Title: Colonel Sion S. Bass, 1827-1862
Creator: Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County
Release date: July 28, 2021 [eBook #65940]
Language: English
Credits: Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
COL. SION S. BASS
Prepared by the Staff of the
Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County
1954
One of a historical series, this pamphlet is published under the direction of the governing Boards of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County.
BOARD·OF·TRUSTEES·OF·THE·SCHOOL·CITY·OF·FORT·WAYNE
PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD FOR ALLEN COUNTY
The members of this Board include the members of the Board of Trustees of the School City of Fort Wayne (with the same officers) together with the following citizens chosen from Allen County outside the corporate City of Fort Wayne:
At the time of the War Between the States the name of Colonel Sion S. Bass was well known in Fort Wayne; today few citizens of the Summit City recall his heroism. Only a bare outline of his life can be constructed from the meager information available. Grace Leslie Dickerson, grandniece of the Colonel, assembled most of the material for this biographical sketch. Supplementary details were found in the Fort Wayne newspapers of the Civil War years.
The Boards and the Staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County gratefully acknowledge the kindness of Mrs. Dickerson and other members of the Bass family. This biography is presented in the hope that the life and sacrifice of Colonel Bass, Civil War hero, will become more familiar to his fellow citizens.
Not many years ago, the Fort Wayne post of the Grand Army of the Republic was an active organization. Today that post, named for Sion S. Bass, is no longer in existence. His name, as well as Civil War terms like Shiloh, United States Volunteers, and Copperhead, has almost lost its significance for the average citizen.
The honorable causes espoused and defended in the tragic Civil War were championed by many men of heroic stature—men worthy of the unstinted admiration and respect of each succeeding generation. These were the soldiers who acquitted themselves honorably in fighting for the causes they believed just. Colonel Sion St. Clair Bass, a successful young man who could have avoided military service, was one of the many who gave their lives in the struggle.
Colonel Bass was born on a farm near Salem, Kentucky, on January 6, 1827. He was descended from a line of early settlers in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Kentucky. In 1805, at the age of three, Sion’s father had been taken by his parents from Virginia to the wilderness of Christian County, Kentucky. Sion’s mother, Jane Todd Bass, who had come with her family from Charleston, South Carolina, was also an early pioneer in the bluegrass country. In Kentucky, Sion’s father acquired large areas of farmland and became prominent in local affairs.
The young Sion enjoyed a normal, happy childhood with his brothers, John and Jerden, and his sister, Emily Jane. The children helped to till the fields and performed their daily household chores. Their most exciting diversions were holiday journeys to nearby Paducah where they could watch the barges and steamboats on the Ohio and Tennessee rivers. The children were educated in the schools of Kentucky. Sion, the eldest, later attended Bartlett’s College of Commerce in Cincinnati.
After his graduation in February, 1849, Sion followed his mother’s advice and came to Fort Wayne. Jane Bass believed that Fort Wayne, already a thriving town, would offer good business opportunities for her sons because of its favorable location at the confluence of the three rivers. Chicago, she believed, would soon grow too large. In Fort Wayne, Sion found employment with the great western fur traders, Ewing, Chute, and Company, and soon became a trusted confidential agent of the firm. In this position, he became acquainted at first hand with the dangers and privations 2 of frontier life.
Very little material can be found concerning his private life in Fort Wayne. It is recorded, however, that he married Eliza Bayles, and that they were the parents of two daughters, Georgia and Beverly. And we do know that the young man was a devout member of the Episcopal Church.
In 1853 Sion became a member of Jones, Bass, and Company, which manufactured iron products. In 1857 the firm was sold to the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railroad. In September of the same year, Sion Bass formed a partnership with William H. Jones. The partners established a new foundry and machine shop along the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railroad and the Wabash Railroad. In 1858 a partnership, which had been formed by Edward Force and Sion’s brother John, leased the plant. And the following year, the plant was sold to the Fort Wayne Machine Works. The activities of Sion Bass cannot be traced from the completion of the sale negotiations until the onset of the War Between the States.
