Brothers of Valor: Freemasons and the Medal of Honor

The question began with a number.

How many Freemasons have received the Medal of Honor?

At first, it seemed like the sort of historical question that should have a reasonably straightforward answer. The Medal of Honor is extensively documented, Freemasonry has preserved an enormous amount of its own institutional history, and lists of famous Masons have circulated for generations. Yet almost immediately, different sources produced different totals. Some lists identified approximately 100 men. Others approached 130. More recent Masonic research suggested that the number could be considerably higher. The deeper we went, the less satisfactory it became simply to repeat somebody else’s number.

That turned a question into a research project.

Artificial intelligence played an important role in that project, but not in the way the phrase “AI research” is sometimes understood. AI was not treated as an authority capable of declaring someone a Freemason or a Medal of Honor recipient. Instead, it was used as a research accelerator: locating names, comparing lists, detecting duplicated identities, searching historical material, organizing evidence, and identifying contradictions requiring further investigation. Every name still had to survive a separate verification process. In effect, AI helped us ask more questions more quickly, but the sources still had to answer them.

The result is a working roster of 150 unique Medal of Honor recipients whose Masonic membership could be supported to the evidentiary standard used in this project. Two of those men received the Medal of Honor twice for separate actions, meaning that the 150 men account for 152 Medal of Honor awards. This should not be interpreted as a declaration that precisely 150 Freemasons have received the Medal of Honor. In fact, the evidence indicates that the actual number is almost certainly higher. It is better understood as a defensible historical sample large enough to reveal something significant about the intersection of American military history, extraordinary courage, and the fraternity of Freemasonry.

Building the List

The foundation of the project was a roster attributed to the Masonic Service Association of North America and reproduced by John Warren Lodge. That list contains a substantial collection of Medal of Honor recipients together with their Masonic affiliations, often identifying an individual lodge. It provided the backbone for 128 of the 150 men ultimately included in our research.

More recent evidence expanded the field. In the Summer 2026 issue of The Sojourner, National Historian Col. Edward W. Nolte reported that, among the then 3,535 Medal of Honor recipients, 164 had been confirmed as Masons, including 37 confirmed National Sojourners. That finding was especially important because it suggested that the older Masonic Service Association roster, while valuable, was not exhaustive. We therefore treated 150 not as a target to be reached by lowering standards, but as a number that could be supported while leaving additional candidates outside the list when their documentation remained uncertain.

William R. Denslow’s 10,000 Famous Freemasons provided another important historical source. Denslow explained that the Missouri Lodge of Research project grew from thousands of biographical cards, material from the House of the Temple, contemporary biographical references, and an extensive review of Masonic books and periodicals. He also acknowledged the difficulty of establishing criteria for inclusion and the possibility that additional names would continue to emerge. That candor is useful because it reflects precisely the problem encountered in this project: historical membership research is rarely as tidy as modern databases make us expect.

The verification standard therefore required two different questions to be answered independently. First, was the man actually a recipient of the Medal of Honor? For that question, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society database and official military records were treated as the primary authorities. Second, was the same man actually a Freemason? That question required a Masonic source, such as the Masonic Service Association roster, National Sojourners research, Denslow, lodge or Grand Lodge material, or another sufficiently credible historical source.

This distinction eliminated several names that initially appeared promising. James C. Gillmore, for example, appeared in older material associated with the Medal of Honor, but later research and the official recipient record did not support that attribution. Melvin A. Hildreth presented a similar problem. Gen. John J. Pershing appeared within surrounding Medal of Honor material in one modern Masonic source, but Pershing himself was not a Medal of Honor recipient. Rather than rationalize these contradictions, the men were excluded.

Other problems were less dramatic but equally revealing. William Croft Barnes and Will C. Barnes were the same man and therefore could not be counted twice. A transcription rendered Frank G. Butterfield as Frank “0.” Butterfield. Audie Murphy’s lodge number appeared as 5421 in one transcription when independent Masonic references identify North Hollywood Lodge No. 542. Daniel A. Dorsey’s lodge name remains corrupted or unclear in the transcription we located. Instead of quietly correcting uncertain historical information, those discrepancies were preserved as research notes.

