1868 San Antonio 35th Infantry Discharge 

Signed by Brevet Brigadier General John Mason

John Sanford Mason was born at Steubenville, Ohio, August 21, 1824. After attending local schools he was appointed to the United States Military Academy in 1843. From his graduation in 1847 until he retired 41 years later at the statuary age of 64, he pursued exclusively a military career.

His service began with garrison duty in Tampico during Mexican War and ended with the Colonelcy of the 9th United States Infantry at Fort Whipple, Arizona. In the interval served in such widely separated posts as Fort Adams at Newport, Rhode Island, San Diego, California, and Fort Vancouver, Washington, D.C., where he was stationed when the Civil War broke out.

In October 1861 he was appointed Colonel of the 4th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a regiment with which he fought in western Virginia during the fall and winter under command of General James Shields. In McClellan's Peninsular Campaign he served briefly at Harrison's Landing. Not mentioned in Official Records again until Fredericksburg, where he commanded a Brigade of Sedgewick's II Corps of "Right Grand Division." He had been promoted to  Brigadier General November 28, 1862, although listed at Fredericksburg as a Colonel, and in April 1863, was assigned to muster and recruit duty, first in Ohio, and for the last two years of the war in California and Nevada.

In 1865 he was breveted through grades to that of Brigadier General, United States Army. He was promoted to Major of the 17th United States Infantry in 1864, and stood duty in a number of posts on western frontier in the 1870's and the 1880's, receiving promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in 1873 and Colonel in 1883. His stations included the states and territories of Texas, New Mexico, Wyoming, Washington, D.C., Ohio, and Arizona.

After he retired in 1888, he resided in Washington, D.C. where he died November 29, 1897. He was buried with full military honors in Section 1, Grave 541, of Arlington National Cemetery.