The Cambridge Historical Society and Mt. Mansfield Masonic Lodge have collaborated to present this month’s program about Freemasons during the Civil War. This event will be held on September 17th , at 7:00 pm at the Warner Lodge building, 49 School St, Jeffersonville. Light refreshments will follow the presentation.

All Historical Society meetings and events are open to the public.

Please join us as award-winning author, Robert Grandchamp, discusses Lt. Col. Charles C. Cummings of the 17th Vermont Infantry. Cummings was an active politician and Mason from Brattleboro who originally joined the 16th Vermont in 1862 and led it during Pickett's Charge. He died at Poplar Spring Church in 1864 and his body was recovered by a Rhode Island Mason. The talk will illustrate the fraternal bonds that band Masons together even among fraternal strife.

An 11th generation Rhode Islander, Robert Grandchamp grew up on stories of his family and the contributions they made to America's past. He began writing at sixteen, publishing his first book, "With High and Holy Aim." Attending Rhode Island College, from which he eventually graduated in 2010 with a Master's in American History, Robert became engrossed in the study of Rhode Island and the Civil War era. Personally visiting every cemetery, archive, and library in the state, he is widely regarded as the nation's leading expert of Rhode Island in the Civil War era. Widely published, his works include the acclaimed "The Seventh Rhode Island Infantry in the Civil War," and the award winning "The Boys of Adams' Battery G." From 2008-2011, Robert worked with the Rhode Island National Guard on a history of the 103rd Field Artillery Regiment, interviewing veterans from World War II to the present and following the unit into the field on exercise. A devoted bibliophile, he is a frequent book reviewer, and a member of several historical associations. He makes his home in northern Vermont and is currently working on a compilation of letters from the Bixby family of Chelsea, Vermont.