Richard Barnes Mason

Richard Barnes Mason
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(1850-07-25) (aged 53) Jefferson Barracks, St Louis, Missouri
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Elizabeth Margaret Hunter
Profession	Soldier
Military service
Allegiance	United States of America
Branch/service	Cavalry
Years of service	1817–1850
Rank	Colonel Bvt. Brigadier General
Unit	8th U.S. Infantry 1st U.S. Infantry
Commands	Fort Gibson 1st U.S. Dragoons 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]