Forty years ago today I met Lynn. We were sixteen and neither of us had any idea what we were signing up for. She’ll tell you the same thing.
What I know now that I didn’t know then: the things worth keeping don’t announce themselves. They just quietly refuse to end.
That’s also the best description I have of the Knights of the Golden Circle.
From Braddock to the Golden Circle
On July 9th, 1755, General Edward Braddock’s column walked into an ambush on the banks of the Monongahela River. Within hours, the most powerful British force on the continent was shattered. Braddock lay dying. A young colonel named George Washington rode through bullet-torn air to pull him from the battlefield.
And somewhere in the chaos, a fortune in British Army gold vanished.
That loss set something in motion. Men who refuse to accept defeat don’t disappear. They reorganize. They wait. They find others who remember what was lost and believe it can still be reclaimed.
It took 109 years for that patience to become something truly dangerous.
By December 1864, the Confederacy was collapsing. Jefferson Davis knew it. His generals knew it. But certain men inside that government, men with deep roots, longer memories, and no intention of surrendering, were already thinking past the end of the war.
They were not planning to lose.
They were planning to wait.
Knights of the Golden Circle · August 2026
Richmond, Virginia.
December 28, 1864.
Seventeen words that ended everything.
‘SAVANNAH HAS FALLEN STOP.’
‘SHERMAN PRESENTS CITY TO LINCOLN AS CHRISTMAS GIFT STOP.’
‘GEORGIA CAMPAIGN COMPLETE STOP.’
Confederate President Jefferson Davis stood at his study window, the single sheet of paper crushed in his fist. His half-eaten breakfast cooled behind him.
A Christmas gift. Sherman had carved Georgia apart and wrapped the pieces in ribbon.
Sleet ticked against the glass like fingernails on a coffin lid.
Three sharp raps echoed through the study.
“I gave orders not to be disturbed!”
The door opened anyway.
“He says the matter concerns… architectural designs.”
The glare left Davis’s face. The crumpled telegram drifted to the floor.
Someone from the inner council.
“Show him in.”
Want to read the full prologue? I will be sharing it in the July 3rd Dispatch, along with the official launch announcement.
Some wars never end.
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Publishers Weekly (BookLife) Editor’s Pick. Kirkus GET IT Pick. PenCraft Best Thriller twice. Free via BookFunnel, no catch.
Download Free, No CatchA Note About Fellow Authors
I read on planes. Give me a window seat and 90 minutes and I will burn through a book before we land. Both arrived as author-to-author recommendations. I read both.
Moore is a British author who has lived on five continents. His Starter Library opens in 1308 England, six rogue Knights Templar hiding in caves beneath a frozen Shropshire field, hunted by the King’s Guard. The history holds up, the action moves fast, and there is a second story that takes a sharp turn into the Himalayas.
If the historical thread in Braddock is what brought you here, Moore is a natural next read. Free, no catch. Two stories.
Danny Coogan is a U.S. Marshal recovering from a gunshot wound, transporting a domestic terrorist across Montana with his retired Navy SEAL father-in-law riding shotgun. Cardwell writes the way veterans talk: dry, precise, and with a very good sense of when something is about to go wrong.
First chapter sample, free.
Free Reads This Month
Two giveaway pools worth a look if your summer reading list needs reinforcements.
Dark Night Reading. Thriller, Suspense, Crime and Mystery. June 1 to June 30.
Until next month, keep hunting.
David R Leng
Echoes of Fortune. The Past Never Ends. It Echoes into the Present.