Guidon of the 5th Calvary

Guidon of 5th Calvary

NPS

Guidon of Company B, 5th U. S. Cavalry—Grant’s Escort (APCO 12941)

Now on display in the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park visitor center museum is the guidon (a pennant carried by cavalry that forks at the free end) carried by Company B, 5th U. S. Cavalry, commanded by Captain Julius Wilmot Mason. The 5th Company served as General Grant’s Headquarters escort April 9, 1865. It is a 35-star silk swallow tailed U. S. Mounted Troops Guidon and is the type issued to U. S. Cavalry companies. The contingent rode over 20 miles with Grant on April 9, 1865, to reach the McLean house for the surrender meeting with General Lee. Mason retained possession of the guidon after the war. At some point before 1870, Mason gifted the guidon to Colonel Robert Orr, who had commanded the 61st PA Infantry during the War. Orr in turn gave the guidon to Reginald Hart of Philadelphia. Mr. Hart was a famous Civil War collector circa 1890. Upon Harts death, the collection was dispersed. However, upon cleaning the attic Hart’s daughter found the framed guidon resting in a recess between the walls. She gave or sold the framed guidon to Mr. Robert C. Lauren’s of Wayne Pennsylvania, who years later sold it to Mr. George Lower a well-known dealer in Civil War artifacts in Gettysburg Pennsylvania. Before being loaned to the Park, the current owner, Frank Cochrane, had the guidon examined/documented by flag experts Fonda (Thomsen) Ghiradi and Jim Ferrigan. Then over a multi-year period Cochrane had the guidon conserved, as time and improper storage had taken its toll.

 

Mason is seated in the center of this June 1865 photo taken near Washington, DC, in June 1865. (Library of Congress)

Library of Congress

Julius Wilmot Mason

Born in Towanda, PA, Jan. 19, 1835, Mason graduated from the Kentucky Military Institute in June 1857 with a degree in engineering and attained a master’s in engineering in 1859 from the same establishment. While working as an engineer with the Brooklyn Water Works, he enlisted on April 26, 1861, as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd US Cav. Transferred to the 5th US Cav. on August 3, 1861, Mason received promotion to Major and Lt. Col. for “gallant and meritorious services” at the June 9, 1863, Battle of Brandy Station, Virginia. He was selected to command the bodyguard for Lt. Gen. U. S. Grant in March 1864. This command consisted of Companies B, F, and K, as well as detachments from Companies C and D. Mason, Grant’s escort, and the guidon were in the vicinity of the McLean House when Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865. He continued with Grant’s escort until Grant became President of the United States in Jan. 1868. He then filled the same position for Gen. William T. Sherman until 1870, when he transferred to the frontier. Mason served in the Regular Army until dying at Fort Huachuca, AZ, in 1882.