My name is Craig Gotschall and I was born and raised in southwest Baltimore, Maryland. Where I played as a child strongly influenced my overriding passion for history, especially the American Civil War. Directly across from my house loomed "Loudon Park," a 400 acre city cemetery established in 1853. Loudon Park contains over 200,000 graves and was designed as parkland with ornamental trees and shrubs, meandering streams--a bucolic setting--as was the custom of the large city cemeteries constructed during the 19th century. Loudon Park Cemetery has a direct link the Civil War.
Baltimore and the surrounding area contained a large population sympathetic to the South. When the sons of these families began to fall in battle, many offered up their private burial lots in a section of the cemetery. This small area grew into a cemetery in itself with its own identity. It became to be called Confederate Hill.
There are over 600 Confederates from all over the South resting on Confederate Hill, including over 200 Confederate veterans from Maryland. In all, there are approximately 1,000 Confederate soldiers who call Loudon Park Cemetery their respective final resting place.
Just a short walk from Confederate Hill, is Loudon Park National Cemetery, which was laid out in 1862. Like its Southern counterpart, it was established to bury the increasing ranks of Union dead. It is one of the first National cemeteries and burials there began two years before Arlington National Cemetery. Like Confederate Hill, the National Cemetery contains graves from many states including the North, Border State South, Mid-West, as well as Maryland.
When I was a child, my father and I hiked through Loudon Park on holidays and we were particularly fond of both Civil War cemeteries. We felt fortunate to have such a treasure within walking distance of our home. My dad, who passed away in September ‘09 loved history, especially the Civil War. He was Mason for nearly fifty years; he was also a Knights Templar. Like my dad, I belong to chivalric order of Masons as well.
Other influences have endeared me to the Civil War including ancestors who participated in it from both North and South, including a collateral link Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson through my great-grandmother. Evidence mostly points toward Stonewall not being a Mason, yet the Brotherhood factored largely in his life: Jackson’s widowed mother was loaned a small house after having fallen on hard times with the death of her husband and the responsibility of raising three small children.
There are a number of areas that I wish to uncover regarding Freemasons who served during the Civil War, especially the many tales about Brethren giving and receiving “brotherly love, relief and truth" from Brethren donning the opposing uniform. Acts of kindness happened outside of the Freemasonry connection, but from what I have read and heard, benevolence occurred more often when Masons were involved.
I have heard tales such as, “During the war, entire cities were toppled, including the burning of churches—but Freemason Halls were spared!” I wish to investigate these types of episodes, if at all possible. I would also like to know what inspired Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain to become a Mason, and as I have heard of it, and pretty quickly as time was of the essence; for upon being Raised, he was ushered South upon joining the Union Army who happened to be engaged in that woeful battle known as Antietam or Sharpsburg. Something greatly compelled him to pursue Freemasonry, almost as if his life depended on it.
In my own back yard, my home lodge in particular—why did it “go dark” or close almost concurrently with the beginning of the war—and then in the same sudden fashion, reopen immediately after the war ended.
Ultimately, I believe it is the dichotomy between America’s bloodiest war on the one hand, and the role that Freemasonry played in that gargantuan clash between North and South that draws me closer to uncovering more details about the unique presence that Mason’s had during our Country’s greatest epic.
My professional credentials include my current position as a marketing professional for county government in a jurisdiction located between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. My main role is to advance marketing initiatives through writing, editing, graphic and web design, and photography.
I've been employed in the printing, publishing, marketing industries for over 30 years. I hold a B.A. in English (minor in writing) from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and I studied publication design and management at The George Washington University.
I have taken graduate courses in pastoral counseling at Loyola College and I’m currently the Chaplain of my Masonic Lodge, Patmos Lodge #70, Ellicott City, Maryland, which is also my current zip code. Therefore, between my heritage and having been raised nearly on the grounds of two Civil War cemeteries, little wonder I’m deeply attracted to the Civil War.
I’m married to a lovely wife and have two wonderful step-children, two playful dogs and a cat. I lead a pretty conventional, middle-class life, which I’m forever thankful.
One more thing about my childhood playground, i.e., “Loudon Park”; although established in 1853, the cemetery saw a lot of growth after the Civil War and into the early twentieth century. That time period also happens to represent the golden age of Freemasonry where membership was at its zenith.
The cemetery doesn’t lie—numerous headstones and memorials are adorned with the square and compasses. In fact, you can’t walk but a few feet before running into another set.
Since Freemasonry claims to be “a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols,” not only have I have been receiving a Masonic education for a very long time, but the imprint from a vast amount of stone sentinels has obviously helped endear me to the Craft as well!
