The magnificent 1st Degree Charge

1st Degree Charge in action

1st Degree Charge in action - At our Initiations we were charged never to lose sight of the allegiance due to our native land, and to always remember that nature has implanted in our breasts ‘a sacred and indissoluble attachment’ to the country of our ‘birth and infant nurture’. When fulfilling their civil responsibilities Freemasons are also charged to put into practice our Order’s universal principles of ‘Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth’.

War always takes a terrible toll; not just upon those who fight in them, but upon all those who are in its path. Freemasons on military service do seek to provide relief to the local communities caught up in conflicts; and will also assist Masonic Brethren in distress, providing that doing so is not inconsistent with their military duty. Let’s look at just two examples of such acts of Masonic charity and brotherly love in times of war.

1st Degree Charge in action continued - A Brother from the Lodge of Economy No.76 in Winchester was on active service with the British Army in Afghanistan during the winter of 2006; so he saw at first hand the suffering of the orphaned children without suitable clothing to protect them from the bitter cold.

He contacted his lodge at home, they gathered together a supply of suitable children’s clothes, which the RAF then flew out to Afghanistan; he then personally distributed those clothes to the children in most need. The photographs he took show not just how the children’s suffering was relieved, but also how this act of simple charity brought all too rare smiles to their faces. (Source the Lodge History)

1st Degree Charge in action continued - The second example comes from the many accounts of the way Freemasonry influenced the actions of combatants on both sides during the American Civil War (1861-1865).

On the night of 1st January 1863 Confederate forces, under Major-General John B. Magruder, made successful sea and land attacks upon the Union forces occupying the city of Galveston in Texas. The Confederate’s had just two improvised warships, the CS Bayou City and CS Neptune, with which to attack the six Union warships anchored in Galveston Harbour; they were of a type known as ‘cottonclads’, as their wooden sides were lined with bales of cotton to protect them from enemy fire. The CS Neptune was sunk by gunfire, but the CS Bayou City was able to ram and then capture the USS Harriet Lane.

1st Degree Charge in action continued - Another Union ship the USS Westfield ran aground during the action, and the commander of the Union fleet opted to blow it up rather than let it fall in to the enemy’s hands. This explosion may have led the Union troops ashore to wrongly assume that their ships had surrendered, as shortly afterwards they laid down their arms and surrendered. The Union side had lost the Battle of Galveston, but their four remaining warships would all successfully withdraw to fight another day.

1st Degree Charge in action continued - During the attack upon the USS Harriet Lane its commander, Jonathan M. Wainwright, was mortally wounded, and as he lay dying his last wish was that he be buried with Masonic Honours. Several of the ship’s officers taken prisoner would ‘prove’ themselves Master Masons to their captors; and they then sought a Masonic funeral for their deceased Commander and Brother Jonathan Wainwright.

The following day the Harmony Lodge No.6, who still meet in Galveston, called an emergency meeting in order to bury Brother Wainwright with full Masonic Honours. It is recorded that ‘a public procession consisting of both friends and foe, wearing the insignia of the Order, accompanied the body to the Episcopal cemetery’.

1st Degree Charge in action continued - Major Philip Tucker, the Lodge’s Master and a member of General Magruder’s staff, is reported as saying that it did not ‘conflict with [their] duties as patriotic citizens to respond to the calls of mercy by a prostrate political foe, or to administer the last rite of the Order to the remains of a Mason of moral worth, although yesterday they met as an armed enemy in mortal combat’.  

This 1st Degree Charge post has been provided by the West Kent Military Lodge. If you would like to know more about the Lodge contact us here