A Masonic Incident

[cwdoc45]

Re: A Masonic Incident at 2006 Perryvillle

At the Battle of Perryville this last October 2006, my chief hospital steward of the First Federal Division was given the grand sign for masonic distress by a masonic rebel reenactor on the battle field. The reb had seen the masonic pin on my steward's sack coat. My steward escorted the rebel masonic brother to the EMT's for assistance as he indicated he was having a medical problem. Who says that masonry is not alive on the (reenacting) battlefields today!

cwdoc 45
Dr. Trevor Steinbach - Past Worshipful Master
Armistead-Bingham Lodge 1862 of CW Reenactors
Chartered under the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin

[Dale Beasley]

Re: A Masonic Incident

I finally had time to find it...

http://stfrancisville.blogspot.com/2006/04/day-war-stopped-in-st-francisville-la.html

Wartime Gazette
During The War Between The States

June 12, 1863 Siege of Port Hudson - Extra Edition
Page 1


The Day the War Stopped

Schedule Of Events For Weekend of June 16-18, 2006



Table of Contents
Top Story 1
Letters from the Past 2
Photos 3
The Bonnie Blue Flag 4
Re-Enactment Info 5
Cast of Players 6


Up the steep hill they trudged, sweating in the sticky June heat, staggering under the weight of the coffin, the white flag of truce flying before them in the hot summer sun. The guns of their federal gunboat, the USS Albatross, anchored in the Mississippi off Bayou Sara, fell silent behind them as the ship's surgeon and two officers struggled toward St. Francisville atop the hill.
The procession was not an impressive one, certainly not an unusual event in the midst of a bloody war, and it would no doubt have escaped all notice but for one fact... this was the day the war stopped, if only for a few mournful moments.
It was June 12, 1863, and the Siege of Port Hudson was pitting

30,000 Union Troops


under Union Commander Banks, fighting over the all-important control of traffic on the Mississippi River.
Port Hudson and Vicksburg were the only rebel strongholds left along the Mississippi, and if the Union forces could wrest from them control of the river traffic, they could cut off supplies from the west and completely surround the Confederacy.
Admiral David Farragur had attempted to destroy Confederate cannons atop the bluffs from the river, but of his seven ships, four were turned back, and one was completely destroyed, and his flagship and the USS Albatross passed upriver safely, leaving ground troops to fight it out for nearly another month.

Lt. Commander
John E. Hart,


the federal commander of the Albatross, had just the week before posted a touching letter to his wife, left behind with their young son Elliott in Schenectady, New York. Praising his little boat for getting through the fearsome firing from the batteries atop the bluffs at Port Hudson, Commander Hart promises after the war to take his wife on a trip down the river to see the famous battlefields. As he writes he can hear the cannons booming to the

John R. Rarick, P.M. as" W.W.Leake, S.W."




south, but his attentions are on more immediate matters... how many blackberries his crew have had to eat lately, and how when a "jolly good cow" is spotted he sends a sailor ashore with a pail, chuckling how some rebel farm folk will be surprised when "old Brindle comes home at night and ain't got no milk for them"... how hot it is, and how long since he has seen ice, and how he would love a glass of cool claret and water.
Even in the middle of war, there are mundane little touches of life scattered through the letter from Hart to his beloved wife... the mockingbirds singing around the boat, the little puppy he'd put ashore at Plaquemine to be raise, the shipboard litter of kittens. After perilously running through the Grand Gulf batteries on the river to the north, Hart writes that the Admiral signaled,
"How many wounded?"


And he answered none. And just then Kitty, ship's mouser, produced kittens which Hart insisted become part of the official report.... important to note the wartime births as well as the all too-often deaths.
A valiant naval officer who's skill and bravery were renown, Commander Hart would have even more lasting impact through his death, which occurred as the Albatross lay at anchor near Bayou Sara, having shelled both that low-lying port settlement and the city of St. Francisville atop the bluffs. Masonic and Naval records list Hart as having "suicided," died by his own hand "in a fit of delirium". Perhaps he suffered from dementia induced by yellow fever, for a mere four days earlier he had certainly exhibited no depression or despair in his letter home. At any rate, Hart most certainly died.


Hart was a Mason , and aboard his ship were other officers also
"Members of the Craft"


desirous of burying their commander ashore rather than consigning the remains to the river waters. A boat was sent from Albatross under flag of truce to ascertain if there were any Masons in the town of St. Francisville. Now it just so happened that the two White brothers living near the river were masons, and they informed the little delegation that there was indeed a Masonic Lodge in the town, in fact one of the oldest in the state, Feliciana Lodge No. 31 F and AM. It's Grand Masters was absent, serving in the Confederate Army and it's Senior Warden, W.W Leake was likewise engaged. But according to Masonic correspondence, "Brother Leake's headquarters were in the saddle". He was reported to be in the vicinity, and was soon found and persuaded to honor the request. As a soldier, Leake reportedly said, he considered it his duty to permit burial of the armed forces of any government, even one presently at war with his own, and as a Mason, he knew it to be his duty to accord Masonic burial to the remains of a brother Mason without taking into account the nature of their relations in the outer world.
The surgeon and officers of the USS Albatross, struggling up from the river with Hart's body, were met by W.W. Leake, the White brothers, and a few other members of the Masonic lodge. In the procession was also a squad of Marines at trail arms. They were met at Grace Episcopal Church by the Reverend Mr. Lewis, rector, and with full Episcopal and Masonic services, Commander John E. Hart was laid to rest in the Masonic burial lot in Grace's peaceful cemetery, respect being paid by

Union & Confederate Soldiers alike.


And soon after the war resumed. Lee's northern invasion turned back at Gettysburg July 3, Vicksburg falling July 4, and Port Hudson finally surrendering July 9, all in one catastrophic week.
But for one brief touching moment, the war had stopped in St. Francisville, and Masonic Brotherhood overcame War.

(This is a reprint of an article written by Anne Butler for the St. Franscisville Democrat on June 25, 1998)


(excerpts from the Hart Letters are the copyrighted ownership of William C. Davis, and reprinted with his permission)


© Copyright 2001-02. All information contained within this web site is copyrighted and owned by the respectively listed writers.
For re-print rights, Contact Web Master. Web Site designed by Bro. Keith A. Duncan.

[Dale Beasley]

Re: A Masonic Incident

Here is the other site for the event.

http://www.daythewarstopped.com/

[Jed Millet]

Re: A Masonic Incident

"And it is for this reason, that Mason's (even on opposing sides in a conflict) have extended the hand of Relief and Charity."

"It's that simple. It is for the care and concern of a Fraternal Brother."

Well said Brother Hicks. That sums it up in my book.

Jim "Jed" Dilts
Sts. John Lodge #144
A.F. & A.M.
Eureka, VA