That may be the most important methodological lesson of the project. A polished list can create an illusion of certainty. Good historical research occasionally has to leave something untidy.

What the Numbers Reveal

Once the 150 men were classified, the shape of the collection became clearer. The 150 recipients account for 152 medals because Frank Dwight Baldwin and Smedley Darlington Butler each received two Medals of Honor for separate acts. Across the entire history of the Medal of Honor, only 19 men have received two medals, and only 14 received them for separate actions rather than receiving Army and Navy versions for the same act. Having two such men within this Masonic group is therefore statistically and historically striking.

The collection is also heavily weighted toward the Civil War. Of the 152 awards, 86—56.6 percent—are classified as Civil War awards. World War II accounts for another 18, World War I for 12, and the Indian Campaigns for 10. Those four categories alone account for 126 of the 152 awards. The remaining 26 are distributed across the Philippine Insurrection, China Relief Expedition, Spanish-American War, Mexican Campaign at Vera Cruz, Haitian Campaign, Second Nicaraguan Campaign, Korean War, Vietnam War, Samoa Campaign, and several periods that the Medal of Honor Society classifies as interim eras. The official database itself preserves these distinctions because the history of the Medal extends beyond America’s formally declared wars.

The chronology of the medals revealed something even more surprising. Of the 152 awards in our database, 145 have an exact presentation, issue, or official award date; four retain only a month and year; one only a year; and two have no presentation date yet located. Fully 80 of the 152 awards—52.6 percent—carry dates in the 1890s.

That does not mean that half of the valor represented here occurred during the 1890s. Much of it occurred during the Civil War three decades earlier. The concentration instead reflects how the Medal of Honor evolved and how many Civil War veterans received formal recognition long after the actions themselves. The difference between the date of heroism and the date of recognition became one of the most interesting discoveries of the project.

Three family relationships also appear within the roster. Arthur MacArthur Jr., a Civil War recipient, and Douglas MacArthur, a World War II recipient, were father and son. Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt Jr. became another father-and-son pair, with the younger Roosevelt receiving his Medal posthumously for D-Day. The roster also includes brothers John Charles Black and William Perkins Black. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society recognizes the MacArthurs and Roosevelts among its notable related recipients.

These patterns make the list more than a collection of names. It becomes a cross-section of American military history extending from the Civil War through Vietnam, with the ceremonial history of the awards continuing into the twenty-first century.

Two Men, Four Medals

If two men provide the natural spine for this story, they are Frank Dwight Baldwin and Smedley Darlington Butler.

Baldwin’s first Medal of Honor came from the Civil War. On July 12, 1864, at Peach Tree Creek, Georgia, Baldwin was serving as a captain in the 19th Michigan Infantry. During the fighting, he moved ahead of his own men under heavy fire, entered the opposing line, and returned with two Confederate officers and a regimental guidon. The action occurred in 1864; the Medal of Honor was presented on December 3, 1891, more than twenty-seven years later.

War did not end Baldwin’s encounters with danger. Ten years after Peach Tree Creek, now serving in the regular Army, he participated in the Indian Campaigns on the Southern Plains. At McClellans Creek, Texas, on November 8, 1874, Baldwin attacked a numerically superior force rather than delaying for reinforcements because two captive girls might have been killed or carried away if the enemy escaped. That action earned his second Medal of Honor, presented March 17, 1894.

Baldwin was a member of Siloam Lodge No. 35 in Constantine, Michigan, according to the Masonic Service Association roster. In a single life, he connects the Civil War with the western campaigns that followed and demonstrates the enormous distance that sometimes separated battlefield action from official recognition.

Smedley Darlington Butler carries the story into a very different period of American military history. By the early twentieth century, the United States was projecting military power beyond the continental frontier, and Butler’s two medals came from that era. His first resulted from the 1914 fighting at Vera Cruz, Mexico, where he commanded Marines during the occupation of the city. His Medal of Honor citation recognized his conspicuous leadership and courage during the action of April 22.

