‘Happy birthday to Civil War Lodge 1865’

    

Most of the group yesterday at Civil War Lodge of Research 1865’s Installation of Officers at Babcock Lodge 322 in Highland Springs, Virginia. Bro. Keith Hinerman holds a photo of the lodge’s founders in commemoration of our thirtieth anniversary.

I enjoyed the weekend with Civil War Lodge of Research 1865, which marked its thirtieth anniversary, in Virginia.

The East of the lodge room.

CWLR is one of six(!) research lodges in the Commonwealth, having been set to labor on November 14, 1995 with Allen E. Roberts as its inaugural Master. We met Saturday at Babcock Lodge 322 in Highland Springs; this lodge building is the home of this research lodge, although CWLR travels about and outside Virginia in pursuit of its research into Freemasonry’s connections in the history of the War Between the States.

Membership in CWLR is open to Masons outside Virginia—ergo my presence—which makes for a diverse group (with sometimes a babelic approach to ritual!), but also can inhibit attendance due to the cable tow’s limits. So, for our anniversary celebration, I thought participation wasn’t what it should have been, although we elected four to membership—one of whom, Bro. Michael, immediately joined the officer line as a Steward!

A close-up of that photo of CWLR’s founders.
Sorry for the glare.

No papers were presented yesterday, but we installed our officers for 2026. Bro. Bill Hare of Maryland is our new Worshipful Master. Our new Wardens are RW Clifton White in the West, and Bro. Alan Hawk, of Maryland, in the South. In addition, Secretary Bennett Hart was invested with his jewel and warrant of office as the new DDGM of Grand Lodge’s Research District. (With six research lodges, it makes sense to organize them into a district.) Yours truly even had a small role as I served as the proxy for the installation of Bro. Gary Laing, of Delaware, as Tyler. The installation was conducted by Past (1997) Grand Master Alan Adkins, with the help of Bro. Keith Hinerman (our second WM back in 1996) and RW Hart.

Get well wishes to outgoing WM Creighton Lovelace, of North Carolina, who, with his wife, is out of commission due to COVID.

Civil War Lodge’s next communication will be a little different. On Saturday, April 11, we will open at Magnetic Lodge 184 in Stanley, Virginia; then visit New Market Battlefield; and then close at a second lodge (yet to be determined). We’ve been assured this can be done legally, even if it is odd.

Babcock Lodge’s home is a venerable Masonic temple in a residential neighborhood. Bro. Keith showed me around after discovering me inside the library. The main section of the building went up in 1914 and an addition in ’64. For whatever reason, it was easy for me to sense the memories of past glories inside. You can just tell there were momentous memorable occasions there—whether Masonic meetings and affairs or community gatherings. When I came to the door overlooking the parking lot, I half expected to see it full of early sixties Fords and Chevys. I’m sorry to report the lodge is nearing the end of life. There are too few members, many of whom are past age seventy, and there is real talk of selling the property. A sign of the times.

Souvenirs!

Better times are captured in the pages of The Diamond Years, a history of the lodge compiled by Allen Roberts and published in 1985. Babcock isn’t just another local lodge. Its namesake is Bro. Alexander Gulick Babcock (1835-94), the founder of the Masonic Home of Virginia. He was born in Princeton, New Jersey. At age 27, he was initiated, passed, and raised in the former Hohenlinder Lodge 56 in Brooklyn (now St. Albans 56). He moved to Virginia in 1864 (he sympathized with the wrong side in the Civil War) and affiliated with a lodge in Richmond, and then demitted from Hohenlinder in 1866.

He is shown here in a painting that hangs inside the lodge room. When Babcock vacates the premises, I hope the portrait finds a new home.

Where the Confederate fortifications stood
at the Battle of Cold Harbor.