In 1861 the Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor signaling the outbreak of bitter civil strife. Drafting of men for military service was not practiced in the United States at that time; both sides relied upon volunteers to fill their fighting ranks. Sion Bass found himself in a dilemma; he was torn between his fond attachment for the South, where he had spent his childhood and early youth, and his loyalty to the North. Because of his southern background, many Northerners did not trust him. Besides, he was the sole breadwinner of his family; his wife and two children were wholly dependent upon him. He could have refused to face the issue; he could have continued his daily routine as a civilian in the North. But his firm conviction of the moral wrong of slavery and his desire to fight for the Union overcame all his reservations. In response to President Lincoln’s call for volunteers, he enlisted in the Union Army.
On September 12, 1861, Sion Bass received his appointment as colonel of the Thirtieth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, which was then being recruited. By September 24, the quota for the regiment had been filled, and the Thirtieth was organized at Camp Allen in Fort Wayne. Although he was himself untrained for military service, Colonel Bass entered upon the task of disciplining and training his raw recruits with such energy and devotion to duty that he soon won the praise of his superior officers.
Georgia • Mrs. Eliza Bass • Beverly • Col. Sion S. Bass
On October 2, the Thirtieth Indiana left Camp Allen and traveled to Indianapolis by special train on the Wabash Railroad. The train stopped en route at Peru, Indiana, where the ladies of the town met the regiment at the depot and provided an excellent dinner. This act of kindness, although not possible under the strict army regulations of our day, was typical of the spirit of the times and was much appreciated by the hungry soldiers.
The Thirtieth remained in camp at Indianapolis only for a few days. During this time, the men underwent further training; arms, uniforms, and accouterments were issued to them. The unit was then ordered to proceed to Kentucky. On October 13, 1861, the regiment was assigned to the Fifth Brigade, Second Division in General Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio. For the next few months Colonel Bass and his Thirtieth Indiana Regiment marched with Buell’s army but saw little action.
The anxiety which his family felt for him is shown in the following letter written by his mother to her younger son John:
Salem, Lexington County, Kentucky
November 29, 1861
Dear Son,
It is with great pleasure I write you hoping to hear from you soon, as I have not heard from you for months. I know not where your brother is. I hope he is not in Columbus. We hear the firing of cannons every day at Cairo, Columbus, Belmont, and several other places.
We have had no FORT WAYNE TIMES for two weeks till yesterday. It gave an account of his being in Nevin, about the center of the state, where I think he will be killed.
John, could you have no influence over him? Why did he go? What will become of his little children? Buckner and he will come in contact with each other soon, and what will be the event? God only knows. I never expect to see him again.
Richard M. Ford was killed in the Battle of Belmont, six miles from Columbus. I expect his wife is in Texas. Ford Sterling 5 was killed at Bowling Green. Mr. Pippen died the nineteenth of November, and you heard of the death of Mr. Barker.
Beverly was here yesterday and says they are all well. Every person has left Salem except for a few families. Your Pa says, “I have done nothing in no way”; and he expects to stay at his home and do the best he can.
All the ferryboats are sunk, and there is no way to cross the river. The troops pass through Salem—the Northerners and the Southerners. I am afraid of their meeting sometime in Salem.
This may be the last letter you ever will get from me. I expect the mail will stop. Give my respects to Eliza and the children, and write often. Let me hear from your brother if you ever hear again.
I close by saying,
Your ever affectionate mother, Jane Bass
In February, 1862, Buell attempted to march his army northward to reinforce General Grant’s Army of the Tennessee in the attack on Fort Donelson. Adverse weather conditions and impassable roads forced the men to return to camp after an advance of only fourteen miles. In March General Buell received orders from General Halleck to join Grant and the Army of the Tennessee at Pittsburg Landing near Shiloh. General Grant and his forces were to remain in camp at Pittsburg Landing while awaiting Buell’s arrival. It was planned that the two armies would join forces and then advance on Corinth. The delay thus necessitated in the Union advance afforded the scattered Confederate forces an opportunity to consolidate their strength. On the sixth of April, under the able leadership of General Albert Sidney Johnston, the Confederate troops launched a surprise attack against Grant’s encampment.
