Richard Barnes Mason | |
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5th Military Governor of California | |
In office May 31, 1847 – April 13, 1849 | |
Preceded by | Stephen W. Kearny |
Succeeded by | Persifor Frazer Smith |
Personal details | |
Born | January 16, 1797 Lexington Plantation, Fairfax County, Virginia |
Died | July 25, 1850 Jefferson Barracks, St Louis, Missouri | (aged 53)
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Elizabeth Margaret Hunter |
Profession | Soldier |
Military service | |
Allegiance | ![]() |
Branch/service | ![]() |
Years of service | 1817–1850 |
Rank | ![]() ![]() |
Unit | 8th U.S. Infantry 1st U.S. Infantry |
Commands | Fort Gibson![]() Jefferson Barracks |
Battles/wars | Black Hawk War Second Seminole War Mexican–American War |
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]
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