After lodge, we visited Cold Harbor, a nearby National Battlefield Park. I got separated from the group, but I followed behind through the three key stops at the site. In late fall, with leaves covering the ground, there isn’t much to look at, frankly, and the dreary raw weather made it more drab. What impressed me is the small space. To think tens of thousands of soldiers blasted each other to pieces here—the Union side lost 12,000 men—is incomprehensible. I’m sure the present day park is much smaller than the land where they fought, but the preserved battleground looks like it could fit in a small college campus. Read some of the details here.

Yesterday was a long day, with brethren arriving at the lodge at eight in the morning and leaving the battlefield site at 3 p.m., so I wasn’t surprised to find myself alone at the restaurant at dinnertime. The food at Mexico in Sandston was okay. I had “street tacos” (steak) and a grande glass of cerveza (Dos Equis Amber). The group dinner Friday night at Roberto was far superior, especially for those of us who ordered the ribeye. Everything for the weekend—the hotel, the lodge, the restaurants, the historic site—are in close proximity and very easily reached, even for me with my ignorance of the area and poor sense of direction.

Bro. Keith gave me the gift of a copy of The Diamond Years, one of many inventoried in Babcock’s library. If you’re a Masonic history buff, you have encountered author Allen Roberts’ approach to historiography: kind of like playing noncompetitive darts. Here is one of his gems, found on Page 157:

Yikes.

Keith also sent me home with a copy of Emessay Notes from June 2018 which tells of MW Dwight Smith, Grand Master in Indiana in 1945. Assuming I’d never heard of Smith, Keith enjoyed telling me about him. Usually terrible at sober conversation, I had fun reciprocating by telling Keith a little about the Knights of the North and our cultic devotion to Smith and his writings.

In related news, the Magpie Mason congratulates Bro. Andy Martinez of Maryland, who served as Master of CWLR for the 2020 and 2021 terms, upon his election as Worshipful Master of Maryland Masonic Lodge of Research 239. (Honestly, I thought I was the only one weird enough to serve in the East of two research lodges!) No word yet on a date of the installation, but I think it might be Saturday, January 17.

     

‘Civil War Lodge’s plans’

    

Civil War Lodge of Research 1865 has its designs upon the trestleboard for next month and the ensuing year.

Matthew Szramoski

First, the big news: At the annual communication yesterday, Grand Lodge elected and installed MW Matthew Todd Szramoski into the Grand Master’s chair. The name probably rings a bell; he is in charge at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial. And the Research District has a new DDGM: CWLR’s very own Secretary, RW Bennett Hart! Congratulations to everybody on the leadership team for 2026.

Civil War Lodge will meet Saturday, December 6 at Babcock Lodge 322 in Highland Springs, Virginia for our own installation of officers. Our thirtieth anniversary arrives this Thursday, so the Stated Communication will be an extra celebration. As you know, CWLR meetings typically are built into a weekend of activities (I encourage all research lodges to incorporate this idea into your schedules) so there will be Friday and Saturday things to do outside the lodge room, to wit:

Friday, December 5

Dinner at 6:30 p.m.

Roberto Italian Restaurant in Sandston

Saturday, December 6

Babcock Lodge 322 in Highland Springs

Open Lodge at 10 a.m.

Installation at noon.

Lunch at one o’clock.

Cold Harbor Battlefield

in Mechanicsville at 3 p.m.

Dinner at Mexico Restaurant

in Sandston at 7 p.m.

Plans for next year (meetings will be in Virginia except where noted) are:

April 11: New Market Battlefield

July 18: Monterey Pass, Pennsylvania

August 29: Grand Master’s Research Lodge Official Visit at Hay Market Lodge 313

October 10: Fort Monroe

December 5: to be determined

I think all these are close enough for me to attend, so hopefully I’ll see you around.

     

‘Finally got to visit Masons’ Hall’

    

The view of Masons’ Hall in Richmond, Virginia from across East Franklin Street.

