On this Memorial Day I found myself thinking about the Civil War when Brother fought brother in this great country. I have recently had the privilege to edit a collection of works by Freemason writers which the Philalethes Society published in 2009 under the name Fiat Lux. Among the many fine articles is one written by Allen Roberts entitled “Masonry under Two Flags”. The following are a few instances involving Freemasons who fought and in many cases died, on both sides of this bloodiest of American conflicts.
Freemasons did not go easily onto the killing fields. For more than a decade Grand Lodges fought to prevent the slow slide into a bloody conflict which would set Brother against Brother.
“Love S. Cornwell, Grand Master of Masons in Missouri in 1856, asked: ‘Is there a Mason hailing from the land of the Puritans, who so far forgets his duty as to set laws at defiance, and attempt to propagate his political creed by force of arms … or is there a Mason hailing from the sunny South, proverbial for honor, generosity and benevolence, who is willing to sacrifice this temple of freedom, upon the altar of ambition?’ Within a period of two years from the day he spoke, many Grand Masters and individual Masons asked the same question. All of them pleaded for understanding and peace.
There are many verified instances of Masons helping one another, although on opposing sides, during the build up to this War. Many occurred in Kansas while blood was being shed because of the passage of Stephen Douglas’ Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Douglas had actually submitted his bill in an attempt to still the talk of hostilities then running rampant. It had the opposite effect, which caused the Grand Lodge of New York to send a sympathizing letter to the Grand Lodge of Kansas. The letter called for Masonry to ‘Let her do her kind offices in mitigating the severities of civil war, which in the days of other years, have marked her career through far more fearful and protracted scenes and come out unscathed, unsullied, and without the smell of fire upon her garments, and stood forth luminous, the admiration of the moral world.’
“President James Buchanan, a Past Master of a Pennsylvania Lodge, during the dedication ceremonies of the Equestrian Statue of Washington pleaded for understanding between the opposing factions. The applause he received indicated the citizens of the country agreed with his sentiments. Not so the fanatics.
“James McCallum, Grand Master of Tennessee, sent a letter to every Grand Lodge seeking ‘for some means of escape from the dire calamity that seems so certainly impending over us as a people.’ Other Grand Bodies were unsuccessfully looking for a peaceful solution, even though all hope of peace appeared Lost.”
Despite all the efforts war came and our country ran red with the blood of our citizens. Still the mystic tie that binds the Masonic Brotherhood held as men wearing the uniform of the enemy rendered aid to their fallen Brothers.
In 1862 while attempting to disrupt the Confederate railroad between Atlanta and Chattanooga, a group of Ohio raiders including Marion A. Ross, a Freemason, were captured. While a prisoner he was visited by Confederate Brothers who gave him assurances of friendship and brought him small amounts of money with which he was able to help feed his fellow prisoners.
There were many such incidents both great and small in which Freemasons from both sides paused in the killing fields to recognize each other. This is also from “Masonry Under Two Flags”
“ . . after a battle at James Island, South Carolina. Major Sissons of the 3rd Rhode Island, bearing a flag of truce, and accompanied by three officers, all of them Masons, approached a group of Confederates. The Major remarked to the Southern officer who approached: ‘I suppose by the tools you carry I have the honor of meeting a Craftsman, as well as an enemy in war?’
“The Confederate officer replied: ‘You do, and I am happy to meet you as such.’ He then sent for some of his fellow Masons. They cracked a bottle of wine and drank to the health of the Craftsmen, whether in peace or in war.”
The last post:
“Daniel Butterfield, a member of Metropolitan Lodge No. 273, New York City, was a businessman turned soldier. He did not appreciate the way the bugle calls were causing his regiment no end of confusion, so he decided to do something about it. At Harrison’s Landing one night in July, 1862, he composed a new call because the final one of the day, ‘Extinguish Lights,’ sounded ‘too formal.’ His composition became the now famous ‘Taps.’ Its popularity was not confined to the Union forces; it also became a welcome sound in the Confederate camps.”
