Semester of Graduation
Spring 2025
Degree
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
In June 1863, at the height of the American Civil War, Lieutenant Commander John Elliot Hart of the USS Albatross received a Masonic funeral with the assistance of Confederate Freemasons in the cemetery of Grace Episcopal Church. Every year since 1997, the town of St. Francisville, Louisiana, where the event occurred, has reenacted the burial truce. Now remembered in St. Francisville’s history as “The Day the War Stopped,” the unusual circumstances surrounding Hart’s burial gave rise to a romantic legend about the event, leading the Grand Lodge of Louisiana to commemorate the occasion with a memorial gravestone in 1955. Today, townspeople continue to observe Hart’s burial truce through their annual historical performance. The story of Hart’s burial serves as an ideal case to examine how historical events and figures are memorialized, commemorated, and mythologized in small communities.
Date
3-23-2025
Recommended Citation
Hogg, James L., "“An Enemy in War, Still a Brother”: The Commemoration of John Elliot Hart’s Burial Truce" (2025). LSU Master's Theses. 6100.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/6100
Committee Chair
Prince, K. Stephen