| "During
the Battle of Antietam, the 5th New Hampshire formed a picket line along
the edge of a cornfield where Richardson's Division fought. Confederate
Sharpshooters fired on everyone who walked around the battlefield. Early
in the morning, First Lieutenant Edon of the Alabama Volunteers who was
wounded and who had laid just outside the pickets called one of the New
Hampshire soldiers over to himself. Lieutenant Edon then handed the
Federal trooper a little slip of paper upon which he had drawn the symbol
of a Master Mason with a stick and his own wet blood. He then begged the
soldier to give this slip of paper to some Freemason as soon as possible.
The soldier took this note to the colonel of his regiment. Colonel E. E.
Cross was a Master Mason and he immediately sent for several Brother
Masons and told them the story he had just heard. A few moments later,
four Master Masons were crawling stealthily through the cornfield to find
a Brother in distress. He was found, placed on a blanket, and at great
risk to them drawn out of range of the rebel sharpshooters and carried to
the 5th New Hampshire's Hospital. Lieutenant Edon was wounded in the thigh
and breast so badly that he would not have survived much longer. He also
informed his Brethren of another wounded Mason, who, when brought out,
proved to be a Lieutenant Colonel of a Georgia Regiment. These two
Confederate Officers then received the same attention as the wounded
officers of the 5th New Hampshire. A warm friendship was established
between men who a few hours before were in mortal combat..."
From http://www.falmr.org/mreenact.htm |