Last weekend, I finally got to visit Masons’ Hall in Richmond, Virginia—add it to your Masonic bucket list. As fraternal destinations go, it’s one of those places that creaks with history and embraces you in a certain atmosphere that defies description. (And long deceased lodge brethren are known to inhabit the building, if you know what I mean.) Attentive readers of The Magpie Mason have noticed a link, along the left side of the page, that has been alerting you for many years to the fundraising effort to maintain this singular historic site.

Most of the brethren present for CWLR’s communication last weekend.

Anyway, about twenty of us were in attendance for Civil War Lodge of Research 1865’s Stated Communication last Saturday, the 11th. The lodge holds its meetings around Virginia and beyond, thanks to dispensations, to pair our gatherings with visits to historic sites relevant to the U.S. Civil War. The capital city of the Commonwealth of Virginia certainly is an apt choice for such a calling, but rather than delve into the saga of that conflict, this time we celebrated this engrossing building with a detailed tour and an in-depth discussion of what has happened within its walls.

It is the home of Richmond Randolph Lodge 19. The brethren describe it as “America’s oldest continuously used Masonic lodge room in America’s oldest continuous Masonic lodge building.” Richmond Lodge 10 was chartered in 1780. Five years later, the cornerstone of Masons’ Hall was laid to become the meeting place of both the lodge and the Grand Lodge of Virginia. So, you know how, in early America, Masonic lodge buildings served their communities by doubling as town halls, court houses, post offices, schools, etc., and that was true in this case.

The Randolph in the lodge’s name memorializes Founding Father Edmund Randolph, member of Richmond Lodge 10, delegate to the Continental Congress, first U.S. Attorney General, etc. However, I think the biggest name associated with No. 19 would be John Marshall, also of Richmond 10, who was a building trustee, kept his law office inside, and presided over the court that convened there. He became Chief Justice of the United States in 1801, and served in that capacity until his death in 1835. The lodge performed his Masonic funeral service at nearby Shockoe Hill Cemetery. George Washington? There is no record of him visiting the place, although it is believed to be very likely that he, as U.S. president, had been there on government business during the 1790s.

One hero very much documented visiting was the Marquis de Lafayette, who made a stop in 1824 during his farewell tour of the country. The lodge commissioned a portrait, which normally is on display inside, but currently is on loan to the governor for exhibit as part of the America: Made in Virginia celebration. Click here.

Even Edgar Allan Poe appears in the lodge’s story. While not a Freemason, he became part of Lafayette’s entourage, so he was on hand for the dignitary’s visit. His mother, an actress, is known to have performed at the lodge shortly before her death in 1811 at age twenty-four. In 1860, the Prince of Wales—the future King Edward VII and future Freemason—toured the lodge building. You have to expect these things when you’re situated for centuries at the crux of so many notable persons and events, and the stories of the lodge’s brethren deserve their own recounting.

The East of the lodge room.

I think it was said this was acquired in the 1920s.

 

There’s a chapter room
on the second floor.

My thanks to both Bro. Joyner, for the post-meeting in-depth guided tour, and to Bro. Crocker, for the pre-meeting look around. It is an amazing place which I hope to visit again.

Apron of Thomas U. Dudley, 1834.

I have many more photos and memories, but blogging takes too much time. Civil War Lodge of Research 1865 will meet again Saturday, December 6 at our home lodge, Babcock 184, in Highland Springs to celebrate our thirtieth anniversary. See you there.

Watch this on YouTube.

     

‘Civil War scholars to visit Tennessee and Georgia’

    

Time to focus on Civil War Lodge of Research 1865’s meeting scheduled for next month. Celebrating its thirtieth year, the lodge keeps a busy itinerary, and the brethren will get together in Tennessee and Georgia during the weekend of July 11.

Some details are subject to change, but here’s the plan thus far:

Thursday, July 10: Brethren will begin arriving. Arrangements have been made at Hampton Inn Ringgold-Ft. Oglethorpe (6875 Battlefield Parkway) in Ringgold, Georgia.

