Francis Channing Barlow

Francis Channing Barlow

Francis Channing Barlow (born October 19, 1834 in Brooklyn , New York , †  January 11, 1896 in New York City ) was an American politician and general in the US Army during the Civil War .

youth

Barlow was born in Brooklyn to a Unitarian priest and grew up in Brookline , Massachusetts . He studied law at Harvard University and passed the exam with honors in 1855. After graduating, he became legal counsel for the New York Tribune and practiced as a lawyer from 1858 until the beginning of the Civil War.

Civil war

A week after the attack on Fort Sumter and just one day after marrying his bride, Arabella Wharton Griffith, Barlow joined the New York 12th Militia Regiment and was elected first lieutenant in the officer election on May 1, 1861 . The members of the regiment served 90 days. It was decommissioned on August 1st. Barlow then applied for an officer's license and was appointed deputy commander of the 61st New York Infantry Regiment on November 9, 1861. At the beginning of the peninsula campaign in April 1862 he was appointed regimental commander and promoted to colonel in the US Army volunteer organization.

Barlow saw his first deployment during the Seven Day Battle of Richmond , Virginia . He distinguished himself several times for his unusual bravery and was able to capture a Confederate regimental flag . In the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, Barlow's regiment stormed a rutted dirt road, later referred to as Bloody Lane , and brought in 300 prisoners. Barlow himself was badly wounded by shrapnel on his face and by shrapnel on his groin. After being highlighted in the report of his superior, General John C. Caldwell , he was promoted to brigadier general of the US Army Volunteer Organization two days after the battle.

general

After a lengthy recovery Barlow returned on April 17, 1863 to the Potomac army and took over a brigade of mainly of German origin existing soldiers XI. Corps . This corps was broken up in the Battle of Chancellorsville by a flank attack by Lieutenant General "Stonewall" Jackson and driven to flight. Barlow's Brigade was at that time to the neighboring III. Corps turned off so that it escaped the collapse. On May 24, 1863, Barlow was named division commander and marched north with the army to repel Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania .

On the afternoon of the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg , Barlow was ordered to work with the division on the right flank of the XI. To hold corps. To do this, he occupied a height - Barlow's Knoll , to prevent it from being used as an artillery platform by the Confederates. The brigade deployed on the right - at the same time the extreme right flank of the two corps deployed - was bypassed by the Confederates and led to the collapse of the XI's positions. Corps. When Barlow tried to stop and reorganize the escaping soldiers, he was badly wounded and immobilized by a shot in the left upper body. When the Confederates evaded on July 4, the southerners had to abandon the unfit prisoner and Barlow faced another long convalescence. While slowly recovering, he ran the recruiting depot in Springfield , Illinois .

Barlow (l.) With his superior Winfield Scott Hancock (seated) as well as David B. Birney (m.) And John Gibbon (r.)

Just in time for the beginning of the spring campaign on March 25, 1864 under the new Commander-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant , Barlow returned to the field service. He took over a division of the II Corps under Major General Winfield Scott Hancock , who was also badly wounded at Gettysburg and had only just recovered. During the Battle of the Wilderness , Hancock's Corps was given mostly defensive duties, but a week later at Spotsylvania , Barlow was given a difficult assignment: the division was given the task of building a heavily fortified front ledge (known as The Angle or, because of its horseshoe shape, The Mule Shoe ) in the center of the enemy position. Together with the neighboring division, the Union troops managed to take 3,000 prisoners - including two generals - and to capture 30 regimental flags and 20 artillery pieces.

Barlow took part in all the skirmishes of the summer of 1864 up to the beginning of the siege of Petersburg, before he - like General Hancock - had to ask for his leave of absence due to the incessant exertion and the effects of his wounds. He became effective from August 1, 1864 Brevet - Major General conveyed the volunteers. Three days after Lee's evasion of the positions around Petersburg and Richmond, he returned to the front on April 6, 1865 at the request of his new commanding general Andrew Humphreys to replace a division commander who had been found sleeping in his tent. A few weeks after the end of the war, Barlow was promoted to major general of the US Army Volunteer Organization on May 25, 1865.

post war period

Barlow resigned on November 16, 1865 and returned to New York. His wife Arabella died of typhus in 1864 while serving as an army nurse. Barlow opened a legal practice, married Ellen Shaw, sister of fallen war hero Robert Gould Shaw , and served intermittently as the U.S. Marshal for the southern borough of New York in 1869 . He was also politically active as a member of the Republicans : He was elected for two terms as Secretary of State and then as Attorney General of New York State. He then practiced as a lawyer until his death and succumbed to kidney disease on January 11, 1896. Barlow was buried in Brookline.

literature

• Richard F. Welch: The Boy General. The Life and Careers of Francis Channing Barlow . Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, Madison, NJ 2003, ISBN 0-8386-3957-7 .

Web links

Commons : Francis Channing Barlow  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• biography

• Francis C. Barlow in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} John H. and David J. Eicher: Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press, 2001, accessed on May 3, 2019 (Barlow's life data, p. 116). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Ezra J. Warner: Generals in Blue. Louisiana State University Press, 1987, accessed May 31, 2019 (Barlows CV, p. 19). 
3. ↑ Listing of the US Marshals in the state of New York (PDF; 246 kB), website of the United States Marshals Service