The Powerful Meaning of a Masonic Apron.
A Story of a Masonic Apron during the Civil War.
Another episode that occurred about the same time in
Mississippi was told years later by Frank Brame. His father and elder brothers
were in the Confederate Army, and he was therefore living alone with his mother
near West Point. He tells of an event that occurred prior to Nathan Forrest's
intervention:
In the early hours of the morning before daybreak I
was suddenly awakened from the sound slumber of a healthy child by cursing and
screams, and found the room in which my mother and I were sleeping, full of
Federal soldiers. Mattresses had been piled in the hallway and set on fire. My
mother was sitting erect in her bed with the counterpane pulled around her, and
as I looked at her from my trundle bed I could see that she was greatly
frightened, while I was simply frozen with horror, for I firmly believed we
would all be killed by the soldiers. There were some fifteen or twenty soldiers
in our house, and they were smashing the furniture with their carbines.
A soldier had found a small package in a bureau
drawer. On opening it he looked at it for a moment and then ran over to my
mother's bed and, leaning over close to her, he and she spoke in low tones for
just a moment; then he suddenly left the room, leaving the other soldiers
busily engaged, evidently looking for gold.
A few moments after the soldier left the room a tall,
handsome man suddenly walked into the room and the soldiers all suddenly ceased
their depredations and brought their hands up and stood at rigid attention. The
tall man immediately ordered the fire in the hall extinguished and also ordered
the premises vacated and guards placed at the several gates of the yard. Then
turning to my mother he gravely bowed.
"Madam," he said, "I apologize for the
rudeness of my soldiers and my purser shall assess the damage done your
property and pay you for it. No further damage will be done or offered. Under
orders, I am compelled to send what meat you have to headquarters, but I shall
not move it before sunrise, by which time you may have your slaves put away
enough for your reasonable needs. With your permission I will fodder my command
in your woods lot and use enough of your corn and hay to feed the horses of my
command, for all of which I will have you suitably recompensed." Mother
gave her consent and the tall officer gravely bowed and retired.
The command lighted fires over the 100-acre woods lot
while all of us looked on. And just about time the cooking was fairly started
Forrest's command came charging down through the woods, yelling and shouting.
The Federals made a rapid back retreat through the plantation, not having time
or opportunity to get back on the regular road. Two of the soldiers guarding my
mother's front gate were captured and the running fight or skirmish variously
called West Point, Town Creek, or Wooton Hill followed.
What the soldier had discovered was a Masonic apron
"of curious workmanship and material that had been in the Brame family
since 1676."
Allen E. Roberts, House Undivided, (Macoy Publishing, 1990) 152
