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On the night of January 1, 1863, Confederate General John B. Magruder attacked Federal forces occupying Galveston, Texas. With field artillery and riverboats converted to carry cannon, the rebel forces overwhelmed Union troops stationed at the city wharf and attacked Federal naval vessels in Galveston Bay. Among the Union warships engaged that day was the U.S.S. Harriet Lane,1 commanded by Captain I.W. Wainwright. During the action, the Harriet Lane was boarded by the Confederate troops from the C.S.S. Bayou City, and Wainwright was killed.2 The following day, Harmony Lodge No. 6 of Galveston opened a “Lodge of Emergency,” and following intelligence from the Union prisoners that Wainwright was a Master Mason, the lodge buried him with full military and Masonic honors. Commenting in the minutes of the lodge, the Master observed, it does not conflict with [our] duties as patriotic citizens to respond to the calls of mercy by a prostrate political foe, or to administer the last rite of the Order to the remains of a Mason of moral worth, although yesterday they met as an armed enemy in mortal combat.3
Also buried that day was Wainwright’s second in command, Lieutenant Edward Lea, who was killed in the boarding action. In one of the war’s many ironies, among the boarders of the Harriet Lane was a Confederate army officer, Major Albert Miller Lea—Lieutenant Edward Lea’s father. His son died in his arms.4 Contemporary sources indicate that Masonic honors for fallen comrades were commonly observed, and the historical record is replete with examples in burial notices and obituaries of Masonic funerals on the home front.5 Similarly, it is clear that the comrades of Freemasons who were killed in battle arranged proper burials for their brethren. A typical example is the letter received by the widow of Captain Marcus L. Evans, Company C, 8th Texas Cavalry. HARRODSBURG, KY. What has largely escaped notice, however, are the efforts made to bury Freemasons of the enemy army. Some instances are similar to that of Captain Wainwright, in honoring a fallen foe, but other accounts, lying forgotten in Masonic circulars and periodicals of the past, illustrate a deep concern for a peculiar obligation of Master Masons. An example is found in a letter by Major James Austin Connolly, of the 123rd Illinois Infantry. Writing to his wife, he told of a Masonic burial he encountered during the fighting near Atlanta. [A] Captain who had been buried, had fallen nearer to our line than any other rebel, and he had evidently been decently interred by some Masonic brother in blue, for a headboard made of a cracker box, had been erected at his grave and inscribed with the masonic “square and compass” and his name “Capt. Sharp, 10th Miss., Buried by the 35th N.J. Vols. I know that he will arise again,” all written on it with a pencil, and possibly by the hand of the same soldier that killed him a few hours before.7
The story of the burial of Lt. Commander John E. Hart, captain of the Federal gunboat Albatross, is well known in Masonic circles, and it forms another instance of the importance accorded by Freemasons of the burial of their brethren. Ill with yellow fever during the siege of Port Hudson, Hart shot himself on June 12, 1863, while the vessel was in action near St. Francisville, Louisiana.8 The log of the Albatross noted the following: June 11, 1863: 4:15 p.m. The report of a pistol was heard in the captain’s stateroom. The steward at once ran and found the captain lying on the floor with blood oozing from his head and a pistol near him, one barrel of which was discharged. The surgeon was at once called but life was extinct. We then got underway, and in rounding to get around, the streamers Sachem, General Banks and Bee came to our assistance.9 Acting upon his request that he be given a Masonic burial, two of Hart’s shipmates contacted Confederate forces under a flag of truce and requested to be allowed to conduct a Masonic burial service on the shore, as opposed to consigning Hart’s body to a watery grave in the Mississippi. Captain William W. Leake, CSA,10 and senior warden of Feliciana Lodge No. 31, assented to the request and the funeral was held with Union and Confederate forces attending.11 Hart is buried at the Grace Episcopal Church Cemetery in St. Francisville, Louisiana. Each year the town celebrates the unique circumstances of his burial. His tombstone reads:
After the war at a Confederate gathering in Saint Francisville, Leake gave an account of the incident at the request of the Feliciana Lodge No. 31. In the spring of 1863 the United States gunboat Albatross, Lieut. Commander J.E. Hart in command, was anchored in the Mississippi River opposite Bayou Sara. Capt. Samuel White, whom I knew to be a Mason, informed me that Captain Hart had suicided, and three of the officers of the Albatross, who were Masons, had sent him to ascertain if I would bury the Captain with Masonic honors, and I consented to do so. We collected a few members of our lodge and met the procession, preceded by a flag of truce, at the top of the hill. In the procession were Brothers Benjamin F. and Samuel F. White, of Bayou Sara, the surgeon and two officers of the gunboat (Masons), and a squad of marines at ‘trail arms.’ We marched in front of the corpse to Grace Church Cemetery, and buried Brother Hart in the Masonic lot. The United States surgeon and officers expressed their gratitude to the lodge and members present, and cordially invited us to accompany them on board and partake of their hospitality, but we declined to accept. The surgeon then offered to supply me with necessary family medicines if I would give him a list of what was needed. This I also declined with thanks, but he sent by Brother Samuel White a few medicines. I read the Masonic service at the grave.12 To understand the depths of the commitment to decently inter members of the Order, it is necessary to examine the case of Colonel Joseph Wasden, of the 22nd Georgia Infantry. In his diary, Augustus Woodbury, of the 2nd Rhode Island, describes what he witnessed. An interesting incident occurred immediately after the battle of Gettysburg, which seems deserving of record. The Regiment was lying in the road, supporting the sharp-shooters.… The enemy’s dead were scattered over the field. One of the men of Company C, learning, in some way, that Captain Foy was a member of the Masonic order, brought to him a diploma, bearing the name of Joseph Wasden, and issued by Franklin Lodge, Warrenton, Warren [C]ounty, Georgia. It had been taken from the body of a colonel of a Georgia regiment, which was lying in the road, at a short distance from the position of the Regiment. Considering it his duty, as a Masonic brother, to see that the last rites were properly and decently performed, Captain Foy took with him Corporal Stalker and a detail of two or three men, proceeded to the place, carefully wrapped the body in a blanket, dug a grave in the field near by, under the sharp fire of the enemy’s riflemen, and tenderly and reverently deposited the corpse of the fallen brother therein. A green leaf of corn supplied the place of the customary acacia, and the soul of the departed was commended to its God. It was a graceful and fraternal act, and was well and considerately performed. 13 Colonel Wasden was listed in regimental reports as killed at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863.14 Woodbury’s comrade, Elisha Hunt Rhodes, was with the regiment that day and he also commented on the incident in his diary.15 A Colonel of a Georgia Rebel Regiment was found dead upon the field. Capt. Thomas Foy of our Regiment discovered in some way that the Colonel was a Mason, and with the assistance of some other Masons buried him. As I am not a Mason I do not understand the matter. While the burial was going on the skirmishers were constantly firing.16 Nine months after Gettysburg, in March 1864, Rhodes was granted a furlough home. During that furlough, he was made a Mason at Harmony Lodge No. 9, Pawtuxet, Rhode Island, on March 29, 1864.17 Following the Third Battle of Winchester in September, 1864, Rhodes tells of finding a Masonic friend dead on the field. I found the body of my friend Major James Q. Rice of 2nd Conn. Heavy Artillery and had it buried by itself and shall try to send it home to his friends. He usually wore a fine Masonic pin, but someone had taken it from his coat. In fact he had been robbed of everything of value. I cut a square and compass with his name rank and Regiment upon an ammunition box cover and placed it at the head of the grave. Poor Rice, he was much older than I, but we were intimate, knowing each other as Masons and comrades.18
Masonic gestures and signals were also used to identify members. These motions, taught to every Mason, serve as recognition signals between members of the Order. The Masonic Monthly magazine reported an example of this “mystic tie” that occurred following the Battle of Poplar Grove Church on September 30, 1864. Following the battle, Union troops wished to recover of the body of one of their commanders, Lt. Colonel Charles Cummings, of the 17th Vermont Volunteers, who had fallen just beyond the rebel line. Confederate troops in the vicinity had refused to honor a flag of truce—forcing a Federal officer to resort to another method. An officer of the 7th Rhode Island Volunteers who was a Freemason was on duty on the picket line. He watched … and when he saw a rebel officer he gave the sign of distress among Masons, which was immediately answered by the rebel officer, who happened to be a Mason, and a mutual agreement was made that they should meet as friends between the picket lines. Shaking hands, &c., they found each other to be Masons, and our officer communicated the earnest desire of our Vermont friends to recover the body of Col. Cummings, who was also a member of the Fraternity. The rebel officer could not respond to the request until he had seen the rebel General in command, who it is supposed was also a Mason, for the request was granted at once. The grave was found, and the body was disinterred and found in a tolerable state of preservation, and was recognised at once. He had been buried evidently be rebel Masons, for a headboard was placed over his grave with his name, rank, &c., and evidence of particular care was shown in burying him. He was raised from a dead level in the soil of old Virginia to be interred among his native Vermont hills.19 It is certainly not unusual to afford a decent burial for brothers-in-arms, nor is it unique to the Masonic order to inter the dead with special ceremony. It is however somewhat extraordinary to risk death to arrange a burial for a fallen enemy, or to suspend hostilities to recover a lone fallen comrade. That these acts were performed under individual initiative and not in response to orders is equally remarkable. Endnotes1 The Harriet Lane was a side-wheeled gunboat of 619 tons, with a crew of one hundred. She was armed with three 32-pounders and four 24-pounder howitzers. See Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, ser. I, vol. 5, p. 704. 