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People
Vermont Masons
in the Civil WarAlbert Parsons Bellows, Eleventh Infantry
He is buried in Woodbridge Masonic cemetery, Woodbridge, CA.
2nd Lieutenant Edgar A. Beach, 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters, Company H<
"He was wounded in the right thigh on the 27th of October, 1864, at the battle of Boydton Plank Road, Virginia. He lay on the battlefield without covering of any kind, without any thing to eat, and, of course without having his wound dressed, for five days. His sufferings were great, for during the first night it rained very hard. At the expiration of this time he was picked up by the rebels and taken to the Confederate Hospital, Washington Street, Petersburgh, Virginia, where he remained seven days. here he received good treatment and had plenty to eat. From thence he was taken to Richmond and confined in Libby Prison Hospital. While in this prison he suffered considerably, but much less than many other of his comrades did; for making himself known as a member of the Masonic fraternity, he found friends who ministered to his wants. Whilst laying upon the field of battle he was robbed of what money he had, his knife, picket-book, two gold pens and case--and in fact everything he had, even to a half-cent he had carried some ten years. On the 5th of February, 1865, he was paroled." (L. C. Butler, The Memorial Record of Essex, Vermont, (R. S. Styles, Book and Job Printer, Burlington, 1866), pp. 18-9.
William Bond, 2nd Infantry.
When Marble Lodge of Masons was chartered in Danby after the war, he was senior Warden and Second Master. He joined the chapter Council and went on to become a Shriner. He was a member of H. V. Vaughn Post No. 79 of Danby of Grand Army of the Republic ( G.A.R.) whose last member, Eugene Mcintire, died in 1931.
Alson H. Braley, Ninth Infantry
He homesteaded a farm in Kellogg Iowa in 1866, Married Dell Anna Jackson in 1872 (Ohio), had 2 sons. Ernest, my grand uncle, Harry Jackson Braley, my Grandfather. Eventually, became WM of Kellogg Masonic Lodge 1891-3. I have the tinted portrait of him from the lodge. Died May 31, 1921 in Wesley, IA, and was buried in Kellogg. Contributed by his great-grandson Alson Braley.
Henry Bradley Brown, Eighth Infantry
The funeral service was held in the Whitingham Baptist church, following a prayer service at the house. burial was in the Niles cemetery beside his wife. The Masonic burial service was read at the grave.
Mr. Brown was a member of the Baptist Church of Whitingham, Unity Lodge of Masons of Jacksonville, and the Grand Army Post. He was the oldest man in town as well as the oldest Civil war veteran. One other veteran, Martin Fox, who is but a few months younger than Mr. Brown.
Stephen Brown, Thirteenth and Seventeenth Infantry, the "Hachetman of Gettysburg."
Listed as a Mason in Allen E. Roberts' House Undivided: The Story of Freemasonry and the Civil War.
Erastus Buck, Captain, Third Vermont, Co. I
The Masonic Lodge of Island Pond, Vermont, issued a resolution to mourn the loss of their brother, Captain Buck, who "loved the stars and stripes" and "discharged his duties as becomes a Patriot and a Mason." (Carol Reardon, "Lewis A. Grant and the Vermont Brigade in the Wilderness," in The Wilderness Campaign, Gary W. Gallagher, editor, (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1997), 228.
Charles Clark, Co. I, Seventh Infantry. See Masonic gravestones
Charles Cummings
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Cummings when the war broke out was the editor of the Brattleboro Phoenix, and the popular clerk of the Vermont House of Representatives. His tastes were not military; but moved by earnest patriotism he enlisted as a private in the Brattleboro company of the Eleventh regiment, in the summer of 1862, and was chosen first lieutenant of the company. A few days after that regiment took the field he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the Sixteenth regiment, with which he served during its term of service. After a short period of rest in the summer of 1863, he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the Seventeenth, and commanded the battalion through most of its service up to this time. He was left bleeding on the field, and in the first returns of casualties, he, with Major Eaton and Lieutenant Tobin, were reported as "wounded and missing." Two days after the information came through the enemy's pickets that he died on the field and had been buried where he fell. A few days later, through the kind offices of members of the Masonic fraternity, of which order he was a prominent members, his remains were disinterred and delivered to his men, by whom they were sent to Vermont. They were finally interred October 26th, at Brattleboro, with Mason honors and especial marks of respect. (Benedict, Vermont in the Civil War, ii:523n).