Friday, July 11: A morning tour of Chickamauga Battlefield. Lunch at noon, possibly at Tompkins Lodge 466 in Ft. Oglethorpe. The battlefield tour will resume at 1 p.m., and at four o’clock, there may be a visit (they’re still working it out) to Gordon-Lee Mansion. Dinner (details to come) at 6:30, and then, while there’s still daylight, a trip to the Ringgold Gap Battlefield.

That sounds like a weekend itself, but then there’s…

Courtesy Brent Moore

Saturday, July 12: Arrive at 8 a.m. at Quitman Lodge 106 in Chattanooga, Tennessee Ringgold, Georgia. Civil War Lodge of Research 1865 will tyle at 10 a.m. Lunch at noon. At two o’clock, everyone will gather at Lookout Mountain for a tour. Dinner at 6:30 (details to come) before capping off the weekend with a visit to Cigars International in East Ridge, Tennessee.

I wish I had freedom to travel more. I’d really love to make this trip. But if your cabletow permits, you should join in.

I’ll say one thing though: When the research lodge conference in Kentucky opens in September, I’m going to speak to the virtues of research lodges traveling and touring relevant sites. My research lodge in New York City meets on weeknights, and so is limited in what it can do. My research lodge in New Jersey meets on Saturday mornings, and so is limited in different ways in what it can do. CWLR 1865 is my other research lodge and, as you can see, it has plans for weekends. The lodge meeting is a pretty minor part of it all, time-wise. Many of the brethren are accompanied by their ladies, making these weekends more than just Masonic activities.

CWLR 1865 will meet next in October in Richmond, Virginia, and I do expect to attend that one. Hope to see you there.

     

‘Lodge to mark Civil War’s start’

    

Virginia-based Civil War Lodge of Research 1865 will travel outside the Commonwealth for its meeting next month to mark the start of the U.S. Civil War where the shooting started. From Worshipful Master Creig Lee Lovelace:

We will convene our meeting in historic Charleston, South Carolina on April 12, where the War Between the States began 164 years ago on that very date in that very place. I hope you can make it down.

Many of you requested we ‘get out of Virginia,’ and I told you we indeed would stretch our legs a little. We will head to Tennessee this summer and in the fall we’ll head back to Richmond, Virginia. But on April 11, we will tour the Hunley museum and see the Confederacy’s secret weapon that authorities hoped would break the blockade. After two failed tests, Gen. Beauregard was ready to shelve the thing as it was more dangerous than the enemy. After some arm twisting by Lt. George Dixon (a Brother from Alabama), Beauregard agreed to one more chance. The attack on February 17, 1864 made history, and yet the Hunley was lost again until 1995. In 2000, it was raised and the final crew was buried in 2004. Come see the technological marvel that was the Hunley.

Saturday we will meet at Solomon’s Lodge 1. Come see an amazing complex, the Charleston County Masonic Association Center, and see the history of the various lodges. Afterward, we will see Fort Sumter and Fort Johnson. Come see where the war began.

Itinerary

Lodging:

La Quinta Inn & Suites

11 Ashley Pointe Drive

Friday, April 11

2-3:30 – tour Hunley Museum

1250 Supply Street

4-5 – Hunley Grave Site

St. Lawrence Cemetery

60 Huguenin Avenue

6:30 – dinner at Home Team BBQ

1205 Ashley River Road

Saturday, April 12

Solomon’s Lodge 1

Charleston County Masonic

Association Center

Solomon Lodge 1

1285 Orange Grove Road

8-10 – coffee & donuts

10-12:30 – meeting

12:30-1:15 – lunch at S&S Cafeterias

1104 Sam Rittenberg Blvd.

2:45-5 – tour

Fort Sumter Ferry Terminal

340 Concord Street

5:30-6:15 – tour

Fort Johnson

Fort Johnson Road

Dinner at seven

King Claw Juicy Seafood and Bar

1734 Sam Rittenberg Blvd.

     

‘Civil War researchers to meet’

    

You know it was a rejuvenating weekend when it feels like you vacationed for a month. Be that as it may, the next meeting of Civil War Lodge of Research 1865 is near! The brethren will gather at Federal Point Lodge 753 in North Carolina on Saturday. The itinerary:

Friday, December 6

Supper at 6 p.m.

