disaster struck at Chickamauga, beclouding the record and reputation of both Rosecrans and Sanderson. Then General U. S. Grant deposed Rosecrans, who went to Newport Barracks, outside of Cincinnati, to await a new assignment. Sanderson tagged along as confidant and court jester. There the two read the Cincinnati Gazette and the Cincinnati Commercial, Republican newspapers trying to link the Democracy to subversive societies and publishing expos és of the Knights of the Golden Circle. It was political propaganda of the first order. When Rosecrans finally received orders to report to St. Louis to head the Department of the Missouri, he invited Sanderson to become his top assistant. War Department bigwigs, like Charles A. Dana and Edwin M. Stanton, held up Sanderson's appointment, for they believed him incompetent as well as guilty of cowardice at Chickamauga.1 In time the 1 John P. Sanderson, "Journal," entries of Feb. 6 and Mar. 25, 1864, Sanderson Papers, Ohio Historical Society. b civil war history Military Committee of the Senate approved Sanderson's appointment as Provost Marshal General of the Department of the Missouri, and the offended officer went to St. Louis to nurture his wounded pride and rehabilitate his reputation. Sanderson assumed his duties in St. Louis on March 5, 1864.2 He found disorder prevalent, factionalism in vogue, and conditions "pitiable ."3 Ardent Republicans urged Rosecrans and Sanderson to dissolve the 'Taw Paw companies," organized as enrolled militia in Democratic districts where bushwackers and Kansas "Red-Legs" had been active.4 Reports circulated that notorious bushwackers were preparing to resume their depredations and that Confederate General Sterling Price, wintering in Texas, was planning a spring offensive. Apprehension, disorder , and distrust surrounded the Rosecrans-Sanderson duo and Missouri factionalism made their assignment more difficult. Sanderson, an inept administrator, groped for solutions. Blinded by his political prejudices, he tended to view all Democratic critics as traitors . He arbitrarily ordered all clergymen to take oaths of allegiance, closed grog shops at will, and made wholesale arrests. Democrats feared that all civil rights would die and that Sanderson's extraordinary measures would only create a "Missouri mess."5 Informers, beggars, liars, story-tellers, accusers and accused visited Sanderson's office. Since he had already made up his mind to devise a secret society exposé to enhance his bid for a promotion, aid the Republican party, and rehabilitate his reputation, Sanderson was more than interested in all the reports and rumors circulating about the Knights of the Golden Circle, the Paw Paws, the Corps de Belgique, and the Order of American Knights. He found the rumors numerous and contradictory , evidence scanty and confusing. Three items which Sanderson found in his files intrigued him. One, a letter written by a prominent St. Louis Democrat while on an errand to New York City, spoke of a conference in Windsor, Canada West.6 A second letter, written by a...

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