Foundry owner and Civil War veteran was born in 1827 near Salem, Kentucky.
509 W. Washington Blvd. (Colonel Sion Bass House) on WestCentralNeighborhood.org website.
He came to Fort Wayne in 1848 or 1849, and first worked as a clerk for fur traders Ewing, Chute and Company. In 1853, he formed a successful iron works firm called Jones, Bass and Company with W.H. Jones and John Hough, Jr. The foundry and machine shops were located near the new Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railroad line.
Read his story along with Eliza George and Henry W. Lawton in the Three of City's Bravest Won't Be Forgotten, April 14, 2011, The News-Sentinel newspaper archived on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.- His home is now the Sion Bass House Spa Bed & Breakfast a part of the Lasalle Bed and Breakfast Rooms and Suites. Making History in Downtown Fort Wayne, November 2, 2011, Yvonne A. Ramsey, BusinessPeople.com.
Fort Wayne Bed and Breakfast - Sion Bass House & Spa (The Lincoln Room) published Nov 1, 2011 by LaSalle BB on YouTube.
Home to Civil War hero Sion Bass, the historic Sion Bass House & Spa is the premier bed and breakfast in downtown Fort Wayne. The establishment's owner, Clark Butler, gives a brief history of the house along with a quick tour of the Lincoln Room.
- Mission to save graves Reenactors aim to fix Civil War heroes' markers by Blake Sebring published November 26, 2019 and Local Civil War officer honored Bass died after wounded at Shiloh by Rosa Salter Rodriguez published June 14, 2020 in The Journal Gazette newspaper.
- COL Sion St. Clair Bass on Find A Grave.
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Want to preserve some Fort Wayne Civil War history? Here’s your chance! The 30th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Company F,...
Posted by ARCH, Inc. on Wednesday, October 30, 2019Wednesday, October 30, 2019 post by ARCH, Inc. on Facebook:
Want to preserve some Fort Wayne Civil War history? Here’s your chance! The 30th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Company F, re-enactment group is raising funds to restore the Colonel Sion Bass and Eliza George monuments. Their goal is $20,000.
Considered Fort Wayne’s first Civil War hero, Bass led his men into Battle of Shiloh. He was wounded in the thigh during this battle and died of complications of his injury.
Eliza George, “Mother George,” was the mother-in-law of Sion Bass. She served as a nurse during the war, often risking her own life to save others. She died of typhoid one month after the war ended in April 1865. She is the only woman buried in Lindenwood to receive full military honors.
A celebration and rededication are scheduled for Memorial Day 2020.
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As we celebrate Memorial Day, today we are reminded of the sacrifice of Sion Bass - Colonel of the 30th Indiana who was...
Posted by Military History of Fort Wayne on Monday, May 29, 2023Monday, May 29, 2023 post by the Military History of Fort Wayne on Facebook:
As we celebrate Memorial Day, today we are reminded of the sacrifice of Sion Bass - Colonel of the 30th Indiana who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Shiloh - and we also celebrate the sacrifice of his Mother-in-Law, but we'll get to that later.
Born in 1827, Sion Bass had grown up in Kentucky - but after finishing business college in Cincinnati, at the urging of his mother, Sion Bass came north to Fort Wayne in 1849. At Fort Wayne, Bass became an agent of fur traders, Ewing, Chute and Company.
Over the next decade, Sion Bass built an ironworks that he would soon sell to the railroad. Soon after Bass and a partner built a foundry and machine works in Fort Wayne - this same foundry, under the direction of his brother John Bass, would grow into the great Bass Foundry that dominated industry in Fort Wayne in the late 19th and early 20th century.
History had something else other than business in store for Sion Bass, however. In September 1861, Bass received an appointment as Colonel of the 30th Indiana Volunteer Infantry (IVI) - organized at Camp Allen, present day Camp Allen Park, in Fort Wayne and trained in Indianapolis.
The 30th IVI had an effective strength of nearly 1,000 men, when organized - split into 10 companies. In order to manage such a large force battalion commanders were often mounted with Lt. Colonel Orrin Hurd and Major George Fitzsimmons as his battalion wing commanders.
A full strength Civil War regiment while in a battalion front (battle line) could occupy a position of about two football fields - with Colonel Hurd responsible for half the force (a battalion) and Major Fitzsimmons in charge of the other - both reporting to Colonel Bass who in turn answered to his Brigade Commander, Colonel Edward Kirk, in Kirk's 5th Brigade, the Army of the Ohio.
On the morning of April 7th, 1862, the 30th IVI reported 767 men ready for action. That same day, during the Battle of Shiloh, on at least three occassions - Bass led his regiment in charges on entrenched positions. During the fighting, Bass' horse was wounded and Sion Bass dismounted to tend to it's wounds - it was then, on April 7, 1862, that Bass was mortally wounded by a .58 caliber minie ball which struck him in the hip.
Bleeding profusely, Bass had to be removed from the field and was brought to an Army Field Hospital at Paducah, Kentucky where he died, April 14, 1862.
At the battle of Shiloh, the 30th IVI lost 129 men, killed or wounded.
Back in Fort Wayne, a state funeral was held in honor of Sion Bass' sacrifice. Sion Bass is buried in Lindendwood Cemetary, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
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."
Sion Bass left behind a wife, Eliza and two children. Eliza George Bass continued to live in their home on West Washington Street until 1878.
While Sion Bass' service was over - he did have one final contribution to make - or rather his Mother-in-Law did.. His mother-in-law, Eliza George, was so moved by the death of her Son-in-Law that in 1863, at the age of 54, she applied for duty in the Sanitary Commission. Mrs George went on to achieve incredible notoriety in her own right as a Civil War nurse, braving the dangers of battle right alongside the young men whom with she served. Eventually she became known as Mother George and endeared herself to thousands of young men whom she tended to. In 1865, near the end of the war, Mother George contracted typhoid fever and died of the disease.
- PEC