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Auction: 25113 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 966

The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States insignia attributed to Major and Surgeon S. B. Wolfe, Ohio Volunteers and later his son Brigadier-General S. H. Wolfe, Officers' Reserve Corps

United States of America: Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Membership Medal, on hereditary member's riband, numbered '12009' and additionally later engraved '12253', good very fine

Note, the medal is attributed initially to Solomon Baird Wolfe but additionally to his son Samuel Herbert Wolfe, both are confirmed in these numbers on the Roster of the Order between 1866-1901.

Solomon Baird Wolfe was born at Baltimore, Maryland on 13 May 1845, the son of Samuel and Mathilda Wolfe. He enlisted in the United States Army on 27 August 1861 as a hospital steward and enrolled as the Assistant Surgeon of the 7th Kentucky Cavalry on 4 June 1863. Being mustered into service for three years at Nashville, Tennessee on 4 August 1863.

During this period the 7th Kentucky Cavalry was engaged in operations in Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky including the Tullahoma and Atlanta Campaigns. However he resigned on 4 December 1864 having already mustered as Surgeon of the 181st Ohio Volunteer Infantry the month prior.

Joining the regiment at Salisbury, North Carolina on 14 July 1864, he saw action with them in Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina, including the Campaign in the Carolinas. Elected to the New York Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States on 1 December 1897 he was given the membership number 12009.

Wolfe died at Manhattan on 13 December 1905, tragically a newspaper article records his death as occurring in the offices of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company. It appears that he had been suffering from heart disease, which explains his sudden death; sold together with copied research and a copied photograph.

Samuel Herbert Wolfe was born at Baltimore, Maryland on 13 May 1874, the son of Fannie and Major and Surgeon Solomon Wolfe. Settling in New York he found work as a civilian actuary and financial expert before being commissioned in the United States Army on 11 June 1917.

Posted to England initially he later joined the A.E.F. in France before returning to Washington, D.C., during this period he served as a Colonel with the Quartermaster Corps. Wolfe was discharged on 2 April 1919 and was appointed a Brigadier General in the Officer Reserve Corps in 1921, where he wrote an account of his contribution to the war effort 'In Service', published in 1922.

He was awarded the French Legion of Honour and the United States Distinguished Service Medal. This latter came on the recommendation of the Decorations Board of the Adjutant General's Office, given on 28 September 1922, the citation states:

'As officer in charge of insurance matters, cantonment division, Quartermaster General's Office, by his unusual constructive ability, foresight, and familiarity with large financial problems he rendered conspicuous service resulting in the saving of large sums to the Government. As a member of a committee on labor of the advisory commission of the Council of National Defense, he again rendered invaluable services in the preparation of necessary legislation to provide for the dependents of enlisted personnel of the Army and Navy, which later became the war risk insurance act. In October 1917, he demonstrated exceptional ability and usefulness in the organization and operation of the War Risk Insurance Bureau in France and England. Later, as assistant director and executive officer in the office of the Director of Finance, his thorough knowledge of financial problems proved of the greatest assistance to the Director of Finance and of inestimable value to the Government.'

This award was present to him in person by Secretary of War Weeks in a ceremony in a photograph that can still be found today. Wolfe was elected to the New York Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States on 4 May 1898, as a member Second Class, with membership number 12225. He continued his actuarial work, becoming a specialist on examining insurance companies for the government, eventually dying in New York on 31 December 1927; sold together with copied research and a copied photograph.

The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States

The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS for short), is a patriotic order organised in Philadelphia by three army officers on 15 April 1865. It was the first to be formed from the Union's Civil war veterans, and it became the second largest, and numbered among its members many of the North's greatest naval and military leaders. It had at the time three classes of members, 'Original Companions of the First Class', who were officers who fought in the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps of the United States in the suppression of the Rebellion; 'Companions of the Second Class', who were the eldest direct male lineal descendants of deceased Original Companions or deceased eligible officers who could have been admitted as Companions of the First Class had they applied; and a 'Third Class' which comprised distinguished civilians who had rendered faithful and conspicuous service to the Union during the Civil War. The Order had a National Commandery and State Commanderies, and by the turn of the century it had more than 8,000 Original Companions. Members wore this insignia on appropriate occasions and it was engraved with their membership number. For the Original Companions the central stripe is red and for the Companions of the Second class it is blue. If the insignia is handed down by the Original Companion to the next Companion of the Second Class it is likely to bear the numbers of both members, as indeed the insignia in this lot bears the numbers of both Surgeon Solomon Wolfe and his son General Samuel Wolfe, both members of the New York Commandery.

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Starting price
£200