Rating: 
Summary: An interesting read.
Review: Is there really millions of dollars of Confederate treasure buried in strategically hidden spots across the Continental United States? Yes according to Bob Brewer, co-author of this book.
Shadow of the Sentinel follows Bob's quest to discover and uncover various hoardes of suposed Confederate treasure using his analytical skills, a few clues and a whole bunch of hearsay and supposition. Amazingly he seems to have 'cracked' the code and been on to something. However, we never really find out of he is as he's either stabbed in the back by his erstwhile partner(s) or is refusing to dig as he doesn't have the proper authorisation. Bob Brewer is a smart fellow; he also seems to be a naive fellow, too. If you're confident that you've discovered buried treasure, be sure you really know somebody before you tell them. The book gives a detailed history of the Knights of the Golden Circle whilst Bob's treasure hunt is interspersed with tales of the Knights Templar, Scottish Rite Freemasonry, The Civil War and beyond. A book certainly worth reading even if the conclusion is inconclusive.
Rating: 
Summary: A Mark of Excellence
Review: It seems Bob Brewer really out did himself with this book. I waited many months to get my copy and once it finally arrived I found myself in a constant battle with my 15 yr-old son for reading rights. It wasn't until he stayed up all night to finish it that I was finally afforded the time and peace to get my reading done. Once given the time, I found myself in awe of the magnificent historical aspects of our past. This book truly helps to put many things in the proper perspective that many folks are just too quick to accept by believing someone else's opinion that was made without the proper research. What a "Fantastic" piece of our history!!!!
Rating:
Summary: W.D. Ashcraft is Jesse James meets Indiana Jones!!
Review: It's about time someone wrote a good "bible" for treasure hunters. Brewer exposes the Knight's of the Golden circle like no one before. His story is exciting and his method proven.This is the first time I have seen anyone print the Treasure overlay in the mass market media, this is a good thing for treasure hunters, we can use all the tools we can get. This alone justifies the cost of the book! In years to come, it may be as valuble as "Jesse James was one of his names" by Schrader. The book could have used a little more history of W.D. Ashcraft, the Sentinel, and a little less about Brewers "across America quest" for the treasure. I wish Brewer would have revealed how the overlay realy worked and gave better specifics that we as readers could have used as a foundation to build from. I fell like he told just enough to sell the book, without revealing the system. It left me wondering about the Sentinel, while telling me to much about the shadow. But, over all ,it is a good book , and I hope someone will follow up with a "part 2 " that tells more of the life of the KGC Sentinel and their mapping methods, good job guys!
Rating: 
Summary: Take this book with a large grain of salt.
Review: Sorry, I cannot buy into this one. I have seen other books claiming all these markings are for hidden Spanish gold of the Conquistadors, or the "Lost Dutchman" gold mine, or who knows what. Bottom line, a lot of smoke, very little fire. Finding a few old silver dollars does not mean much. Book contains much speculation and theory, very little proof. Finally, I submit Benjamin Franklin-"Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead." Even if such a hoard was buried, I expect it was dug up many years ago.
Rating:
Summary: Uncover a True Secret of Freemasonry
Review: The "Shadow of the Sentinel" by Bob Brewer and Warren Gettler exposes a suppressed though vital aspect of the history of the United States starting in the pre-Civil War period with implications that are still being felt by us down to this day. This book examines the efforts of the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) -- a secretive, Rosicrucian/Knights Templar/high-degree Masonic-based organization devoted to perpetuate the *ideals* the Confederate Cause including states' rights and individual liberty of a chosen elite to do as they desired free from the tyranny of overreaching federal control. For those who have ever heard the rallying cry, "Save your Confederate dollars for the South will rise again!" By reading this book you now will understand who or what was behind that effort. This book alternates between two interrelated stories. The first story follows one man's (coauthor Bob Brewer's) lifelong quest to rediscover and comprehend the grand designs of a secretive organization in which his Arkansas forebears deep within the Ouachita Mountains participated -- designs mystically traced upon a trestle board deep within the mountains and wilderness areas of this country that turned out to be continental in scope and intended to be decipherable decades if not centuries into the future. Through Bob's research systematically presented in this book he discovers that the KGC evolved to become the driving force behind the acquisition, storage and future retrieval of caches of precious specie and even arms in what has been called an underground Confederate Federal Reserve and Armory. This history exposed for the first time in "Sentinel" constitutes the second threaded story that examines the deliberately suppressed history of this conspiratorial, seemingly seditious organization -- an organization that in its time infiltrated and pulled the strings at the highest levels of US government especially in the 1870s to 1890s long after it supposedly had been disbanded. This book demonstrates how even the Jesse James saga plays a direct role in this effort by making a convincing case that he was a KGC field level commander steeped in the mystical Rosicrucian tradition -- a tradition that dates back at least to Francis Bacon's 1626 publication of "The New Atlantis" that firmly places this country on a course of cosmic Manifest Destiny -- a destiny that is still unfolding to this day. The authors then go on to uncover how even the lore of the Lost Dutchman Mine located somewhere within the Superstition mountain range of Arizona was just another cover story for a main cache designed to fund and arm the reestablishment of a Second Confederacy rising from the ashes like a Phoenix. Author Bob Brewer has developed for himself a pretty good idea where this cache is located using methods outlined and expounded