stb-1992-03
Bro. Sheldon A. Munn (a member of Lafayette
Lodge #194, Selins Grove, PA) is a student of the Civil
War, particularly the Battle of Gettysburg. Bro Munn
gives many lectures as well as writing on the Civil War
and is a licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg We
thank him for preparing this Short Talk Bulletin.
Editor
MASONS AT THE
BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG
by Sheldon A. Munn
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought in
the hot, sticky days of July Ist, 2nd and
3rd, 1863. Confederate General Robert E.
Lee had brought his 70,000 soldiers northward for food and supplies; to relieve
Virginia from the ravages of war; to influence the powerful northern Peace Party
to stop the war, and to gain Confederate
recognition and support from Britain and
France. Lee also was looking for an opportunity to defeat the Union Army away from
its base in Washington, D.C.
Twenty-seven months before the Battle of
Gettysburg, the first shots of the war
between the states were fired between
Masons. Confederate Brigadier General
P.G.T. Beauregard fired on Union Major
Robert Anderson, defending Fort Sumter
in Charleston, South Carolina. Beauregard
was a Mason and Knight Templar from
New Orleans, Louisiana. Anderson was a
Mason from Trenton, New Jersey.
As the war began with shots fired
between Masonic brothers, so did the
greatest battle of the war. It was in the
morning hours of July 1, 1863, when
Lieutenant Marcellus Jones fired the first
shot that began the Battle of Gettysburg.
Jones, a carpenter and a Mason from
Wheaton, Illinois, used a Sharps 52-caliber
breech-loading rifle, invented and manufactured by Christian Sharps, a Mason from
Philadelphia. The shot that Jones fired was
directed at Confederate troops led by
Brigadier General Henry Heth, a Mason
from Rocky Mountain Lodge in the Utah
Territory.
In mentioning the Rocky Mountain
Lodge, you will find it interesting to know
that while it surrendered its charter due to
the war, over two hundred Masonic Lodges
were created during the war. An even more
unusual circumstance unfolds when we
learn that John C. Robinson, a Union
Brigadier General and immediate Past
Master of the Rocky Mountain Lodge, was
heavily involved in the first days fighting
at Gettysburg. The desperate fighting that
day also involved Confederate Major
General Henry Heth. Henry Heth had been
John Robinson's Senior Warden in the
Rocky Mountain Lodge.
Later that morning, Union Brigadier
General Solomon Meredith, a Mason from
Indiana, and Colonel Lucius Fairchild, a
Mason from Wisconsin, met and held the
Confederates on the bloodied fields and
woods between Herr's Ridge and the
Seminary for over 8-hours. Among those
attacking Meredith's legendary Iron
Brigade and Fairchild's hard-fighting 2nd
Wisconsin Intantry regiment was Confederate Colonel James Connor, a Past
Master of Landmark Lodge in Charleston,
South Carolina. Colonel Henry Morrow of
the 24th Michigan was with Meredith's Iron
Brigade. During the furious fighting, Morrow was struck in the head by a Confederate
bullet. Later, a Confederate surgeon, identifying himself as a Mason, decided that
Morrow's scalp wound was "too serious"
for him to be marched away as a prisonerof-war. This act of Masonic compassion
probably saved Morrow's life.
The very first regimental volley of the
battle was fired by the men of the 56th
Pennsylvania Volunteers, led by Colonel
John W. Hofmann, a Mason from Norristown, Pennsylvania. Before the first days
battle ended, Hofmann's bloodied regiment
would be forced from the fields north of
the Chambersburg Road by a gallant charge
led by Major William Cox, commander of
the 2nd North Carolina infantry. William
Cox was a Mason from Raleigh, North
Carolina. He was wounded eleven times
during the war and would later become a
Brigadier General. Cox also became a Congressman and served as the Grand Master
of North Carolina for four years.