The roar of cannon could be heard by the men of Buell’s advancing army although they were still many miles distant from the battlefield. Hour after hour, the men of the Thirtieth followed their commander southward through swampland to Savannah, Tennessee. Boats ferried them from that city across the Tennessee River to Pittsburg Landing. On the morning of the seventh, the Fifth Brigade, which included Colonel Bass’s regiment, was ordered 6 into battle as a replacement for General Rousseau’s brigade, which had undergone murderous fire in defense of the road leading from the landing to the battlefield. The Thirtieth was engaged in mortal combat with the enemy. Confederate artillery to the right, left, and center maintained a continuous fire which inflicted heavy casualties. Colonel Bass led his regiment into battle and encouraged the men by his presence. Three times he led them impetuously against the foe; thrice his men were repelled. Yet at each command of its gallant Colonel, the Thirtieth again moved forward.
Suddenly, the Colonel’s horse was wounded and became almost unmanageable. Colonel Bass dismounted to examine the wound. Just as he reached the ground, he was struck in the upper thigh by a musket ball. Nevertheless, he soothed his horse, remounted, and continued to fight. He rode calmly among his men and exhorted them to still greater efforts. But soon he became faint and could no longer sit in the saddle. The wound was a mortal one, but death did not come immediately. Colonel Bass was carried from the battlefield to a Tennessee River steamer and transported to Paducah, Kentucky. He passed away at St. Mark’s Hospital in that city a week after he had been wounded. His wife, mother, and brother were present at his bedside.
After news of his death reached Fort Wayne, a meeting was called at the courthouse for the purpose of paying due honor to his memory. A committee of fifteen was appointed to meet the remains at Peru and to act as an escort to Fort Wayne. Mr. W. H. Withers proposed the following motion which was adopted:
“RESOLVED, that while the remains are passing from the cars to his late residence, and during the funeral ceremonies of the lamented Colonel Bass, this meeting requests that all secular business be suspended, that the bells of the city be tolled, that the flags be hung at half-mast, and that the business houses of the city be closed during the funeral obsequies.”
Another committee was appointed to draft resolutions expressing the loss sustained by the country and the community in the death of Colonel Bass. On April 21, 1862, these resolutions were published in DAWSON’S DAILY TIMES AND UNION:
Colonel Bass was struck by a musket ball....
“RESOLVED, That the death of Colonel Sion S. Bass, distinguished alike for his social qualities, his noble and unselfish impulses, his stainless morality in private life, and his ability, humanity, and gallantry as a soldier, is a severe affliction to the community in which he lived. It is a calamity to the officers and privates under his command, for their confidence in him as a leader was equaled only by their love for him as a man. And it is a heavy loss to the country which he served and to the cause which he had so heartily espoused.
“RESOLVED, That our grief for the death of Colonel Bass is aggravated by the reflection that perhaps he and thousands of other Federal soldiers who were slain or wounded in the Battle of Pittsburg Landing might today be standing with arms in their hands. They might still be ready to do battle in their country’s cause had it not been for the apparently inexcusable and unparalleled neglect of the commanding generals in not using those precautions against a ‘surprise’ which are always used by trustworthy commanders at the head of armies in the presence of active and powerful foes. Courage is only one qualification for a commander; to personal bravery there should be united military science and skill, vigilance, prudence, and self-control. Whenever it shall be discovered that any general in command of Federal forces is deficient in those indispensable qualifications, it is the imperative duty of the Administration to relieve him of his command.