Carolina Crab House

341 College Road No. 55

Wilmington

Saturday, December 7

Federal Point Lodge 753

417 Harper Avenue

Carolina Beach

9 a.m. coffee & donuts

10 a.m. meeting

11:30 a.m. adjourn

Lunch at noon

Might As Well Bar and Grill

250 Racine Drive, Unit 15, Wilmington

Afternoon:

Fort Fisher Tour

1610 Fort Fisher Blvd. S.

Kure Beach

If interested:

North Carolina Battleship Tour

1 Battleship Road, NE, Wilmington

Dinner 6 p.m.

Carolina Ale House

317 College Road, Wilmington

There are abundant hotels in the area and prices vary widely.

Upcoming Schedule:

April 12: Charleston, South Carolina

July 12: Chattanooga, Tennessee

October 11: Montgomery, Alabama

December 6: Highland Springs, Virginia (Thirtieth Anniversary!)

     

‘CWLR 1865 to meet at Lee Lodge’

    

Civil War Lodge of Research 1865 is staying in Virginia for its next meeting, heading to Lee Lodge 209 in Waynesboro on Saturday, October 12. It doesn’t look like a trip to a local historic spot is planned, but the brethren will hear a paper on Bro. William H. Harmon, the Grand Lodge of Virginia’s only two-time Grand Master—and the only Most Worshipful to be killed in the Civil War.

Secretary Bennett says the lodge has no hotel arrangements because of the number of nearby accommodations, so take your pick.

On Friday, catch up with the group for dinner at Heritage on Main Street. In the morning, get to lodge at nine o’clock for refreshments; the lodge will tyle at 10. Both lunch and dinner plans are yet to be determined.

Our next meeting will be December 7 for the Installation of Officers. The ensuing year looks like:

April 12 in Charleston, South Carolina;

July 12 at Chattanooga, Tennessee;

October 11 at Montgomery, Alabama; and

December 6, possibly in Highland Springs, Virginia.

That last one is likely the only one I’ll be able to attend, but we’ll see.

Interested in Freemasons’ significance in the U.S. Civil War? Membership information is here, and maybe I’ll see you there.

     

‘Mystic Tie unites lodge, Army fort, and prison’

    

Masons from many states attended our meeting July 13 in Delaware.

It’s been two weeks already, so time for a recap of Civil War Lodge of Research 1865’s trip to Delaware.

The lodge is chartered by the Grand Lodge of Virginia, but it receives dispensations to travel outside the state, and this July 13 Stated Communication featured a visit to a significant historic site and an unusual Official Visit of the District Deputy Grand Master.

Our Master’s hat.

Jackson Lodge 19 in Delaware City hosted us with the assistance of several Grand Lodge of Delaware officers, one of whom, RW Michael Rodgers, also serves as Worshipful Master of Delaware Lodge of Research. He presented a talk on Fort Delaware’s origins and historical significance. I’ll summarize:

The fort stands on Pea Patch Island, which spans about a mile in length in the Delaware River. It was given its name during the late eighteenth century when, according to legend, a ship ran aground and its cargo of peas either spilled or was jettisoned to make the ship lighter to free it from the mud. Either way, those peas sprouted and grew, resulting in sand and silt accumulating and forming the land mass. I have to say, when you’re standing on this island, in and around the stone and brick fort, it is hard to believe this origin story, but that’s the local color of it.

Past Master Gary, our Tyler, noticed this artifact displayed on the wall outside the lodge room: this proclamation from the Virginia Craftsmen degree team commemorating the MM° it conferred October 23, 1976 at Fort Delaware on behalf of Jackson 19. This degree team was the precursor of Civil War Lodge of Research. That top signature is Allen Roberts, our first Worshipful Master.