Albert A. May, Second Infantry
Reunion remarks indicating he was a mason.
Azariah Faxon Wild, Eighth Infantry
He is buried in Masonic Rest Cemetery, New Orleans, LA.
Captain E. F. Reynolds, Sixth Infantry
"Captain Reynolds was a member of the Rutland company of the First regiment. He re-enlisted in the Sixth, and was chosen captain of his company at its organization. He was a brave and patriotic soldier, and his loss was deeply felt in the regiment. His body was sent to Vermont, and was interred, at Rutland, April 23, 1862, with military and Masonic honors. [Captain Reynolds, wounded, then killed in action, Lee's Mill (Dam No. 1), April 16, 1862.
Jacob Ullery, in his 1894 Men of Vermont: An Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters and Sons of Vermont, identifies the following Civil War veterans as Masons:
Myron W. Bailey, Third Vermont Infantry
Joel Clarke Baker, Ninth Vermont Infantry
John L. Barstow, Eighth Vermont Infantry
Alphonso Barto, Fifty-Second Illinois Infantry
Luther Loren Baxter, Fourth Minnesota Volunteers
Edson G. Blaisdell, Quartermaster's Department, City Point, Virginia
George Herbert Bond, Sixteenth Vermont Infantry
Charles W. Boutin, First and Fourth Vermont Infantry
Harvey S. Brookins, Eighth Minnesota Volunteers
Charles M. Chase, Thirteenth Illinois Volunteers
James P. Cleveland, Jr., Twelfth Vermont Volunteers
John Winnick Currier, Tenth Massachusetts and First Virginia Volunteers
George W. Doty, Second Vermont Volunteers
George W. Flagg, Second Vermont Volunteers
William Dana Flanders, Second and Ninth Vermont Volunteers
Henry Addison Fletcher, Sixteenth Vermont Volunteers
Amasa O. Gates, Seventeenth Vermont Volunteers
Joseph Thomas Gleason, Eighth and Fifteenth Vermont Volunteers
Josiah Grout, First Vermont and Frontier Cavalry
Henry R. Hayward, Second Vermont Volunteers
william Wirt Henry, Second and Tenth Vermont Volunteers
William Hyman Holabird, Twelfth Vermont Volunteers and U.S. Navy
Edwin Horton, Twenty-Second New York and Fourth Vermont Volunteers
Henry Seymour Howard, Fourteenth Vermont Volunteers
Solomon S. Hudson, Tenth Vermont Volunteers
Frank Kenfield, Thirteenth and Seventeenth Vermont Volunteers
Moses J. Leach, Thirteenth Vermont Volunteers
Chester K. Leach, Second Vermont Volunteers
Abel Edgar Leavenworth, Ninth Vermont Volunteers
George Mason, U.S. Army Paymaster
Charles W. Mason, Fourteenth Vermont Volunteers
Lorenzo Dow Miles, Third Vermont Volunteers and Fifth U.S. Infantry
Ebenezer Jolls Ormsbee, First and Twelfth Vermont Volunteers
Myron M. Parker, First Vermont Cavalry
Albert C. Raymond, Thirteenth and Seventeenth Vermont Volunteers
Marcus L. Reed, Seventeenth Vermont Volunteers
Chandler Miller Russell, Sixteenth Vermont Volunteers
George Kendall Russell, Fifteenth New Hampshire Volunteers
Joseph C. Rutherford, Tenth and Seventeenth Vermont Volunteers
Elijah B. Sherman, Ninth Vermont Volunteers, Illinois National Guard
Emery L. Smith, Sixth Vermont Volunteers
Jonas T. Stevens, First Vermont Cavalry
William Harris Walker, Sixteenth Vermont Volunteers
Charles Carleton Warren, First Brigade Band
Eugene Sydney Weston, Seventh Vermont Volunteers
Henry Clay Wilcox, U.S. Armory, Springfield, Mass.
Frederick E. Woodbridge, U.S. Representative
Riley E. Wright, Fifteenth Vermont Volunteers
Additional sources of information on Freemasonry:
Masons at Gettysburg, includes George Stannard.
Masonicinfo.com, courtesy of Ed King.
The Museum of Our National Heritage
Sheldon A. Munn, "Freemasons at Gettysburg," (Thomas Publications, Gettysburg, 1993)