Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was a Freemason. Not only that but the very man who tried to block his commission as lieutenant colonel in the 20th Maine ended up being the one to "sponsor" his entrance into the order!

In July of 1862, when Chamberlain wrote to Maine's Governor Washburn asking for a position in the army, he said: "But, I fear, this war, so costly of blood and treasure, will not cease until the men of the North are willing to leave good positions, and sacrifice the dearest personal interests, to rescue our country from desolation, and defend the national existence against treachery at home and jealousy abroad."

Governor Washburn was a family friend of the Chamberlains, having known both Lawrence's father and grandfather, and he began asking questions about the young professor. Josiah Drummond was the Attorney General at the time and was decidedly against Lawrence being appointed to any position in the army. He wrote to Governor Washburn and said, in part: "Have you appointed Chamberlain Col. Of the 20th? His old classmates etc. here say you have been deceived: that C. is nothing at all: that is the universal expression of those who knew him."

Nevertheless, the governor offered Chamberlain the commission of colonel of the 20th Maine, which Chamberlain declined, saying that he thought he needed to be in a lesser position in order to learn the ways of the army. And so, he was commissioned as lieutenant colonel of the 20th Maine, second-in-command, serving under Colonel Adelbert Ames. As Chamberlain prepared to leave for war, he joined the wave of Maine men applying to become Masons.

During the Civil War years, many Maine men who found themselves on the verge of entering military service were applying in haste for the degrees of Masonry. It is quite probable that they felt it would be helpful to be members of this great Order during their participation in the conflict. The historical records of United Lodge No. 8 in Brunswick reveal that Chamberlain was numbered among this group. We do not know for certain what his primary motivation was to join this great fraternity, but it would seem likely that he had received favorable reports about this ancient institution from colleagues on the Bowdoin faculty who were Masons. The principles of Freemasonry were certainly consistent with the moral principles that guided his life.

Because of the pressure being pla ced on lodges to waive the usual waiting period of a month, and the Grand Lodge of Maine's concern that hurry-up work might result in a weakening of the Order at its foundation level, it was decreed that dispensations must be secured and a fee of five dollars charged for a waiver. At a special communication of United Lodge No. 8, held on the evening of August 27, 1862, the secretary presented a dispensation from Grand Master Josiah H. Drumond, to allow Chamberlain to take his Masonic degrees in less than the prescribed time. This, in itself, was somewhat unusual, for dispensations were usually handled by the District Deputy Grand Master. A ballot was taken and Chamberlain was accepted for the Entered Apprentice Degree. While he was being notified of his acceptance and in the process of being brought to the lodge to take the degree, another ballot was taken and it was voted to confer upon him the Fellowcraft Degree. Thus, on that very same night, he was initiated as an Entered Apprentice and passed to the degree of Fellowcraft. At 8:00 a.m. the very next morning, the lodge reconvened and he was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason. On September 12, 1862, he was proposed as a member, and on October 7, 1862, a ballot was taken and he was officially elected a member of United Lodge.

Within a matter of days, he and the 20th Maine Regiment were off to Washington, arriving there on Sunday, September 7, 1862. *

As a granddaughter and great-granddaughter many times over of many Freemasons, I feel that Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was a great example of what it meant to be part of the great fraternity.

* "General and Brother Joshua L. Chamberlain: A Mason Who Had the Soul of a Lion and the Heart of a Woman," by Charles W. Plummer, in The Maine Mason, volume 19, number 1, Spring 1991, pages 8-11.

** Thanks to Tom Desjardin for helping me collect the information for this blog.

We are coming up on the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. I thought I would introduce my 150th Series, which is a series of blog posts that will describe events paralleled with the appropriate anniversaries. Sometimes the blog posts will be about Fanny and Lawrence. Sometimes they will not. They will, however, show you the war through the eyes of the people who lived it, not just dry statistics and military maneuvers.

On the left, there is a contemporary painting by Dale Gallon depicting Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain standing behind his seated wife, Fanny. There is a hint of anxiety in her pose as she fidgets with her wedding ring and holds a handkerchief. Lieutenant Colonel Chamberlain stands tall, as if expecting the war to be the greatest period of his life. This is an entirely accurate representation, in my opinion, of the state of the Chamberlain marriage as the newly commissioned Lieutenant Colonel Chamberlain was preparing to leave civilian life for combat and command.

But we're jumping ahead. He was not commissioned until the summer of 1862 even though President Lincoln's call for volunteers went out in the spring of 1861.