Early in the evening of the 2nd day's battle, on the ridge north of Devil's Den,
Union Major General Winfield Hancock
told Colonel Edward Cross, "Today you'll
earn your star" meaning that Cross would
win his promotion to Brigadier General for
his brilliant service over the past two years.
Colonel Cross, a Mason from New Hampshire, had received twelve wounds during
his heroic service, however his thirteenth
wound would be fatal and he was killed
leading his brigade against the attacking
Confederates led by Brigadier General
George Thomas Anderson, a Mason from
Atlanta, Georgia.
According to Lieutenant General James
Longstreet, Commander of the Confederate First Corps, the most gallant
charge of the entire war was led by
Brigadier General William Barksdale, a
Mason from Jackson, Mississippi. When
Longstreet ordered him forward, Barksdale
was on the front-line. It was in that position, after forcing the Union lines to collapse and retreat, that he was shot--
mortally wounded--wearing a clean white
linen shirt fastened with Masonic studs.
Barksdale's courageous charge was
directed at the bloody Peach Orchard,
defended in part by the men of the 2nd New
Hampshire regiment (Co. B) led by Captain
Thomas Hubbard, a Mason from Concord,
New Hampshire. Hubbard was killed on the
battlefield and was buried by Confederate
Masons.
Consider the significance of this act,
when soldiers in the midst of a major battle, take the time and care to bury an enemy
soldier! Unusual in every sense of the word,
but not so unusual when you consider that
it happened between Masons.
While the entire southern end of the
battlefield erupted with savage fighting at
the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, and
Devil's Den, a hero was born on the rocky,
wooded southern slope of Little Round
Top. Colonel Joshua Lawrence
Chamberlain, formerly a language professor at Bowdoin College in Maine, was
in command of the 20th Maine Infantry
defending the critical Union left flank. The
determined Confederates launched attack
after attack against Chamberlain's shattered line. The gallant defenders held their
position heroically despite their fearful
losses. Running out of ammunition, and
without reinforcements, Chamberlain knew
that the next Confederate attack would
destroy his line and cause the loss of the
Federal armies strong defensive position. It
was then that Chamberlain, a man schooled in religion and language, ordered his
men to fix bayonets and charge the attacking Confederates in a swinging barn-door
like maneuver. His unorthodox attack
shocked the Rebels, causing them to scatter in hurried retreat. Chamberlain was a
Mason, a member of United Lodge in
Brunswick, Maine. He would receive a
Congressional Medal of Honor in recognition of his courage and heroism at
Gettysburg.
While Chamberlain was gallantly defending the southern end of the Union's
fish-hook shaped line, another Mason was
desperately trying to overrun the Union
army on the opposite end of that line on
Culp's Hill. John Brown Gordon, a successful businessman and lawyer from
Georgia, had fought with brilliance
throughout the two years prior to Gettysburg. Gordon had been severely wounded
nine-months earlier at the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862). A bullet hole
in his hat had saved him from drowning in
his own blood as he lay unconscious on the
battle field. Gordon was a man of extraordinary compassion and care--a trait taught
at our fraternities holy altars. During Gordon's attack on the first day, which resulted
in the Confederates forcing the Union
Army to retreat from their position in the
fields north of Gettysburg, Union Brigadier
General Francis Barlow was severely
wounded. A Confederate bullet paralyzed
his arms and legs. When Gordon, in the
midst of his attack, saw Barlow, he dismounted, gave Barlow water from his canteen and saw that he was cared for. Another
instance where a Mason's compassion and
care for his brother transcended the hostility normally found between enemies.
The Battle of Gettysburg was culminated
in an attack, the likes of which the world
had never seen, nor would ever see again.
It was on the atternoon of July 3rd, following a two-hour cannonade of volcanic proportions, that three Confederate Generals,
all Virginia Masons, led the attack that has
become known as Pickett's Charge. Correctly named Longstreet's Assault, Major
General George Pickett, Brigadier General
James Kemper and Brigadier General Lewis
Armistead led their 12,000 men across the
mile-long rolling fields to crash against the
center of the Union line near the clump of
trees that became the "High Water Mark
of the Confederacy."