His second came only nineteen months later. On November 17, 1915, Butler led Marines and sailors against Fort Riviere in Haiti. The attacking force closed on the old stone fort, whose only usable entrance exposed those entering it to fire from the defenders. Butler led the assault that broke the resistance inside the fort, and his second Medal of Honor was presented on June 17, 1916.

Butler belonged to Orient Lodge No. 289 in Philadelphia. Together, Baldwin and Butler account for four medals in four different Medal of Honor conflict categories: Civil War, Indian Campaigns, Mexican Campaign, and Haitian Campaign. Their careers alone move the reader across more than half a century of changing American warfare.

Yet they cannot carry the entire story. Butler’s second Medal was earned in 1915, while substantial parts of the Masonic Medal of Honor record still lay ahead.

From the Trenches to the Air

World War I brought industrial warfare on a scale that earlier generations could scarcely have imagined, and it also introduced aviation as a major instrument of combat. Among the twelve World War I awards in our Masonic group, one of the most recognizable names is Edward Vernon Rickenbacker, a member of Kilwinning Lodge No. 297 in Detroit.

Before the war, Rickenbacker had already become known as an automobile racer. In France he transferred to aviation, ultimately commanding the 94th Aero Squadron and becoming America’s leading flying ace. His Medal of Honor resulted from a voluntary patrol on September 25, 1918, near Billy, France. Encountering seven German aircraft, he attacked despite the disparity in numbers and shot down two. His Medal was not presented until November 6, 1930, when President Herbert Hoover presented it at Bolling Field near Washington.

Once again, the gap between act and award is important. The Medal of Honor timeline does not simply measure when men were courageous. It also measures when the government formally decided how that courage should be remembered.

Audie Murphy and the War of Millions

World War II accounts for 18 medals in our group, making it the second-largest conflict represented after the Civil War. There are many possible men through whom to tell that story: James Doolittle, Joseph Foss, Jonathan Wainwright, Douglas MacArthur, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., and others. But no name is more closely associated in the public imagination with the decorated American combat soldier than Audie Leon Murphy.

Murphy belonged to North Hollywood Lodge No. 542 in California. The historical Masonic transcription we examined contains an apparent typographical error in the lodge number, one of several small examples of why independent checking mattered.

His Medal of Honor action took place near Holtzwihr, France, on January 26, 1945. With his company under attack by German armor and infantry, Murphy ordered his men back while he remained forward directing artillery. He then climbed onto a burning tank destroyer and used its .50-caliber machine gun against advancing German troops while exposed to fire from multiple directions. Wounded, he remained in the fight, eventually returned to his company, refused immediate medical attention, and organized a counterattack. His Medal of Honor was presented on June 2, 1945, by Lt. Gen. Alexander Patch near Werfen, Austria.

Murphy’s story demonstrates another caution necessary in considering this subject. The fact that a Medal of Honor recipient was a Mason does not establish that Masonic teaching caused his conduct in combat. In some cases the man became a Mason only after the action for which he was decorated. Theodore Roosevelt provides a particularly clear example: his San Juan Hill action occurred in 1898, but he did not receive his Masonic degrees in Matinecock Lodge No. 806 until 1901.

That distinction matters. History should not be bent into fraternity promotion.

Bayonets in Korea

Three men in the verified roster received Medals of Honor for actions during the Korean War. Among them was Lewis L. Millett, a member of Tyrian Lodge No. 73 in Mechanic Falls, Maine.

On February 7, 1951, near Hill 180 at Soam-Ni, Korea, Millett was commanding Company E, 27th Infantry Regiment. When part of his force became pinned down, he moved to the front, fixed bayonets, and led his soldiers uphill into enemy positions. The fighting became hand-to-hand. Millett was wounded by grenade fragments but continued until the position had been taken and secured.

President Harry S. Truman presented the Medal of Honor to him at the White House on July 5, 1951. The image of a company commander personally leading a bayonet charge in the era of jet aircraft and modern artillery seems almost anachronistic, but that is exactly what makes Millett’s story powerful. The instruments of war had changed enormously since Baldwin’s Civil War service, but the individual requirement to move toward danger rather than away from it had not.

