Colonel Sion S. Bass

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.