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Acknowledgments No book is entirely the product of an author, and without the contributions of many learned and generous people, this narrative would have not have been possible. For assistance in various archives, I am particularly beholden to Candy Johnson and the superlative staff at the William Allen White Library at Emporia State University; they were ever ready to accommodate any request for documents with alacrity. Also deserving of special thanks is Glenys Waldeman of the Masonic Library and Museum of Pennsylvania for assisting me with the details of Pennsylvania Masons as they related to the Battle of Gettysburg, and to Connie Connor and the Ohio Historical Society for timely and gracious help. Bruce Mercer, assistant librarian, Grand Lodge of Texas, Marie Barnett, librarian, Grand Lodge of Virginia, and Alicia Darr of the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin, also provided me with substantial assistance, and demonstrated extraordinary skill in locating old fraternal records. I would also like to thank historian and author Wayne E. Motts of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for his patience in answering many elementary questions. I am also obliged to to David L. Canaday of the Orient of Georgia, for his meticulous scholarship on the Masonic affiliation of Gen. John B. Gordon and for his good and timely counsel on matters of Masonic research. Dawn Hall has also aided me greatly with her insight and valuable editing, and a simple thank you seems somehow insufficient. xiv / Acknowledgments Closer to home, I am very grateful to the Grand Lodge of Kansas, and in particular Robert Pfuetze and Joesphe Stiles, for the unfettered access they afforded me to the Grand Lodge library. They and Don Anderson, Kim Crofoot, Dave Hendricks, Blaine Warkentine, and the brethren of Emporia Lodge No. 12 in Emporia, Kansas, and Mt. Zion Lodge No. 266 in Topeka , Kansas, provided me with substantial encouragement and support for which I remain profoundly grateful. I also wish to express my thanks to the very talented Patrick Craddock of Hiram Lodge No. 7, Franklin, Tennessee, for assistance with period regalia. In addition, I would be remiss were I to neglect to acknowledge the generous aid and assistance I received from two other notable Masons: Doug King of the Valley of Toledo , Ohio, who provided invaluable insight into Civil War customs and practices, as well as timely inspiration as tour guide to Johnson’s Island, Ohio, and to the formidable Masonic scholar S. Brent Morris, for his sharpeyed critiques, ready availability and unstinting advice and encouragement. Gentlemen: thank you. I must also reserve special mention and heartfelt thanks to Michelle Rothenberger Combs of Syracuse University Libraries, my friend of nearly thirty years, who provided me with editorial advice throughout every stage of this project. Without her insight, keen eye for clarity, and her deep understanding of the beauty of English, this narrative would be a ragged, tattered thing. Finally, let me thank my wife Mary, for her forbearance as well as her organizational and mathematical legerdemain, and my children Maura and Thomas, who, despite having little interest in minié balls or Masonic minutes sustained me with complete affection and unlimited patience. Despite the contributions from all of these excellent friends, family and fellows, any errors that appear in the work that follows are mine alone. —Michael A. Halleran The Better Angels of Our Nature ...

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