Across the River in Vietnam

The verified roster contains three Vietnam War recipients. Leo K. Thorsness was an Air Force pilot. Joe M. Jackson earned his Medal by landing an aircraft under intense fire to rescue an Air Force combat control team. The third, Sammy L. Davis, was an artilleryman whose actions occurred at Firebase Cudgil west of Cai Lay on November 18, 1967.

Davis’s position came under mortar fire and a ground attack by a reinforced Viet Cong force. Despite serious wounds, he crossed a river on an air mattress because he could not swim, reached three wounded Americans on the opposite bank, and protected them while helping bring them back across the water. He then returned to an artillery position and continued fighting rather than immediately accepting medical treatment. President Lyndon B. Johnson presented his Medal of Honor at the White House on November 19, 1968.

National Sojourners records Davis as a 33rd-degree Mason associated with Indiana Masonic Home Lodge No. 541, Indianapolis-Fort Harrison Chapter No. 66, and Night Stalkers Chapter No. 567. His presence in the group carries the story into the war that defined a generation of American veterans and brings the combat chronology of our 150 men close to its end.

The Campaigns Between the Great Wars

Focusing only on the major wars would overlook an important part of the Medal of Honor’s history. The verified Masonic recipients also appear in the Philippine Insurrection, the China Relief Expedition, Samoa, Nicaragua, Vera Cruz, Haiti, and several interim periods in which the Medal could be awarded for extraordinary military conduct outside a large declared war. That is why figures such as Christian F. Schilt, Bruno A. Forsterer, Carl Emil Petersen, Richard E. Byrd Jr., Charles Lindbergh, and Adolphus Greely belong in the broader picture.

Some of these awards would look unusual through a modern understanding of the Medal of Honor. Standards changed over time, as did the statutory requirements and the military circumstances under which the medal could be granted. William F. Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, appears in the roster because the Medal of Honor Society recognizes his Civilian Scout award and notes that his was one of several civilian awards later rescinded and eventually reinstated.

The diversity of these cases is another reason not to compress the entire history into a simple list of wartime heroes. The Medal itself has a history.

The First and Last Are Not What They Seem

Chronologically, the earliest medal date in our research belongs to Daniel Allen Dorsey, whose Medal of Honor was presented on September 17, 1863. Dorsey had participated in what became known as the Great Locomotive Chase. In April 1862, he was among the Union raiders who moved deep into Confederate territory, seized a locomotive at Big Shanty, Georgia, and attempted to damage the rail connection between Atlanta and Chattanooga.

The Masonic Service Association roster identifies Dorsey as a Mason, but the surviving transcription renders his lodge as “Emd Lodge No. 19, OK,” a wording we have not confidently resolved. That uncertain lodge name has deliberately been preserved in the roster below. The fact that it looks untidy is preferable to turning a guess into history.

At the other end of the award chronology stands Theodore Roosevelt. His heroic action occurred during the Spanish-American War on July 1, 1898, when he led his men during the assault on San Juan Hill in Cuba. Yet the Medal of Honor was not presented until January 16, 2001, when President Bill Clinton presented it posthumously to Roosevelt’s family in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

Roosevelt was a member of Matinecock Lodge No. 806, Oyster Bay, New York, but he entered Freemasonry in 1901—after the act for which the Medal was eventually awarded. That fact may be one of the most useful observations in the entire project. It prevents us from making the easy but historically unsupported argument that these men behaved heroically because they were Masons.

Dorsey and Roosevelt therefore form unusual bookends. The first medal date in our database is 1863. The last presentation date is 2001. Between them lie 138 years of official recognition, even though the combat represented by Roosevelt’s medal belongs to 1898.

The timeline is not merely a chronology of bravery. It is also a chronology of memory.

What Can Freemasonry Claim?

There is a temptation in writing about famous Freemasons to turn biography into institutional validation. A president was a Mason, therefore Masonry deserves some portion of his greatness. A general was a Mason, therefore his leadership somehow proves the value of the Craft. A Medal of Honor recipient was a Mason, therefore his heroism can be interpreted as an expression of Masonic teaching.