Compassion recognized neither blue nor gray:
“John Edwin Mason, a war correspondent who was a Freemason, wrote about the Battle of South Mountain and of a Mason who fell mortally wounded at twilight: ‘When night had drawn around her sable mantle, and the roar of battle ceased, and all was still save the groans and low moaning of the wounded and dying lying on the field, two Generals again embraced each other; they were Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis and our dying hero, Maj. Gen. Jesse L. Reno. They were classmates at West Point, but there was something stronger than early friendship that bound them together. It was Freemasonry.’
“The Correspondent went on to tell of a Confederate officer whose life he had saved. When the Southerner asked him why he had helped him, the writer replied: ‘Because you are a Royal Arch Freemason’
‘But,’ said the Confederate, ‘I have been fighting against you, and all such as you for a year.’ Mason told him to ‘go and sin no more.’ As the Surgeon walked up to them the South Carolinian promised, ‘I will never cease to love the flag I honored in boyhood, until we three, or three such as we, meet together in heaven.’
“During the Battle of Antietam a soldier handed Colonel Edward E. Cross, a member of North Star Lodge No. 8, New Hampshire, a slip of paper on which a [Masonic] sign had been crudely made with blood. The colonel sent for several Masons in the company and in a short time Lieutenant Edon of the Alabama volunteers was carried to the hospital of the 5th New Hampshire. Before the battle ended the stable turned into a hospital contained ten Federal and two Confederate Masons. For several days they were cared for by Surgeon William Child and Chaplain Milo M. Ransom, both Masons from the Granite State.”
It became very popular for Freemasons to wear Masonic insignia in plain sight on their uniforms that they would not be shot by a fellow Brother. There were many instances of small patrols being allowed to pass safely through enemy positions solely because someone the opposite side refused to fire on a fellow Mason.
I will close this commentary on the civil war with a final excerpt from Allen Roberts’s paper. “The citizens of St. Francisville, Louisiana, were amazed when they saw a small boat from the USS Albatross approaching the shore under a flag of truce. The guns of that ship had been firing into the town at will. They were even more surprised later to witness Northern and Southern men dressed in Masonic regalia escort the body of the commander of the gunboat to the cemetery of Grace Episcopal Church—the church and cemetery which were pock-marked with exploded shells from the guns of the deceased.
“Under a brilliant Southern sun on June 13, 1863, the ancient funeral rites of Masonry were held for Lt. Comdr. John E. Hart, a member of St. George’s Lodge No. 6, New York. The acting Master was William W. Leake, Senior Warden of Feliciana Lodge No. 31, Louisiana. He was also a captain in the Confederate army. When informed of the request for a Masonic funeral for his enemy, Leake state: ‘As a Mason I know it be my duty to accord Masonic burial to the remains of a Brother Mason, without taking into account the nature of his relations in the outer world.’
“The war stood still in that part of the world while the magic rays of the brotherhood of Freemasonry flashed in all their brilliance through the dark clouds of bitterness to illuminate all those around. The rays continued to spread warmth; ninety-three years later, the Grand Lodge of Louisiana placed a permanent marker over Hart’s grave with the beautiful phrase: ‘This monument is dedicated in loving tribute to the universality of Freemasonry.’
“Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia moved into the North during the latter part of June, and on the first day of July General Henry Heth, the last Senior Warden of Rocky Mountain Lodge No. 205, leading the Confederate advance met the lead forces of General Meade and pushed them back through the streets of Gettysburg. The Federal troops were rallied by General Winfield S. Hancock, a member of Charity Lodge No. 190, Pennsylvania, on the heights near Evergreen Cemetery.
“The fighting raged furiously for three days and culminated in an infantry charge the likes of which the world had never seen. Three Confederate generals who were Virginia Masons played an important role in the charge up Cemetery Ridge: George E. Pickett of Petersburg No. 15, Lewis A. Armistead of Alexandria Washington Lodge No. 22, and James L. Kemper, a Past Master of Linn Banks Lodge No. 126. Through a hail of death they and their thousands of men charged to die or straggle back. The Union lines held. The three day battle was over.
“General Armistead reached the top only to fall mortally wounded. His friend, General Hancock, sent another Mason, Colonel (later General) Henry H. Bingham, to his assistance. But during the night Armistead died.
Today a statue stands in the cemetery at Gettysburg commemorating this act of Brotherly love.
Something to contemplate this Memorial weekend.