Civil War Lodge of Research No. 1865.

The American Civil War 1861 - 1865 has captured the imagination of many as the greatest war fought on the American Continent.

It was a war fought by Americans against Americans, great battles and brilliant Generals, bold tactics, stunning victories and crushing defeats. Men on opposing sides in this war, went to the same military school, fought in previous wars together on the same side and in some cases were members of the same Lodge. 

In 1995, The Grand Lodge of Virginia chartered The Civil War Lodge of Research No. 1865. The aims of the Lodge were to investigate and research all aspects of Freemasonry in the war. One of the main features of the Lodge was to re-create regimental field Lodges. These meeting were held during Civil War re-enactments which took place to mark famous battles.  

When I joined the CWLR, I began to correspond with the Treasurer Marty Zuckerman and quickly became aware of the expert knowledge which the members of the Lodge had. 

In October 2003, I visited Virginia and met my good friends, Marty Zuckerman, Bill Copenhaver, Wayne Price and Richard Radi who made sure that my short stay was packed with Civil War experiences.

Marty Zuckerman is the owner of a metal recycling business in Front Royal, Virginia but he is also the regimental surgeon for the 13th. Virginia Volunteer Infantry, a Civil War re-enactment group. Marty has collected a complete Civil War field hospital, including instruments and medicines. During re-enactments he stages a realistic leg amputation on one of his soldiers, using the orginal methods of the day and including pints of pigs blood. Marty does this for a reason, "I use the realism to show the horror of war". he said. Marty belongs to the regiment`s H company, known throught the Civil War as the "Winchester Boomerangs" a small tenacious group of residents who fought for the Confederacy.

During the war H company averaged between 20 and 25 members and got the Boomerang name because in a fight they just kept coming back.

Incomplete records make it difficult to say just how many men from Winchester fought with the 13th. throughout the war, but some records indicate that the regiment had around 550 men at one point.

About 1,500 men served with the regiment during the four years of the war with 808 killed.

Serving as assistants to the regimental surgeons, field surgeons set up shop in abandoned barns or pitched their tents in culverts and other land depressions or along stone walls - anywhere that offered a little protection from the fighting and the elements. They marked their stations with a red flag, good access to water and shade were essential. "People think that a Civil War doctor as a man with a knife in one hand and a bottle of liquor in the other", but Civil War doctors were experienced physicians who utilized the latest medical knowledge and laboured under intense conditions.

Advances in firearms during the war led to a drastic difference in the nature of battle injuries. Soldiers went from firing round balls that would beak bones when they hit, but sometimes only bruised the skin - to a grouved minnie ball that ripped through skin and shattered bones. Napoleonic battle tactics were stiull used during the war - lining troops up shoulder to shoulder and marching directly at each other. "Whichever side couldn`t stand their ground lost the battle".

Such tactics caused dreadful casualties.

If you were wounded you were moved to the regimental hospital where surgeons extracted bullets, set bones, dressed wounds and amputated limbs. The patient was anesthetized with cloroform or ether, which was administered through a funnel held over the nose and mouth of the patient. When the operation or amputation was complete the patient was given morphine or another pain killer before being brought back to consciousness with ammonia. The worry after surgery was gangrene.

"Doctors tried to use broth and and liquor to bolster the immune system". Modern medicine understands that shock is systematic - that is it affects the whole body. But in the 19th. century, doctors thought that shock was psychological, so that they`d give the wounded alcohol to calm them down. Nor did they understand infection, many surgeons would only clean their their instruments when they became so clogged up that they had difficulty in using them. Needless to say blood poisoning and infection were rampant. "More people died from infection than injury". 

Marty explained that doctors finally started doing the right things near the end of the war, even though they couldn`t explain why their new methods worked. For instance, they didn`t know how malaria was spread, but learned to avoid setting up hospital in swampy areas where mosquitos thrived.

"The only good thing to come out of the war were the medical advances". said Marty.

Membership of The Civil War Lodge is open to all Master Masons who are clear in the books of their Mother Lodge. Brethren affiliate to the Lodge and become full members without having to take an obligation to affiliate as is required in Scotland.