The evidence does not permit us to make that leap.

Some recipients were Masons when they performed the actions for which they were decorated. Others became Masons afterward. For still others, the surviving evidence establishes membership but not the exact date at which they entered the fraternity. The correct conclusion is consequently more restrained: Freemasonry was present within the lives of a remarkable number of men whom the United States separately recognized for extraordinary courage and service.

That remains significant.

Masonry repeatedly asks its members to think about duty, fidelity, fortitude, sacrifice, restraint, integrity, and service. Those principles do not belong exclusively to Freemasonry, nor does a Masonic apron transform an ordinary man into a hero. But when the fraternity later encounters men whose lives included extraordinary demonstrations of courage, those lives offer powerful opportunities for reflection. The question is not whether the Craft can claim their medals. It cannot. The better question is what a Mason can learn by studying the decisions they made when duty became dangerous.

The 150 Documented Freemasons in This Study

The roster below reflects the two-source standard used in this project. Of the 150 men, 128 came from the Masonic Service Association roster after identity cleanup, 11 from National Sojourners research, six from an additional Masonic Medal of Honor compilation, four from Denslow, and one from a Smithsonian historical annotation. The Masonic Service Association source itself identifies its Medal of Honor list beginning with John Gregory Bishop Adams and proceeding through more than 100 named recipients and lodge affiliations. National Sojourners’ 2026 research independently reports the larger universe of 164 confirmed Masons.

