He can't get past Richmond and returns two weeks later. When member John L. Turner dies of typhoid after the battle, the rooms are draped in black for three months, and members wear black crape armbands. Yet, when one member proposes that the lodge cut up the carpet for blankets for the Army of Virginia, the lodge considers the motion for a week and then defeats it. When Charleston is threatened by federal troops, lodges there send their regalia and records to Greenville for storage. When the ladies of the town need a sewing room for uniforms, the lodge provides space.
Members agree without discussion.
Yet, they worry constantly about money. A committee regularly audits the treasurer's accounts. As inflation stresses the economy, they twice revise their constitution to increase fees. In August 1864, one brother reports that another has been seen drunk and disorderly in public, grounds for expulsion from the lodge. They began returning in April 1865.