Richard Barnes Mason

Richard Barnes Mason
5th Military Governor of California
In office
May 31, 1847 – April 13, 1849
Preceded byStephen W. Kearny
Succeeded byPersifor Frazer Smith
Personal details
BornJanuary 16, 1797
Lexington Plantation, Fairfax County, Virginia
DiedJuly 25, 1850(1850-07-25) (aged 53)
Jefferson Barracks, St Louis, Missouri
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseElizabeth Margaret Hunter
ProfessionSoldier
Military service
AllegianceUnited States United States of America
Branch/service Cavalry
Years of service1817–1850
Rank Colonel
Bvt. Brigadier General
Unit8th U.S. Infantry
1st U.S. Infantry
CommandsFort Gibson
1st U.S. Dragoons
Jefferson Barracks
Battles/warsBlack Hawk War
Second Seminole War
Mexican–American War
For other people called Richard Mason, see Richard Mason (disambiguation).

Richard Barnes Mason (January 16, 1797 – July 25, 1850)[1] was an American military officer who was a career officer in the United States Army and the fifth military governor of California before it became a state. He came from a politically prominent American family and was a descendant of George Mason, a framer of the U.S. Constitution and father of the Bill of Rights.

Gen. Mason is especially important to the history of California, because as military governor of the occupied territory, he wrote the official report that led to the California Gold Rush.[2][3]

Mason was "an aristocratic Virginian, a large portly man, six feet in height. He possessed all the peculiarities of a Southerner, accentuated," but he was known to have confined Jefferson Davis to quarters, who was under his command.[4] A Lt. James Abert described him so, "It would be presumption in me to speak of so accomplished and well known an officer; but I cannot refrain from expressing my grateful sense of the kindness and hospitality with which we were received and treated by himself and his amiable lady, and indeed, by all the officers and ladies attached to the command."[5]

  1. ^ Gunston Hall. "Richard Barnes Mason". Gunston Hall. Archived from the original on 2020-03-28. Retrieved 2008-02-15.
  2. ^ Mason's Report of the Gold Discovery
  3. ^ John Putnam, "The official report that sparked the gold rush", 'My Gold Rush Tales.'
  4. ^ James C. Parrott, Annals of Iowa, Des Moines, Fort Des Moines (No. 1), Iowa, vol. III, nos. 5-6, Third Series, p. 367.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference okjour was invoked but never defined (see the help page).