Recipient	Masonic affiliation documented in this study
Adolphus Washington Greely	St. Marks Lodge, Newburyport, Massachusetts
Albert E. Fernald	Howard Lodge No. 69, Winterport, Maine
Albert Knaak	Olive Branch Lodge No. 47, South Dakota
Albert Power	Franklin Lodge No. 14, Bloomfield, Iowa
Alexander Gordon Lyle	St. Paul’s Lodge No. 14, Newport, Rhode Island
Allan H. Dougall	Home Lodge No. 342, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Amasa S. Tracy	Union Lodge No. 2, Middlebury, Vermont
Arthur MacArthur Jr.	Magnolia Lodge No. 60, Little Rock, Arkansas
Audie Leon Murphy	North Hollywood Lodge No. 542, California
Augustus J. Robbins	DeWitt Clinton Lodge No. 15, Northfield, Vermont
Benjamin F. Tracy	Friendship Lodge No. 153, New York
Benjamin Kaufman	True Craftsman Lodge No. 202, Trenton, New Jersey
Bruno A. Forsterer	33rd degree; Oakland Chapter No. 108, National Sojourners
Carl Emil Petersen	Americus Lodge No. 83, Woodbridge, New Jersey
Carl H. Dodd	Kentucky Chapter No. 134, National Sojourners
Carl L. Sitter	Oasis of Mara Lodge No. 735, Twentynine Palms, California
Carle A. Woodruff	Hancock Lodge No. 331, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
Carlos Carnes Ogden	Catlin Lodge No. 285, Illinois
Cassius Peck	Mystic Star Lodge No. 97, Brookfield, Vermont
Charles A. Varnum	Olive Branch Lodge No. 47, Sturgis, South Dakota
Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr.	Keystone Lodge No. 243, St. Louis, Missouri
Charles G. Gould	West River Lodge No. 57, Londonderry, Vermont
Charles H. Marsh	St. Peter’s Lodge No. 21, New Milford, Connecticut
Charles Porter Mattocks	Portland Lodge No. 1, Maine
Christian F. Schilt	Olney Lodge No. 140, Illinois
Daniel A. Dorsey	“Emd Lodge No. 19, OK” — transcription remains unclear
Daniel Adams Butterfield	Metropolitan Lodge No. 273, New York, New York
Daniel D. Wheeler	Lafayette Lodge No. 3, Proctorsville, Vermont
Dennis W. Hickey	Fort Edward Lodge No. 267, New York
Donald A. Gary	Garden Grove Lodge No. 586, California
Donald E. Rudolph	Khurum Lodge No. 112, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Alt Heidelberg No. 821
Douglas MacArthur	Manila Lodge No. 1, Philippines
Edward Settle Godfrey	Freemason; specific lodge not identified in Denslow entry
Edward Vernon Rickenbacker	Kilwinning Lodge No. 297, Detroit, Michigan
Erastus W. Jewett	Washington Lodge No. 3, Burlington, Vermont
Erwin R. Bleckley	Wichita Chapter No. 24, National Sojourners
Francis E. Warren	Cheyenne Lodge No. 1, Wyoming
Francis Jay Herron	Mosaic Lodge No. 125, Dubuque, Iowa
Frank Dwight Baldwin	Siloam Lodge No. 35, Constantine, Michigan
Frank Friday Fletcher	Onyx Lodge No. 419, Sanborn, Iowa
Frank G. Butterfield	King Solomon’s Temple Lodge No. 45, Vermont
George Henry Maynard	Monitor Lodge, Waltham, Massachusetts
George Newman Bliss	Union Lodge No. 10, Pawtucket, Rhode Island
George Seanor Robb	Salina Lodge No. 60, Kansas
George W. Brush	Freemason; specific lodge not identified in Denslow entry
George White Hooker	West River Lodge No. 57, Londonderry, Vermont
Harold L. Turner	Seminole City Lodge No. 476, Seminole, Oklahoma
Henry A. Barnum	Central City Lodge No. 305, Syracuse, New York
Henry C. Drexler	Doric Lodge No. 30, Millville, Delaware
Henry C. Nichols	Central Lodge No. 62, Irasburg, Vermont
Henry Capehart	Ohio City Lodge No. 486, Martins Ferry, Ohio
Henry Clay Merriam	Waterville Lodge No. 33, Maine
Henry Clay Wood	Temple Lodge No. 25, Winthrop, Maine
Henry W. Rowe	Lafayette Lodge No. 41, Manchester, New Hampshire
Henry Ware Lawton	Summit City Lodge No. 170, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Horatio Collins King	33rd-degree Mason; specific lodge not identified in the Smithsonian annotation
Hulon B. Whittington	Oak Harbor Lodge No. 495, Ohio
Jacklyn H. Lucas	Indian Lodge No. 405
Jackson Charles Pharris	William H. Upton Lodge No. 206, Washington
James Alexander Williamson	Freemason; specific lodge not identified in Denslow entry
James C. Dozier	Columbia Lodge No. 326, South Carolina
James Dunlavy	Quitman Lodge No. 217, Stiles, Iowa
James H. Doolittle	Hollenbeck Lodge No. 319, Los Angeles, California
James H. Luther	Bristol Lodge, North Attleboro, Massachusetts
James M. Drake	Orient Lodge No. 126, Elizabeth, New Jersey
James M. Drury	Olive Branch Lodge No. 64, Chester, Vermont
James Montross Burt	Evening Star Lodge, Lee, Massachusetts
James Parke Postles	Eureka Lodge No. 23, Wilmington, Delaware
James T. Clancy	Munn Lodge No. 190, New York, New York
Joe M. Jackson	Coweta Lodge No. 60, Newnan, Georgia
Joel H. Lyman	Randolph Lodge No. 359, New York
John C. Curtis	St. Johns Lodge No. 8, Stratford, Connecticut
John Charles Black	Olive Branch Lodge No. 38, Danville, Illinois
John Cleveland Robinson	Binghamton Lodge No. 177, New York
John Frederick Hartranft	Charity Lodge No. 190, Norristown, Pennsylvania
John Gregory Bishop Adams	Columbian Lodge, Boston, Massachusetts