So why did Chamberlain wait so long to volunteer?

In April of 1861, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was 32-years-old, turning 33 in September. He had been married to Fanny since 1855 and he had been working as a professor at Bowdoin College since 1856. They had four children in those six years together, although a son died as the result of premature birth in 1857 and a daughter died of scarlet fever in 1860, having not even reached her first birthday. Needless to say, the Chamberlain family was quite young and utterly dependent on him for survival, despite Fanny's premarital offers to continue teaching music to supplement his weak college income. The joy of beginning their family from 1855 - 1861 was quite dampened by the deaths of two children, several of Fanny's relatives, and the tragic death of Lawrence's younger brother, Horace, later on December 7, 1861. So while the young Chamberlain family grew, a dark cloud hung over them at the beginning of the Civil War.

Chamberlain felt the pull to enlist but resisted due to pressure from his family and Bowdoin. His father felt that the rebellion in the South had nothing to do with their life in Maine and began the war from a decidedly antiwar standpoint. His wife had long endured their separations throughout their nearly decade-long relationship and had no interest in sending a husband off to war while she raised their small children alone. As for Bowdoin College, some of the upperclassmen enlisted immediately upon Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers and the college itself organized companies like the Bowdoin Guard and the Bowdoin Zuaves. The college fought Chamberlain on his enlistment and dangled a career promotion that he wanted in order to try and keep him in Maine.

And so, as Chamberlain watched the news reports come in of the shots fired at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, he remained safely ensconced at home in Brunswick, Maine. He watched 1861 progress from afar, drift into 1862, and he awaited his opportunity to defend his country. In doing so, he knew it would strain his marriage, upset his family, and possibly cost him his job, but he could not ignore his conscience as long as his students were fighting and dying in the field. Eventually, he would get his way....

I don't remember where I saw this information but when I find the source, I will update the blog.

The bracelet was designed by the Civil War hero Major General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain as a tenth anniversary present for his wife, Frances Caroline Adams Chamberlain, who had seen precious little of him during the war. In November 1865 he contacted Tiffany and Company in New York City to see if they could execute the design. The firm replied that it was "perfectly practicable" and that Chamberlain should reply by telegraph "to insure its completion in time" for the anniversary. Tiffany's bill, dated December 6, 1865, noted "Bracelet to order - $250." The following day, the Chamberlains' anniversary as well as what was then Thanksgiving Day in Maine, the general presented the bracelet to his wife.

The bracelet is made of yellow gold with a central medallion bearing a red enameled Maltese cross bordered with diamonds, set on a white enameled field. This was the insignia of the Fifth Corps Army of the Potomac, which included the Twentieth Maine Infantry, commanded by Chamberlain during the Civil War. Apparently Chamberlain had suggested that the cross be outlined in rubies, for in their November letter to him Tiffany's cautioned that "the rubies as a border to the red enamel would not look well & the effect would be bad & lost." The firm assured him that the difference in price between rubies and diamonds would not be more than twenty dollars.


Opposite the Maltese cross is a replica of Chamberlain's shoulder bar with two silver stars (Pl. III), indicating his rank of major general a promotion he received shortly after he presided over the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia. Like the red cross, the blue bar is enameled en guilloche. The border of the bar and the edges of the bracelet are chased to simulate military cording. Engraved on the inside of the bracelet behind the bar is "Fannie C. Chamberlain/Dec. 7th 1865."

The edges of the bracelet are joined by twenty-four miniature hourglasses that, according to family tradition, symbolize the weary hours of each day that Chamberlain was away from his wife during the war. The names of twenty-four battles in which he fought are engraved on the hourglasses as follows: ANTIETAM, SHEPARDSTOWN FORD, FREDERICKSBURG, CHANCELLORSVILLE, GETTYSBURG, SHARPSBURG PIKE, MANASSAS GAP, BRANDY STATION, RAPPHANNOCK ST[ATIO]N, SPOTSYLVANIA C.[OURT] H.[OUSE], TA RIVER, NORTH ANNA, LITTLE RIVER, TOLOPATAMOY, MAGNOLIA SWAMP, BETHESDA CHURCH, CHICKAHOMINY, PETERSBURG, WATKIN'S FARM, QUAKER ROAD, WHITE OAK ROAD, FIVE FORKS, SOUTH SIDE R.[AIL] R.[OAD], and APPOMATTOX C.[OURT] H.[OUSE].