“RESOLVED, That, as Indiana has given without stint her noble and cherished sons to the nation to aid in crushing a monstrous and causeless rebellion, and as their blood has been freely shed on nearly every battlefield where success has attended the Federal arms, she has a right to demand and will demand that those who are still at their posts shall not be unnecessarily sacrificed through the incompetency or carelessness of commanding generals.
“RESOLVED, That the citizens of this county, while they mourn over the untimely death of Colonel Bass, have the proud satisfaction of knowing that, although he was born and raised in a state of doubtful loyalty and although many of his early friends had joined in the great rebellion against the Constitution and the Union, his loyalty never faltered. He received his death wound while in the act of leading his men into the thickest of the fight and while cheering them on to danger and to victory.
“RESOLVED, That, while the death of Colonel Bass is a deep affliction to all those who knew him, a calamity to the regiment he so ably commanded, and a heavy loss to the nation in whose 9 service and in whose defense he so gloriously died, it is a terrible bereavement to his grief-stricken family. We tender to his widow, to his father and mother, the hearty sympathy of the entire community, which will ever cherish a fond interest in their welfare and in the welfare of his orphaned children.
“RESOLVED, That the death of such soldiers as Colonel Bass, who have been slain in the dreadful war into which the government of the United States has been forced for the preservation of its existence, indicates the value that should be placed upon our free institutions.
“RESOLVED, That, while lamenting the death of Colonel Bass and the officers and soldiers under his command who have fallen in defense of their country and its flag, and while congratulating the survivors on the reputation they so dearly earned on the bloody field of Pittsburg Landing, we are not unmindful of our fellow citizens of the Forty-fourth Regiment, who on that same field and at Fort Donelson proved their gallantry by deeds and losses almost unparalleled in modern warfare. We lament, also, their noble dead. We tender to their wounded and bereaved our sincere sympathy, and to their fearless and noble Colonel, Hugh B. Reed, and to the remnant of his regiment which still remains at the post of danger, our admiration for their valor and our gratitude for their services.
“RESOLVED, That, with the daily accumulating proofs of the desolation and woe which mark the existence of civil war, we earnestly invoke the God of love and peace again to dispose the hearts of all the people of the United States to obedience to lawful authority, to fidelity to the Constitution and laws, and to the fraternal love and peace which in other years united them as fellow citizens and sharers of a once happy and prosperous but now deeply afflicted country.
“RESOLVED, That a copy of this report and these resolutions, signed by the committee, be delivered to the widow and the father of the deceased Colonel Bass; and that the same be published in the newspapers of Fort Wayne and of the Tenth Congressional District of Indiana.
HUGH McCULLOCH ALLEN HAMILTON J. K. EDGERTON SAMUEL HANNA I. D. G. NELSON
Colonel Bass had won the confidence, love, and admiration of the people of his adopted city. The tragedy of his death was felt by the entire populace. An excerpt from DAWSON’S DAILY TIMES AND UNION, published on April 18, 1862, describes the arrival of the funeral train in the city:
“The remains of Colonel Sion S. Bass reached here today at eleven o’clock over the Toledo and Western Railway. The committee in charge was sent from here and met the train at Huntington. A large concourse of people was at the depot to pay that mark of respect due their late fellow citizen. The coffin and hearse were properly decorated with the national colors. When the funeral cortege moved, guns were fired, bells tolled, and drums beat. The procession came down Calhoun Street to Wayne Street, and then turned in the direction of his residence.”
He was interred in Lindenwood Cemetery on the following day. His final resting place is marked by a sandstone monument which bears the following inscription:
IN MEMORY OF
SION S. BASS
COL. OF 30TH REG’T. IND. VOL.
BORN AT SALEM, LIVINGSTON CO. KY.
JAN’Y 6, 1827:
DIED AT PADUCAH, KENTUCKY,
APRIL 14, 1862,
OF WOUNDS RECEIVED
WHILE GALLANTLY LEADING HIS REGIMENT
AT THE BATTLE OF SHILOH,
APRIL 7, 1862
ERECTED BY
HIS REGIMENT AND FRIENDS.