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.

A Most Odious and Detestable Tyrant

Today's entry is from the Southern Federal Union, September 10, 1861.  Lincoln was not a popular guy south of the Mason Dixon line.

Horrible Tyrnny [sic] of Lincoln's Administration

We have made several extracts this week from Northern newspapers all going to show that Abraham Lincoln is one of the most odious and detestable tyrants that ever walked the earth.  No man's life or property or good name is safe in the miserable country over which he domineers.  The laws afford no protection for they are virtually suspended. The writ of Habeas Corpus is suspended, and men of irreproachable character are taken from their houses by soldiers, and send to the vile dungeons of Castle Lafayette without a trial, without the form of law, and without even knowing of what crime they are suspected.  The liberty of the press is abolished.  No newspaper is allowed to publish anything against the tyranny under which they groan; even the liberty of speech is denied.  Men are every day mobbed and punished for speaking against the tyrant or his war.  Even ladies of the highest position in society are sent to prison or confined to their own houses and guarded by soldiers.  How long can such a state of things exist at the North? is the question.  That depends upon the solution of another question, whether the Northern people have lost all spirit and pride of freemen. Who would have believed one year ago that the Northern people would so soon have submitted to a military despotism?  We can't believe that such a state of things can continue long.  Surely all manhood has not departed from the North and if not some Brutus or Cassius will be found to avenge his own and his country's wrongs at the same time.

Abraham Lincoln, from Library of Congress Collection