Background
He was born on September 24, 1833, at Jamesville, Onondaga County, New York. Henry's parents were Alanson Levi and Beersheba (Pixley) Barnum.
He was born on September 24, 1833, at Jamesville, Onondaga County, New York. Henry's parents were Alanson Levi and Beersheba (Pixley) Barnum.
He was educated at Syracuse Institute, and prior to the Civil War was a teacher, studied law and was admitted to the bar, and belonged to the Syracuse militia.
He enlisted at the outset of the war, and on May 13, 1861, was chosen captain of company I in the 12th New York Volunteers which he had helped to organize. With this regiment he participated in the first Bull Run campaign, and took part in the preliminary engagement at Blackburn's Ford on July 18, 1861. According to the usual accounts, his company remained firm, and he was particularly commended by Gen. Tyler. He was commissioned major on November 1, 1861, and was a member of Gen. Wadsworth's staff. At first on the staff of Gen. Butterfield, later in the day he led a charge at the head of his regiment, and was shot through the body. "Surgeons pronounced the wound fatal, and he was left for dead on the field that night, and the official reports of the battle gave his name among the killed".
A eulogy on his career was delivered at Syracuse, and the city sent a committee to bring home the body. "Union soldiers built a rough fence around the grave of a buried officer at Harrison's Landing on the James River and set up a headboard with this roughly inscribed legend, 'Major Henry A. Barnum, 12th New York Volunteers. Killed July 1, 1862, at Malvern Hill'". In reality, "He was captured by the enemy, and for eight days was in the battlefield hospital, whence he was carried in an old express wagon to Libby Prison. On July 18 he was exchanged". Or, according to another and different account: "Contrary to many reports of this incident, he was not abandoned on the field as dead, but was conveyed by a special detail of his own men to the Malvern House and put under care of surgeons. After the National forces had withdrawn to Harrison's Landing, and while a sufferer at the Malvern House, he, with many others of the wounded under treatment there, was captured by the Confederates and taken to Libby Prison, where he was confined till July 18 following, when he was exchanged".
Because of his wound Barnum obtained several leaves of absence. Meanwhile he recruited the 149th New York, a cosmopolitan regiment, containing companies of Germans, Irish, and Jews, and was commissioned its colonel on September 17, 1862. He took good care of his men, but his absences were considered unfortunate for the regiment. He fought at Gettysburg, and at Lookout Mountain he was shot in the arm. While on the journey to Washington with the Confederate flags captured in that battle, his old wound reopened, and required heroic treatment. "His wound was considered one of the most remarkable wounds of the war. The government published a history of it, with his portrait, in the surgical and medical history of the war".
Recovering, he took part in Sherman's Georgia campaign, was wounded again at Peachtree Creek on July 20, 1864, and commanded the 3rd brigade of the 20th corps in the march to the sea. He led the advance into Savannah, conducting a picked force over the parapets, and guarded the vast stores of cotton from destruction. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers on January 12, 1865, and major-general of volunteers on March 13; he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers on May 31, and was for a short time in command of a provisional brigade in the military district of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. Declining a colonelcy in the regular army, he resigned on January 9, 1866. After the war Barnum practised law in New York City, and held various public offices. In succession he was inspector of prisons in the state, to which position he was elected in 1865; deputy tax commissioner 1869-72; harbor master and port warden from 1888 until his death in New York.
With a high reputation for bravery and patriotism, he was a friend of Grant, Sherman, and other noted men, and was prominent in various military organizations, being Past Commander of the G. A. R. of the Department of New York. He delivered an oration at Detroit before the Society of the Army of the Cumberland on November 15, 1871.
He served as Republican assemblyman in the legislature.
He was twice married: first to Lavina King, and second to Josephine Reynolds.