John Hack	Trenton Lodge No. 111, Missouri
John Henry Balch	Howard Lodge No. 1134, Chicago, Illinois
John J. Clausey	San Diego Chapter No. 45, National Sojourners
John T. Kennedy	Hancock Lodge No. 311, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
John W. Clark	Aurora Lodge No. 22, Montpelier, Vermont
Jonathan M. Wainwright IV	Union Lodge No. 7, Junction City, Kansas
Joseph J. Foss	Minnehaha Lodge No. 5, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Joseph S. Smith	St. Andrew’s Lodge No. 83, Bangor, Maine
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain	United Lodge No. 8, Brunswick, Maine
Josiah O. Livingston	Sherman Lodge No. 72, West Topsham, Vermont
LeRoy Williams	Cleveland Chapter No. 23, National Sojourners
Leo K. Thorsness	Unity Lodge No. 130, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Leonard Wood	Anglo Saxon Lodge No. 137, Brooklyn, New York
Lewis Addison Grant	King Solomon Temple Lodge No. 45, Vermont
Lewis L. Millett	Tyrian Lodge No. 73, Mechanic Falls, Maine
Louis J. Van Schaick	Golden Gate Chapter No. 18, National Sojourners
Lowell Mason Maxham	King David Lodge, Taunton, Massachusetts
Matthew Stanley Quay	St. James Lodge No. 457, Beaver, Pennsylvania
Merritt A. Edson	Olive Branch Lodge No. 64, Chester, Vermont
Morgan D. Lane	Washington Lodge No. 5, Atchison, Kansas
Moses Augustus Luce	San Diego Lodge No. 3, California
Nathan Green Gordon	Morrilton Lodge No. 105, Arkansas
Nathaniel M. Allen	St. John’s Lodge, Newburyport, Massachusetts
Nelson Appleton Miles	California Lodge No. 278, Los Angeles, California
Newton Martin Curtis	Ogdensburg Lodge No. 128, New York
Orlando Henderson Petty	Roxborough Lodge No. 135, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Paul F. Straub	Mt. Pleasant Lodge No. 8, Iowa
Phillip Carl Katz	Argonne Lodge No. 51, San Francisco, California
Randolph C. Berkeley	Quantico Chapter No. 44, National Sojourners
Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr.	Federal Lodge No. 1, Washington, D.C.
Richard L. Tea	Aztlan Lodge No. 4, Prescott, Arizona
Richard Napoleon Batchelder	Lafayette Lodge No. 41, Manchester, New Hampshire
Robert Earl Bonney	Edmonds Lodge No. 165, Washington
Robert J. Coffey	Aurora Lodge No. 22, Montpelier, Vermont
Robert S. Robertson	Fort Edward Lodge No. 267, New York
Ruel M. Johnson	Goshen Lodge No. 12, Tennessee
Rufus Saxton Jr.	St. Johns Lodge No. 11, Washington, D.C.
Sammy L. Davis	33rd degree; Indiana Masonic Home No. 541; Indianapolis-Ft. Harrison Chapter No. 66; Night Stalkers No. 567
Samuel Benton Horne	St. Andrews Lodge No. 64, Winsted, Connecticut
Sidney W. Thaxter	St. Andrews Lodge No. 83, Bangor, Maine
Smedley Darlington Butler	Orient Lodge No. 289, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Squire E. Howard	Blazing Star Lodge No. 23, Townshend, Vermont
Stephen Thomas	Jackson Lodge No. 60, West Fairlee, Vermont
Theodore Roosevelt	Matinecock Lodge No. 806, Oyster Bay, New York
Theodore Roosevelt Jr.	Matinecock Lodge No. 806, Oyster Bay, New York
Theodore Safford Peck	Washington Lodge No. 3, Burlington, Vermont
Theodore W. Goldin	Janesville Lodge No. 55, Wisconsin
Thomas Cruse	Freemason; specific lodge not identified in Denslow entry
Thomas F. Ellsworth	Jordan Lodge, Peabody, Massachusetts
Thomas O. Seaver	Vermont Lodge No. 18, Windsor, Vermont
Thomas Wilson Bradley	Wallkill Lodge No. 627, New York
Voltaire P. Twombly	Home Lodge No. 370, Des Moines, Iowa
Wallace A. Beckwith	Brainard Lodge No. 102, New London, Connecticut
Wendell C. Neville	Golden Gate Chapter No. 18, National Sojourners
Wheelock G. Veazey	United Brethren Lodge No. 21, White River Junction, Vermont
William A. Shomo	Dormont Lodge No. 684, Pennsylvania
William A. Soderman	Annawon Lodge No. 115, West Haven, Connecticut
William Badders	Sibert Lodge, Gatun, Canal Zone, Massachusetts jurisdiction
William Croft Barnes	Gate City Lodge No. 11, Raton, New Mexico
William E. Hall	Carbon Lodge No. 16, Price, Utah
William F. Cody	Platte Valley Lodge No. 32, North Platte, Nebraska; Mark Master, Euphrates Chapter No. 15
William F. Hamberger	Washington Chapter No. 3, National Sojourners
William J. Sperry	Lafayette Lodge No. 53, Proctorsville, Vermont
William Marland	St. Matthews Lodge, Andover, Massachusetts
William Perkins Black	Olive Branch Lodge No. 38, Danville, Illinois
William R. D. Blackwood	Concordia Lodge No. 67, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania
William R. Shafter	Prairie Lodge No. 92, Galesburg, Illinois
William Wells	Washington Lodge No. 3, Burlington, Vermont
William Wirt Henry	Burlington Lodge No. 100, Vermont
William Y. W. Ripley	Center Lodge No. 34, Rutland, Vermont
Willie Sandlin	Hyden Lodge No. 664, Kentucky
Willis Winter Bradley Jr.	Golden Fleece Lodge No. 31, Forman, North Dakota
Wilmon W. Blackmar	Winchester Hiram Lodge No. 21, Winchester, Virginia
Zenas Randall Bliss	St. John’s Lodge No. 1, Providence, Rhode Island

