Background
Barnes was born on December 28, 1801, in Boston, Massachusetts.
(Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors By James Barnes)
Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors By James Barnes
https://www.amazon.com/Yankee-Ships-Sailors-James-Barnes/dp/1986758850?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1986758850
(Being blind influenced my life in many ways. It both narr...)
Being blind influenced my life in many ways. It both narrowed my focus and broadened my horizons. Becoming a Rhodes Scholar was a stunning surprise and a continual reminder that I needed to discover a special niche for whatever contributions I might eventually make to what Rhodes described as 'Fighting the World's Fights.' I have always been interested in learning about people's backgrounds: how they were affected by where they were born, their parents, the schooling that they had, their goals, and how their lives developed. When I retired from teaching at Wabash, I decided to turn the tables and focus on my own story, hence this memoir.
https://www.amazon.com/Unforeseen-First-Blind-Rhodes-Scholar/dp/1943290369?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1943290369
Barnes was born on December 28, 1801, in Boston, Massachusetts.
He attended the Boston Latin School and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1829, in the same class as Robert E. Lee.
Assigned to the artillery, he served at Fort McHenry and later at West Point. He was promoted first-lieutenant in 1836. Visualizing little prospect of active service he resigned his commission in 1836 and entered the engineering field, where he achieved distinguished success, first as chief engineer and railroad superintendent and later in railroad construction. Between 1852 and 1857 he built six railroads.
With such a record of achievement he was appointed, upon the outbreak of the Civil War, colonel of the 18th Massachusetts Volunteers which, in August 1861, proceeded to Washington for training until March 1862. During McClellan's Peninsular campaign Barnes's regiment formed part of Fitz-John Porter's division, participating in the siege of Yorktown and in the battle of Mechanicsville, June 26, 1862. At the battles of Groveton and Antietam he successfully commanded a brigade in Morell's division of Porter's corps. With this brigade he marched in October and November 1862 to Falmouth, where he received his appointment as brigadier-general of volunteers on November 29. In the Rappahannock campaign which followed, he led his brigade at Fredericksburg, being cited in orders by his division commander and at Chancellorsville, May 2-4, 1863, where, after gallantly participating in the battle, his brigade covered the retirement of the army over the Rappahannock.
In May 1863 he was placed in temporary command of the 16t division, 5th corps, which guarded the Rappahannock fords until June 13, when the Union army moved northward paralleling Lee's march into Pennsylvania. Barnes's division arrived at Gettysburg and participated in the fighting of July 2 and 3. On the first day one brigade of his division (Vincent's), by seizing and holding Little Round Top, materially contributed to the Union victory. Barnes has been criticized for his seeming absence from the battlefield in the evening of July 2. Justice to him demands the statement that late in the afternoon of July 2 he was wounded in the left leg by a piece of shell. Unable to move, yet unwilling to leave, he remained on the field, turned over his command on July 3 to Gen. Charles Griffin, the permanent division commander who had returned to duty, and on July 9 was granted sick leave. He returned to his home at Springfield and, after the expiration of a twenty days' extension granted him, rejoined his division August 18, 1863. Thereafter he commanded the defenses of Norfolk and Portsmouth and, in June 1864, the district of St. Mary's and the prisoners' camp at Point Lookout, receiving there his brevet as major-general of volunteers for meritorious services during the Rebellion. He was mustered out January 15, 1866. His health much impaired, he returned to civil life, but did not again take up the duties of his profession. He died in 1869 at Springfield, Massachussets.
(Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors By James Barnes)
(Being blind influenced my life in many ways. It both narr...)
Barnes married Charlotte Adams Sanford in 1832.