Addison Gordon Mason

Son of prosperous lawyer and banker Gordon Fowler Mason (1810-1882), in 1860 Addison was a 20 year old bank teller living with his parents and 3 younger siblings in Towanda, PA. He enlisted on 15 May 1861 in Bradford County, PA and mustered on 21 June at Camp Tennally near Washington, DC as First Lieutenant of Company F, 5th Pennsylvania Reserves. He was appointed Adjutant later in 1861. He was wounded at Charles City Crossroads, VA in June 1862.

He was with his regiment to South Mountain on 14 September 1862, then detailed as an aide de camp to General George G Meade at Antietam on the 17th and for the remainder of the Campaign.

He was appointed Captain and Aide de Camp, US Volunteers on 25 April 1863 and was with Meade for the rest of the war. He was honored by brevets to Major (May 1864) and to Lieutenant Colonel (to date from March 1865) for his service. He was honorably discharged on 2 May 1865.

He was again a banker with his father until 1872 and in 1873 began work for the Lehigh Valley Coal Company at Wilkes-Barre, PA. He moved to nearby Pittston the next year and supervised the opening of the Company's Exeter colliery there.

July 26 [1894] -- At the Exeter shaft of the Lehigh Valley company at Pittstown, the bottom fell out of the carriage as it was descending the shaft to-day and Colonel Mason, the superintendent; Robert Mercer, assistant Superintendent, and William Wilson, another official were precipitated to the bottom. Mason was killed outright and the other two were fatally injured. The men were going down into the mine on a tour of inspection.

His service basics from Bates,1 the Card File,2 and Heitman.3 His service in Maryland from Meade's report. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860, and his obituary in the Wilkes-Barre Dollar Weekly News of 4 August 1894. His death details quoted from the Rocky Mountain News of 27 July 1894. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a CDV posted to the FamilySearch database; it had been offered for sale by the estate of collector Fadjo Cravens, Jr. He's also seen in an 1864 group photograph of General Meade's personal staff at Brandy Station, VA, now at the Library of Congress.

He married Sarah Adelaide Mercur (1847-1910) in October 1868 and they had 4 children.

10/16/1839; Monroeton, PA

07/26/1894; Pittston, PA; burial in West Pittston Cemetery, West Pittston, PA