Robert Barnwell

Robert Gibbes Barnwell (born December 21, 1761 in Beaufort , Province of South Carolina , † October 24, 1814 ibid) was an American officer and politician. He was the father of Robert Woodward Barnwell , a Senator of the United States and the Confederate States .

Career

Robert Gibbes Barnwell attended public schools and was then tutored by private tutors. When the War of Independence broke out , he volunteered for service in the militia at the age of just 16 . After the Battle of Stono Ferry , his company was at Johns Island (South Carolina) in late June 1779 . A British surprise attack that night embroiled them in a heavy battle there, better known as the Battle of Mathews' Plantation. Barnwell was so badly wounded that he was stripped and left to die. However, he was found on the battlefield by a slave and taken to his aunt Sarah Gibbes on their nearby plantation . There she and her daughter nursed him back to health.

Ultimately he was able to resume his duties the following spring and now returned to his unit as a lieutenant . When General Benjamin Lincoln had to announce his surrender at Charleston on May 12, 1780 , Barnwell was taken prisoner. He was imprisoned on the transport ship Pack Horse , where he remained until his exchange in June 1781. Then he returned to the militia. At the end of the war he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel .

Barnwell returned to Beaufort and was later elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives, where he held a seat between 1787 and 1788. He then represented his home state as a delegate in the Continental Congress between 1788 and 1789 . He then returned to the South Carolina House of Representatives, where he served between 1790 and 1791 and again between 1794 and 1801. During this time he held the post of speaker in 1795 .

In the spring of 1788 Barnwell took part as a delegate to the Constituent Assembly of South Carolina at which the US Constitution was ratified. Then he was elected to the US House of Representatives, where he remained between 1791 and 1793. He declined to run again. In early 1795 he was chairman of the board of trustees of the new Beaufort College , a position he held for many years. He was also elected to the South Carolina Senate, where he served between 1805 and 1806. In the first year he held the position of President of the Senate there.

Barnwell died in Beaufort in 1814 and was buried there in the cemetery of St. Helena Episcopal Church .

Web links

• Robert Barnwell in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Robert Barnwell in the database of Find a Grave (English)