Life Spared by the Masonic Sign

In October 1861  The Southern Federal Union of Milledgeville, Georgia reported on a death at Manassas with a unique twist.

Life Spared at Manassas by the Masonic Sign --


A gallant Georgia officer was shot down as he was forming his company in line of battle on Manassas Plains, and refusing to be taken from the field while in the exposed position, was again wounded, each time mortally. His regiment, the 8th Georgia, being compelled to fall back during an overwhelming charge of the enemy, the poor fellow, unable to move was made prisoner -- had his watch and money taken from him, and was about to be bayoneted, when he gave the Masonic sign.  They now removed his boots to relieve his suffering, and laid him beside a tree to die.  The life thus spared, owing to a vigorous constitution and religiously observed habits, was prolonged thirty days.  This was the fate of Order Sergeant O. B. Eve, of the Miller Rifles of Rome, Georgia.

Another soldier from the 8th Georgia Infantry Regiment, Private R. Cecil Johnson.
Johnson was also killed during the war, in 1863.  From the Library Of Congress Collection.