by Rev. Canon Dr. Robert Girard Carroon, PCinC
George Mason was the only Commander-in-Chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion not born in the United States. He was born on March 1, 1840, in Paisley, Scotland. His father, Carlisle Mason, brought him to America at the age of four when the family settled in Chicago in 1845. In 1857 George enrolled at the University of Michigan and remained there until his senior year when, in 1861, he enlisted in the Union Army.
George initially enlisted as a private in Company C, 12th Illinois Infantry, United States Volunteers, in September 1861. He was promoted to Sergeant in February 1862. On May 24, 1862, he was promoted to First Lieutenant and assigned as an adjutant on the staffs of Generals Oglesby, McArthur (General John McArthur was his mother’s brother), Chietlain, and Sweeny, always with the command originally known as the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, Army of the Tennessee.
Lieutenant Mason served with the Army of the Tennessee at the Battles of Fort Donelson, Pittsburg Landing (Shiloh), Corinth, Iuka, Middle Tennessee, and part of the Atlanta Campaign. Writing about his experience at Shiloh published in Military Essays and Recollections of the Illinois Commandery, Vol. 1, pp. 93-104. he recalled arriving on the battlefield and asking everyone he met, “Do you think it will last long enough for us to get in?”
After describing the severe fighting of April 6, he turned to the events of April 7, writing. “… [T]he morning of the 7th found us ready to take the aggressive. A new line had been formed, and a new army was ready to take the lead in an effort to recover the ground lost the day before. The main battle began about nine o’clock in the morning and ended about four o’clock in the afternoon. On this field was to be seen the most splendid fighting ever seen on this continent. Our artillery was admirably worked and the infantry ably supported the artillery. The maneuvering was splendid. The enemy were driven inch by inch. They seldom regained anything they had lost; still they fought desperately at times, until by four o’clock they were in full retreat and the victory was ours. It was my good fortune to serve immediately on the left of the Eighteenth United States Regulars, and their perfect discipline and regular movements lifted a load from our breasts, and filled us with a confidence we had well nigh lost the day before. Every advance was stubbornly resisted; every charge was met by a counter-charge; and though the lines shifted forward and back, yet every returning charge carried us farther along toward the camps we had lost, then through them and beyond, until McCook’s division, that had marched twenty-two miles the day before and stood in the streets of Savannah all night of the 6th, was at nightfall beyond our farthest camp of Saturday night.”
He served with distinction until July 28, 1864, when he was honorably discharged from the Union Army. On March 13, 1865, he was commissioned Captain and Brevet Major in recognition of his service with Union forces and “for meritorious service April 6 and 7, at Pittsburgh, Tennessee.” After leaving the Army, Major Mason returned to Chicago and, with T.K. Holden, established a general foundry business. In 1866 Mr. Holden retired and George Mason became the sole owner. The following year he merged the business with that of his father, Carlisle Mason, forming a new firm known as Carlisle Mason and Company, manufacturing boilers, engines, and general machinery.
In 1877 the firm name was changed to the Excelsior Iron Works, where Major Mason remained until 1905, serving successively as secretary, vice president, and for ten years as president. In 1905 the company’s stock was sold to the Miehle Printing Press and Manufacturing Company. Mason later joined that firm as vice president, holding the position until September 10, 1910, when he became associated with the Wisconsin Granite Company and the Superior Construction Company.
George Mason was also active in many civic endeavors. From 1874 to 1880 he served as a director of the Chicago Public Library. In 1880 he was elected a director and member of the Executive Committee of the Inter-State Industrial Exposition, serving until 1892 when the Exposition was transformed into the Chicago World’s Fair. On March 6, 1886, Governor Oglesby appointed him to the Board of West Chicago Park Commissioners, where he served until April 1892, part of that time as president.
In 1897 Governor Tanner appointed him a member of the Shiloh Battlefield Commission, where he served as secretary until the Commission completed its work. He was also a member of the state commission representing Illinois at the Paris Exposition. In 1901 he was appointed to the Board of Inspectors for the House of Corrections in Chicago and served as chairman of that board for ten years. Mason was president of both the Society of the Army of the Tennessee and the Grand Army Hall and Memorial Association.
On October 8, 1879, George Mason was elected a Companion of the First Class of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States through the Illinois Commandery and was assigned Insignia #1935. He became Commander-in-Chief upon the death of Brigadier General Samuel Warren Fountain on November 15, 1930. In 1933, the University of Michigan awarded Mason his Bachelor of Arts degree in medicine, 72 years after leaving the school as a senior to enlist in the Union army. Brevet Major George Mason died on Halloween Day in 1938 at 98 years, 10 months old – to date, the longest-lived Commander-in-Chief of the Loyal Legion. He was laid to rest at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago. George Mason’s son, Carlisle Mason II, was elected an Hereditary Companion with Insignia #9394 and was a member of the Illinois and later the California Commandery.