ST. FRANCISVILLE, La. (BRPROUD) — A Civil War reenactment will take place on Saturday, June 8, in West Feliciana Parish. The day will include a jambalaya cookoff, a play and other events.
The Day the War Stopped Festival will feature Freemasons from Feliciana Lodge #31 and St. George’s Lodge #6 in Schenectady, N.Y., reenacting a “poignant moment of the Civil War,” according to worshipful master Leon Barnett.
In June 1863, “Union soldiers under the flag of truce came searching for fellow masons in St. Francisville to bury their commander with masonic honors,” Barnett said.
The battle was briefly stopped, and Confederate masons joined in a funeral for Union Lt. Commander John Elliot Hart, who was a member of the St. George’s Lodge.
New brewery working to open this summer in St. Francisville, aims to be community hub Barnett said, “Feliciana Lodge represents the members of its lodge who accepted the body of John Elliot Hart.”
The New York members will represent “the members of the Union gunboat who brought the body ashore,” said Barnett.
There will also be other volunteer reenactors taking part in this event, he said.
“Although both New Orleans and Baton Rouge were under Union control, much of Louisiana was still Confederate,” Barnett said.
Events will take place at 4794 Prosperity Street. Parking is free and can be found around town, Barnett said. Bathrooms will be available at the lodge and courthouse.
Other events are scheduled on the day of the reenactment, including a jambalaya cookoff and play. The full schedule can be found on the lodge’s website .
“In 1997, Judge John R. Rarick of Feliciana Lodge and Frank Karwowski of St. George’s Lodge #6, with the assistance of a few folks in the lodge and town recreated this event for the first time in St. Francisville,” Barnett said.
Barnett said this is the 27th year that the reenactment has taken place.
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