Rea, Mason Archelaus

MASON ARCHELAUS REA. First Lieutenant 24th Mass. Vols. (Infantry), September 2, 1861; killed at Drury's Bluff, Va., May 16, 1864.

MASON ARCHELAUS REA was the eldest son of William Archelaus Rea, - a merchant of Boston, - and Mary Frances, daughter of Moses Wheeler of Boston. He was born in Boston, October 23, 1837, and was prepared for Harvard by Mr. Tower, Principal of the Park School. He entered college with the Class of 1859, and soon gained the good-will of those with whom he was brought in contact, by his open and ingenuous character. His fondness for desultory reading interfered much with a close attention to the prescribed studies of his college course, although he learned from books much which was not to be had in the recitation room. Student life was not congenial to Mason Rea. Had he continued it, his life could only have resulted in mediocrity, because he was not suited for it by nature. To struggle against odds, to fight the elements, was his delight. "I have known him," says his college chum, "to choose a most cold and stormy day to walk to Boston and back - snow almost waist deep - for the mere pleasure of a contest with nature in its most tempestuous form." Out-of-door life was his natural element: his study was his scene of drudgery. But when riding, walking, or boating, he was a different being, he was a man; his ideas flowed steadily and consistently; his life had a point to it; his thoughts were highly practical; his judgment was sound. In the second term of his Sophomore year, his eyes - always weak - completely failed him; and by the advice of his physician, he gave up college life and went to Europe. After an extensive tour in England, and the west and north of Europe, he returned home and decided to go into business with his father. To gain a thorough knowledge of his future occupation, he visited Bombay, Australia, Batavia, and Manilla; and on returning, after a few weeks' stay at home, he went on a second voyage to Madras and Calcutta, upon his father's business. During his absence his father died; and when Mason returned to Boston in 1860, he found his prospects in business suddenly obscured. His duty was now to remain at home, and his sturdy manhood did much to cheer the mourning family. Whatever might have been his disappointment, he studiously concealed it, and by an assumed cheerfulness deceived casual observers as to the true state of his feelings; and, though too proud to solicit either advice or assistance from any one, he was on the alert to enter upon some congenial business. When the war broke out, he was among the promptest in the struggle. "There is not one of us," he wrote (December 21, 1862), "who, rather than see that bright banner dimmed by dishonor, would not shed his heart's blood." From a "working member" of the Fourth Battalion of Massachusetts Militia, he became an officer of the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, known as the New England Guard Regiment; and served honorably with it in the campaigns in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Virginia. He was one of a few officers of the regiment who were "determined to see the war through, however long it might last," and re-enlisted for another three years in the winter of 1863-1864. He then obtained his first leave of absence since the regiment left Boston. Thus far, he had escaped from wounds, though fever had once kept him for several weeks from his command. He frequently said, during his visit home, that the regiment could not expect such immunity from the casualties of battle during the new term of service. Promotion had been slow, but another year would advance the survivors more rapidly. He was willing to take his chance, and was not afraid to die. His first battle was at Roanoke Island, in the winter of 1862, when Burnside commanded; he was in action at Newbern, Kinston, Whitehall, Goldsborough Bridge, and elsewhere; his last battle was at Drury's Bluff, near Richmond, Virginia, under Butler. The siege of Fort Wagner was an episode in his career, and he there showed indications that he was especially adapted for service so difficult. When ordered to the front, he wrote (March 2I, 1863):" We are expecting orders hourly to embark for the great trial of the war; and if I am fortunate enough to get out alive, - or with my right arm, for left-handed writing is sometimes hard to read, — I will give you an account of the battle of Charleston by an eyewitness; but never fear for me, for I shall come out all right; but if I should fall, remember 't is a soldier's honorable fate; I die for my country." He participated in the affair of August 26, 1863, when the enemy's rifle-pits in front of Wagner were carried by a well-executed assault, in which Lieutenant James A. Perkins was killed. The brigade to which Rea belonged was assigned to the assault of the fort some time later, and first made the discovery that the enemy had evacuated in the night. In the battle of Drury's Bluff (May 16, 1864), the enemy made a vigorous attack on Heckman's brigade, which occupied the right of our line, routing or capturing the brigade. This compelled Plaisted's brigade to fall back to a new position. A staff officer says - "When half-way up a hill, the Colonel seeing the enemy's colors about fifty yards in the rear, faced the regiment (Twenty-fourth Massachusetts) about, and, after giving them two or three well-directed volleys, drove them back..... Lieutenant Rea had just given the order 'About face' to his company, and was standing behind the centre at about three paces to the rear, when he was picked off by a Rebel sharpshooter; the bullet passing directly through his head, he was killed instantly,..... Lieutenant Rea behaved splendidly in all the fights in which the regiment was engaged, and was especially noticed by Colonel Plaisted (Eleventh Maine), commanding the brigade..... He had command of my company (Company I) during the entire expedition (i. e. the campaign in Virginia), and all the men are loud in his praise." In this action he was senior first lieutenant in the regiment, and commanded two companies. It was not long since Brigadier-General Stevenson had written of him, with reference to promotion, as a " very good officer, far above the average. He has always conducted himself well in action, and does thoroughly everything he undertakes." Mason Rea's was a decided character. He either loved or hated those to whom he was not absolutely indifferent; there was no intermediate phase of feeling. Physically vigorous, he had also a character strong and generous in manly sentiments, and he delighted to struggle against the current. Warmhearted and affectionate to a fault, he showed his joy and his ambition in his very step, but concealed his sorrows and his disappointments. Thus, by a bluff exterior, he often deceived his companions into underrating his sensibility, revealing himself only to his intimate friends, and concealing his feeling from all others, sometimes by gayety, sometimes by sarcasm; any means requisite to this self-concealment seemed commendable to him. With such inveterate modesty, backed by a ready and determined mind, it is not strange that the mask should have been mistaken for the man. " I have known him," says an old friend of his, " to have been generous even to his own pecuniary distress, and to have put the object of his generosity on the wrong track by a sarcastic remark about the motives of generous people." His remains were buried on the field, and in the summer of 1865 were removed to Hollywood Cemetery, near Richmond, on the north bank of the James, —looking down upon the scene of his last fight from the walls of the city, for the possession of which more blood was perhaps shed than for any other historic stronghold.