As the Confederate tide swept closer to
the Union line, a sergeant in the 14th
Virginia Infantry came upon some Union
skirmishers huddled in the tall wheat, who
had been cut off from their retreat. The
Virginians would have been fully justified
in killing the Union soldiers. They were the
enemy! But the sergeant recognized a
Masonic sign--the sign of distress--thrown
by one of the Yankees and ordered his men
to pass them by. Wasn't it fortunate that the
Virginia Sergeant, Drewry B. Easley, was a
Mason--a member of South Boston Lodge,
in Halitax County, Virginia.
Brigadier General Lewis Armistead was
the only officer to pierce the Union line. As
Armistead crossed the low stone wall that
formed the front of the Union defense line,
he shouted, "Give 'em the cold steel boys!"
Holding his black hat on the tip of his
sword to guide his men, since all his colorbearers had been killed, he led his 150 Virginians amidst the swirling tide of bluecoats. Placing his hand on a hot, smoking
Union cannon barrel, he claimed it his, in
the name of the Old Dominion. Instantly
he was struck by two bullets and fell, giving the sign of distress, ". . . as the son of
a widow." At the same time, Major General
Winfield Scott Hancock, the general commanding the Union troops defending the
line at the center of the Confederate attack
saw his old friend and Masonic brother fall.
Hancock, a member of Charity Lodge in
Norristown, Pennsylvania, who was severely wounded at the same time, ordered his
chief of staff, Captain Henry Harrison
Bingham, a Mason from Philadelphia, to
go to Armistead's aid. Bingham had Armistead taken to the 11th Corps field hospital
where he received the best medical care
possible. When Armistead died, Hancock
saw that his personal belongings were
handled according to his wishes. The
Armistead-Hancock story is most unusual,
especially when you consider that they were,
in fact, enemies. But it is not unusual when
you consider that they were Masons. Again
we witness the power of brotherly-love, care
and concern ... transcending the most
severe hatred and hostility associated with
battle.
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought between 70,000 Confederates and 93,000
Union soldiers. Over 50,000 men became
casualties in those three terrible days. The
Confederate Army would retreat back into
Virginia and the war would continue for
another eighteen months.
The war began with shots fired between
Masonic brothers. The greatest battle of
that war was started with shots fired between Masonic brothers. How do you suppose the war ended?
Come with me, to that chill, damp,
Easter Sunday morning on April 9, 1865,
in Appomattox, Virginia, when over
112,000 well-fed and well-equipped federal
soldiers surrounded the 26,765 starving,
ragged Confederates--all that remained of
the once invincible Army of Northern
Virginia. It was a time for the Yankee's to
shout and cheer! It was a time to celebrate.
It was the end of the war--the bloodiest,
in American casualties, that the world had
ever seen or would ever see again. 618,000
men became casualties. But, the killing
years were finally over! No one would have
disputed the Yankee's right to scream, shout
and cheer. But when Confederate General
John Gordon brought his battle hardened
Stonewall Brigade on the field to lay down
their guns and furl their tattered flags,
Union General Joshua Lawrence
Chamberlain ordered his men to give their
former enemies a full military salute. It was
an honorable and heartfelt act. It was the
first act to heal the wounds of a nation and
that greeting was given by a Mason! It was
an act that uplifted the spirits of every man
present. But then what would you have expected? Remember that both Joshua
Chamberlain and John Gordon were
Masons, representing a brotherhood that
was never divided, now dedicated to a
nation indivisible.
Let us take pride from the heritage of dedication and heroism demonstrated by our gallant
brothers who advanced the principles of
freedom, liberty and justice. And let us share
that pride with all Americans to the advancernent of our fraternity and the good of America.
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