What is historically factual is how the island first appears on a map in 1794, the year Bro. Pierre Charles L’Enfant chose it to be a key installation in the area’s fortifications. Of course L’Enfant is best remembered as the military engineer who designed Washington, DC.

The fort as seen from our approach via jitney…

…and from the walk to the entrance.

Development of Pea Patch Island for military use began in 1814. Perhaps a lesson learned from the War of 1812. “A five-pointed star fort was built between 1815 and 1824,” Rodgers explained, “but it was destroyed by fire in 1831.” A larger fort was started in 1836, but the current fort dates to 1848. It was completed in 1860, and was used during the Civil War as a prison for Confederate soldiers. By the end of the war, Fort Delaware warehoused nearly 33,000 prisoners.

“Conditions were relatively decent,” Rodgers said, “but about 2,500 prisoners died.” Smallpox was a main killer, but there also were typhoid, malaria, pneumonia, and scurvy, among other hazards. One of those deaths gave rise to the Mystic Tie intwining Jackson Lodge, the prison, and Virginia Freemasonry.

On April 11, 1862, the lodge opened to give a Masonic funeral to Bro. Lewis P. Halloway, a captain of the Twenty-Seventh Regiment of Virginia Volunteers, who died of typhoid while in custody. The care given to the deceased by the lodge inspired Capt. Augustus A. Gibson, commanding officer of the fort, to petition for the degrees of Freemasonry. He was initiated, passed, and raised in a single communication, by dispensation, later that year in Jackson Lodge.

RW Shelby Chandler, DDGM of the Masonic Research District, had the unique opportunity of traveling outside the Grand Lodge Jurisdiction for an Official Visit. “Today was a very special day, especially as a District Deputy Grand Master,” he told The Magpie Mason. “Right Worshipful John Butler, Worshipful Master of Civil War Lodge of Research, was gracious enough to receive me for the Official Visit at Jackson Lodge 19 in Delaware City. Not only were their Grand Lodge officers present from our host jurisdiction, but brethren from various other states, as far as Illinois, were present as well, and they watched, both the reception ceremony and the closing lecture, for the very first time.”

RW Carmine, with tobacco stick,
flanked by WM John Butler
and RW Shelby Chandler.

(A word about the receptions: Virginia likes them. To my mind, these formal intros, escorts to the East, remarks, etc. take too much time. In my more than twenty years of hanging around research lodges, I’ve noticed how we like to get to the point, leaving ceremonial filler to our Craft lodges. Still, aspects of these rites can be enjoyable, as when an honoree’s comments are on point or something else memorable arises. This was the case when Worshipful Master Butler received RW Robert Carmine, Assistant Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Delaware, in the East and presented him the gift of a tobacco stick—a hardwood pole known in tobacco barns for hanging tobacco leaves to dry. A more practical and modern use these days is as a walking stick.)

After our meeting, we enjoyed a quick lunch together downstairs before driving down the street to catch the ferry to the island and its fort.

Since 1951, it is a Delaware State Park and it also has become home to the Pea Patch Island Nature Preserve with a famous heronry.

The Columbiad Cannon. They fire this sumbitch!

The fort is staffed by re-enactors in period wardrobe who tell you what is was like to have lived at the fort during its stint as a prisoner of war installation. Among them is Bro. Ed from Jackson Lodge, who gave his visiting brethren some additional insights gleaned from his fifteen years there.

Bro. Ed from Jackson Lodge with our WM.

CWLR 1865’s next Stated Communication will be Saturday, October 12 at Lee Lodge 209 in Waynesboro, Virginia, to be followed by a visit to the site of the Battle of Waynesboro, where the Union finally took the Shenandoah Valley in 1865. Click here for more information.