in this book. He doesn't, however, just come out and say were it is for like a good teacher he challenges others to learn the seemingly complex and arcane though sublimely simple methods employed by the KGC for themselves. He leaves the actual solution as an exercise to the reader. Like a questing Grail Knight, he strongly believes that the search itself imparts vital and important lessons that would be lost by just merely relying on using solutions derived by others. As an aside -- In my opinion the main reason that the *noble* though clandestine efforts of the KGC outlined in this book ultimately failed in its objectives is because of its members devotion to the morally bankrupt and ultimately indefensible institution of physical slavery or human bondage lasting in perpetuity. An institution that obdurately clashed with the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Even though Thomas Jefferson, the author of this quote and himself a Rosicrucian adept, was a slaveholder, the physical, pecuniary bondage that is slavery of fellow human beings could not withstand disinfecting power of the light of day and healing power of time. In conclusion, let this book open up your mind to the far richer undercurrents of American History that the authors uncover and skillfully weave in this historical yet ultimately mythical tale.
Rating:
Summary: Uncover a True Secret of Freemasonry
Review: The "Shadow of the Sentinel" by Bob Brewer and Warren Gettler exposes a suppressed though vital aspect of the history of the United States starting in the pre-Civil War period with implications that are still being felt by us down to this day. This book examines the efforts of the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) -- a secretive, Rosicrucian/Knights Templar/high-degree Masonic-based organization devoted to perpetuate the *ideals* the Confederate Cause including states' rights and individual liberty of a chosen elite to do as they desired free from the tyranny of overreaching federal control. For those who have ever heard the rallying cry, "Save your Confederate dollars for the South will rise again!" By reading this book you now will understand who or what was behind that effort. This book alternates between two interrelated stories. The first story follows one man's (coauthor Bob Brewer's) lifelong quest to rediscover and comprehend the grand designs of a secretive organization in which his Arkansas forebears deep within the Ouachita Mountains participated -- designs mystically traced upon a trestle board deep within the mountains and wilderness areas of this country that turned out to be continental in scope and intended to be decipherable decades if not centuries into the future. Through Bob's research systematically presented in this book he discovers that the KGC evolved to become the driving force behind the acquisition, storage and future retrieval of caches of precious specie and even arms in what has been called an underground Confederate Federal Reserve and Armory. This history exposed for the first time in "Sentinel" constitutes the second threaded story that examines the deliberately suppressed history of this conspiratorial, seemingly seditious organization -- an organization that in its time infiltrated and pulled the strings at the highest levels of US government especially in the 1870s to 1890s long after it supposedly had been disbanded. This book demonstrates how even the Jesse James saga plays a direct role in this effort by making a convincing case that he was a KGC field level commander steeped in the mystical Rosicrucian tradition -- a tradition that dates back at least to Francis Bacon's 1626 publication of "The New Atlantis" that firmly places this country on a course of cosmic Manifest Destiny -- a destiny that is still unfolding to this day. The authors then go on to uncover how even the lore of the Lost Dutchman Mine located somewhere within the Superstition mountain range of Arizona was just another cover story for a main cache designed to fund and arm the reestablishment of a Second Confederacy rising from the ashes like a Phoenix. Author Bob Brewer has developed for himself a pretty good idea where this cache is located using methods outlined and expounded in this book. He doesn't, however, just come out and say were it is for like a good teacher he challenges others to learn the seemingly complex and arcane though sublimely simple methods employed by the KGC for themselves. He leaves the actual solution as an exercise to the reader. Like a questing Grail Knight, he strongly believes that the search itself imparts vital and important lessons that would be lost by just merely relying on using solutions derived by others. As an aside -- In my opinion the main reason that the *noble* though clandestine efforts of the KGC outlined in this book ultimately failed in its objectives is because of its members devotion to the morally bankrupt and ultimately indefensible institution of physical slavery or human bondage lasting in perpetuity. An institution that obdurately clashed with the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Even though Thomas Jefferson, the author of this quote and himself a Rosicrucian adept, was a slaveholder, the physical, pecuniary bondage that is slavery of fellow human beings could not withstand disinfecting power of the light of day and healing power of time. In conclusion, let this book open up your mind to the far richer undercurrents of American History that the authors uncover and skillfully weave in this historical yet ultimately mythical tale.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but I'm skeptical of some claims
Review: The weaving of a historical account of the KGC with a treasure hunter's code-cracking is very compelling. The best parts are how Bob Brewer amalgamated knowledge of the Bible, Scottish Rite freemasonry symbols, topographical maps and lore passed along by his Arkansas ancestors to decipher strange codes left on trees and rocks. Then he adapts the same code-breaking system along with Jesse James stories to crack strange maps and signs in Oklahoma and Arizona. Well, it's a good read but the proof is in the digging up of treasure. Since many of the treasure sites are said to be on federal land and Brewer consistently refuses to dig without every "i" dotted and "t" crossed, his deciphering lacks physical proof that can be verified. After reading this book, you'll scoff at the "Lost Dutchman Mine" folklore about Spaniards and vengeful Apaches.
