The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States insignia attributed to Surgeon Solomon Baird Wolfe, Assistant Surgeon, 7th Kentucky Cavalry and Surgeon, 181st Ohio Infantry; and of his son General Samuel Herbert Wolfe, an actuary and financial expert, who was one of a handful of civilians taken up and given high rank in the army for service in the Great War, and was the architect of the US insurance system that American service families rely on to this day when their loved ones die in service

Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States insignia in gold and enamel, the suspension ring attached to the medal by a flat link, numbered 12009 on the obverse and 12553 on the obverse, on Second Class riband, good very fine £400-£500

Solomon Baird Wolf enlisted in the United States Army on 27 August 1861 as a hospital steward. On 4 June 1863 he enrolled as the Assistant Surgeon of the 7th Kentucky Cavalry and was mustered into service for three years at Nashville, Tenn. on 4 August 1863. He resigned on 4 December 1864, having already been mustered in at Camp Denison, Ohio, on 14 October 1864, for one year, as the Surgeon of the 181st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was mustered out with the regiment at Salisbury, North Carolina, on 14 July 1864.

The 7th Kentucky Cavalry was engaged in operations in Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky during Wolfe’s time with the regiment, including the Tullahoma and Atlanta Campaigns. With the 181st Ohio he served in Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina, including the Campaign in the Carolinas. He was elected to the New York Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States on 1 December 1897 with membership number 12009.

Samuel Herbert Wolfe, son of the above, was born at Baltimore, Maryland on 13 May 1874, and living in New York was a civilian actuary and financial expert who was commissioned in the United States Army on 11 June 1917. He served with the A.E.F in England and France, and later at Washington, D.C. He was discharged on 2 April 1919 and was appointed a Brigadier General in the O.R.C in 1921. He wrote an account of his contribution to the war effort ‘In Service’, published in 1922.

Samuel Wolfe was awarded the D.S.M on the recommendation of the Decorations Bard of the Adjutant General’s Office, 28 September 1922, the citation stating: ‘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.’

Samuel 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 died in New York on 31 December 1927.

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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