Finally a place to sit down on the hot day.
I hope those are ash trays in the back.

RW Shelby inspects an osprey nest on the island.
The island hosts the largest bird habitat outside of Florida.

     

‘Research lodge to visit Delaware’

    

The details of Civil War Lodge of Research 1865’s meeting this month in Delaware have been announced.

The brethren and their ladies will gather for dinner at six on Friday, July 12 at Texas Roadhouse in Middletown. The research lodge will meet at Jackson Lodge 19 in Delaware City the following morning. Refreshments at 9 a.m. The meeting at ten. Then we’ll go to lunch at 11:30.

University of Delaware

Then we will commute to Fort Delaware for an afternoon tour of the historic site, which will include a boat ride to the prison, where Confederate soldiers were interned.

The day will culminate with dinner at 6 p.m., although I’m sure there will be drinks at the hotel afterward.

I’ll simply drive down for the day.

The lodge’s calendar for 2025 also has been posted, and it looks like I won’t be able to attend any of the meetings in South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. The lodge is chartered by the Grand Lodge of Virginia, but it receives dispensation to travel and hold meetings outside the Commonwealth, focusing on locales relevant to the U.S. Civil War.

RW Gary Heinmiller

A call for papers always is open, but I’m not sure if research papers comprise a big part of the lodge’s activities. At some point, likely after I exit the East of The ALR, I will look into the story of New York’s eleven short-lived military lodges during the war, and hopefully assemble a narrative out of that.

     

‘These Masons are going to prison’

     

It’ll be thirty next year.

I just read the minutes of Saturday’s Civil War Lodge of Research meeting, and it is confirmed that our July meeting will take place in Delaware, and will include a visit to the historic site prison at Fort Delaware.

This will be Saturday, July 13. The lodge will meet at Jackson Lodge 19 in Delaware City. Probably at 10 a.m., with refreshments before and lunch after. Then the group will travel the half-mile to Fort Delaware State Park for a look at the infamous former prison where captured Confederate soldiers were incarcerated.

Then dinner at a local restaurant is likely, but these details will be forthcoming in June, and I’ll share them all here.

I couldn’t get to North Carolina Saturday, but I will attend this meeting, and hopefully will bring brethren from New Jersey’s research lodge along.

     

‘Researchers to visit North Carolina’

    

Civil War Lodge of Research 1865 will meet this month, taking it on the road to North Carolina. The lodge, now in its twenty-eighth year, is chartered by the Grand Lodge of Virginia AF&AM, but it has dispensation to travel outside the Commonwealth in its pursuit of historical facts concerning the U.S. Civil War, especially where Freemasonry’s history intersects.

Bingham 272

On Saturday, April 13, the lodge will meet at Bingham Lodge 272 in Mebane, North Carolina. Worshipful Master John Butler chose the location for its proximity to Bennett Place, a short drive east to Durham. It was there where the Confederate commander, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, and U.S. Gen. William T. Sherman met in a little farmhouse and negotiated surrender terms in April 1865, coming to an agreement on April 26. (The U.S. Civil War did not conclude with one single surrender of Lee to Grant. Commanders in four different theaters about the country negotiated surrenders eventually disbanding the Confederate States Army.)

It’s a little too far for me, so I’ll miss this one, but the lodge has a solid weekend plan including Friday night dinner in Burlington; the lodge meeting, followed by lunch on Saturday; the visit to Bennett Place afterward; and a Saturday night dinner yet to be worked out. This edition of The Magpie Mason is intended to encourage Masons in the area to attend the meeting and other stops. Bingham Lodge 272 meets at 309 East Center Street in Mebane. If I’m not mistaken, North Carolina Lodge of Research is no longer at labor, but there is the North Carolina Masonic Research Society, and hopefully they’ll get the word and come to our meeting.

Coincidentally, that weekend will be the anniversary of the attack on Fort Sumter.

I’ll be with the lodge again on July 13 when we’ll meet in Delaware.