Rating: 
Summary: Rehash of old info
Review: This is a good book by a regional treasure hunter of HIS experiences in researching historical Civil War treasures, his sour grapes from a bad association with several treasure hunting companions, and his strokes of revenge, and a lot of rehashing of material from OTHER books with no conclusions deduced from this OTHER material. The "wagon wheel treasure grid" of the Knights has been published for the last 20 years, several reference books in libraries can be located on the KGC, the Jesse James info was interesting but, like he says, it's straight from OTHER books. Treasure hunters thrive on these books that supposedly lay out intricate research done on large dollar amount treasures -- but if anyone knew definitely of such treasures, they would not be writing a book about it. I find that the most money to be made in this field is writing a book about finding treasure, rather than actually going out finding it. I would have liked to have seen a map of the Knight's proposed new country rather than topo maps from fruitless treasure hunts. Several old "Castle" buildings have been located in other states that had gold bars hidden in them rather than the wheel design buried in the ground. He says he found some fruits jars with old coins and shows a pic of his grandfather riding a horse and says he was guarding a treasure in the forest, and reproduces a hand drawn diagram of a large multi level subterranean storage vault located in Texas, etc., et al., but the research is not tied together and jumps from one topic to another, and never makes a point or disproves certain accepted historical hypotheses, --- and the conspiracy of the sentinels guarding some of the treasure locations is still going on today, which he doesn't seem to quite recognize. I know in Tennessee the sites are still guarded by the families and probably elsewhere, too. But his grandfather's site he says is now on government land yet he fails to introduce a conpsiracy theory that this treasure site was made fed govt land because the feds knew of the Knight's treasure on it. There are more [KGC] in Washington DC than in Mongtomery, Alabama, even according to their membership records, but he doesn't assume that the feds knew Confederate treasure was there! The historical research is just rehashed from other books. I'm not disappointed because the subject matter is obscure and rarely discussed but any major library can provide you with "closed stack" reference books with this stuff in it. But overall the book is a nice journal of an individual treasure hunters experience as he sifted through a lot of details evidently without the aid of professionals and made some progress. In that regard it is inspiring. But I don't want to be over enthusiastic about the subject matter and credit the book with accomplishing anything other than heaping more coals on a somewhat smoldering fire of interest in legendary Civil War treasure that people have been looking for for the last 130 years! I also don't want to be critical at all, but when you write a hardcover book and market it to the public, you have to be ready for other people's opinions. I had expectations of some photographs of a large cave or tunnel, a photograph of a gold bar, BAR, belonging to the CSA, a copy of a bill of lading showing gold shipped to the Bahamas or London. oh, and by the way, I definitely disagree that Jefferson Davis had anything at all to do with leadership in the Knights. He spent too much time in Fort Monroe to want anything to do with anything that would get him in trouble again. He traveled for several years in Europe after the war and probably did know who was involved with the remnants of Confederate treasure, but he himself I cannot believe was involved in any type of leadership of this activity, or should I say, my research does not show any.
Rating:
Summary: A Book You Have To Read...
Review: Wow, what a book. If your interested in reading about lost treasure, this book is for you. Jesse James;The Civil War;The Freemasons,all this is intertwined into an incredible story about a lifelong search for buried treasure.Treasure that has been actually found by the author.Very facinating and revealing reading.
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