2 The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Ser. 1, Vol. 15, Chap. 27, “Recapture of Galveston, Tex.,” 218–19, hereinafter cited as Official Records. 3 Roberts, Allen E. House Undivided: the Story of Freemasonry and the Civil War, 2d Ed., (Macoy Publishing & Masonic Supply Co., Richmond, 1990), pp. 145–46. 4 Block, W.T. “A Towering East Texas Pioneer: A Biographical Sketch Of Colonel Albert Miller Lea,” East Texas Historical Journal, vol. 32 (1993), no. 2, p. 23. 5 E.g., “The Obsequies of Col. Terry,” Tri-Weekly Telegraph, Houston, Texas, Dec. 30, 1861. 6 Claiborne, Maria Evans, “Some Interesting Letters Not Heretofore Published,” Confederate Veteran, vol. 13, no. 2 (Feb., 1905), p. 61. 7 Diary of Major James Austin Connolly, “Letter to Wife—Before Atlanta, July 31, 1864,” Illinois State Historical Society, vol. 35, (1899), p. 354, Electronically re-published: Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Library, 2006: http://name.umdl.umich.edu/0050220.0035.001 (accessed June 5, 2006). 8 William R. Denslow, 10,000 Famous Freemasons, 4 vols., (Missouri: Missouri Lodge of Research, 1957–61 ), vol. 1, p. 192. 9 “Yankee Grave Dixie Decorates,” The Times-Picayune/New Orleans, Oct. 24, 1937. 10 Leake was captain of Co. C, 1st Louisiana Cavalry in May of 1862, he was publicly censured for insubordination by General Beauregard in his General Order No. 55 dated May 24, 1862. See Official Record, ser. 1. vol. 10 (Part 2), Ch. 22, pp. 543–44. There is anecdotal evidence that during the time of this incident, Leake was an officer in Co. B, Cochrane’s Battalion. See “Yankee Grave Dixie Decorates,” The Times-Picayune/New Orleans, Oct. 24, 1937. 1 Denslow, vol. 1, p. 192. See also, Irwin, Samuel R. “Unusual Funeral Recalled in St. Francisville,” The Advocate (Baton Rouge), June 18, 2006, p. 20A. 12 “Masonic Burial By An Enemy,” Confederate Veteran, vol. 14 , no. 9 (Sept., 1906) p. 408. 13 Woodbury, Augustus. The Second Rhode Island Regiment: A Narrative Of Military Operations In Which The Regiment Was Engaged From The Beginning To The End Of The War For The Union, (Providence: N.p., 1875), p. 425. 14 Henderson, Lillian, Roster of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia 1861-1865, Vol. II, (Georgia Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1994), p. 934. C.f. Sifakis, Stewart, Compendium of the Confederate Armies: South Carolina and Georgia, (Facts on File, New York, 1995), pp. 225-6. Wasden was reported as a member in returns to the Grand Lodge of Georgia from 1855 – 1859. See Proceedings of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Georgia ( S. Rose & Co. Printers, Macon, Georgia, 1859), p. 121. Wasden served with the 22nd Georgia. His grave was marked with a wooden headboard bearing the square and compasses - and was located at the “southern end of the Codori barn” near the Emmitsburg Road. See Sheldon, George, When the Smoked Cleared at Gettysburg, the Tragic Aftermath of the Bloodiest Battle of the Civil War, (Nashville, 2003) pp. 161-2. 15 Rhodes enlisted in the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry Regiment as a private in 1861 and by 1865 had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. In his extraordinary diary, he records being present at nearly every major engagement in the Eastern theatre, seeing combat from First Manassas to Appomattox. He received renewed national interest following the broadcast of Ken Burn’s television documentary The Civil War (1990); he retired from military life as a brigadier general and died January 14, 1917. 16 Rhodes, Robert Hunt, Ed., All for the Union, the Civil War Diary and Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes, Vintage Books (New York, 1992), p. 111. 17 Rhodes. p. 247. After the war, Rhodes became master of that lodge in 1886. See Rhodes, p. xvi. 18 Rhodes, pp. 177–78. 19 As reprinted in Masonic Review, vol. 30, no. 4, (Cincinnati, April, 1865), p. 106. Michael A. Halleran is a freelance writer and a practicing attorney. His articles have appeared in several national sporting magazines; Shooting Sportsman, and Upland Almanac, among them, and his work has recently been included in an anthology of contemporary American humor. He is a member of the Quatuor Coronati Correspondence Circle and his main interests include Masonic symbolism and ritual, and Freemasonry on the American Frontier. Since 2005, Bro. Halleran has been a member of Emporia Lodge No. 12, A.F. & A.M., in Emporia, Kansas, where he serves in the capacity of lodge historian and junior steward. Editor’s Note: This article is an excerpt from Bro. Halleran’s article, “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Incidences of Masonic Courtesy and Relief in the American Civil War,” appearing in Heredom, vol. 14, due out in late 2006. |
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