Using union and order by clause in mysql

You can do this by adding a pseudo-column named rank to each select, that you can sort by first, before sorting by your other criteria, e.g.:

select *
from (
    select 1 as Rank, id, add_date from Table 
    union all
    select 2 as Rank, id, add_date from Table where distance < 5
    union all
    select 3 as Rank, id, add_date from Table where distance between 5 and 15
) a
order by rank, id, add_date desc

(select add_date,col2 from table_name) 
  union 
(select add_date,col2 from table_name) 
  union 
(select add_date,col2 from table_name) 

order by add_date

You can use subqueries to do this:

select * from (select values1 from table1 order by orderby1) as a
union all
select * from (select values2 from table2 order by orderby2) as b