A Representative List, Not a Closed One

The most defensible conclusion from this research is not that 150 is the final number. It is that 150 can presently be supported within the rules we established for this project. National Sojourners’ figure of 164 confirmed Masons strongly suggests that additional names can be substantiated, and future lodge research may push the number higher still.

There is value in resisting the urge to make the number larger merely because a larger number sounds more impressive. Every additional name should make the list stronger rather than merely longer. Historical errors reproduce themselves easily; once an unsupported statement appears in a book or website, later authors may cite one another until repetition begins to resemble proof. The two-source method interrupts that cycle.

The same humility should shape how Masons interpret the list. These medals belong to the men who earned them and to the nation that honored them. Freemasonry does not own their courage. What the Craft possesses is the opportunity to study their lives and ask what they reveal about duty when duty becomes costly.

We began this project looking for a number. What emerged instead were 150 lives stretching across generations of American history. Some of the men were famous presidents and generals. Others are nearly forgotten outside military history. Some led charges, some flew into impossible odds, some rescued wounded men, some entered burning or sinking ships, and some were recognized only decades after the moment that defined their place in the record.

The number brought us to the men.

The men remind us that virtues such as courage, fidelity, fortitude, sacrifice, and duty remain abstractions until circumstances demand that someone actually practice them. That may be the most genuinely Masonic lesson contained in the entire list.

Reflections on the Craft: Questions for Deeper Understanding

• Courage and Masonic Identity:
o Several recipients became Freemasons only after the actions for which they received the Medal of Honor. How does that distinction shape the way we should understand the relationship between Masonic membership and the virtues demonstrated in their lives?

• Recognition and Memory:
o Many recipients waited decades before receiving the Medal of Honor, while Theodore Roosevelt’s recognition came more than a century after his action. What does this delay teach us about the difference between doing one’s duty and receiving recognition for it?

• From Principle to Action:
o The men in this study faced circumstances in which duty, courage, and sacrifice carried real personal consequences. How can their examples challenge a Mason to move beyond speaking about principles and toward practicing them when doing so becomes difficult?

Research Sources

The principal Medal of Honor authority used in this research was the Congressional Medal of Honor Society recipient database and its individual recipient records. Masonic affiliation research drew principally from the Masonic Service Association of North America roster reproduced by John Warren Lodge, National Sojourners historian Col. Edward W. Nolte’s 2026 research, William R. Denslow’s 10,000 Famous Freemasons, supplementary Masonic biographical compilations, and, in the case of Horatio Collins King, the Smithsonian Institution’s William Steinway Diary annotations. The underlying research workbook preserves individual source assignments, discrepancies, exclusions, corrections, and award-date classifications for all 150 men.