Patriotic Brigade   

On Sunday December 24th (Christmas Eve) 1865, 6 ex-confederate soldiers met at the office of Judge Thomas M.Jones to form a club or society to amuse them. They were Captain John C. Lester of the 3rd Tennessee Infantry., MajorJames R. Crowe of the 3rd Tennessee Infantry., Calvin Jones, (son of Judge Thomas M. Jones) Adj. of the 35thTennessee. Regiment Captain John B. Kennedy of the 3rd Tennessee. Frank O. McCord, Editor of the Pulaski Citizen and Private in the 3rd Tennessee, and Richard Reed also of the 3rd Tennessee. They all thought it was agreat idea and they appointed a committee composed of Richard Reed and Calvin Jones to come up with a name for the organization and they agreed to meet the following evening. The following night when they met, the committee presented the name “Kuklos” from the Greek word for circle and since all 6 men were of Scotch/Irish decent; John Kennedy suggested theword Clan to follow Kuklos, all agree except they changed the C to K and making Kuklos two words thus the name KuKlos Klan.It remained for several months until it was suggested that the middle word be changed to Klux. History does not give a reason for this. Major Crowe also suggested having costumes in order to make the club more mysterious.Major James r. Crow went on to serve in the Tennessee Legislature. There he was quoted, “The origin of the order had no political significance, it was purely social and for our own amusement and it proved a great blessing to the entire South and did what the State and Federal officials could do not—It brought order out of chaos and peace and happiness to our beloved South and I’m proud to say that I never knew of any single act done by the original K.K.K. that I am ashamed of.