Background
He was born on December 2, 1821, in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, the ninth of ten children of Elizabeth Brandon and Paul Barringer.
He was born on December 2, 1821, in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, the ninth of ten children of Elizabeth Brandon and Paul Barringer.
After graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1842, he studied law, and took up the practise of his profession at Concord, North Carolina.
He was a member of the Assembly in 1848 and 1850, and a presidential elector in 1860. He opposed secession but accepted the decision of his state and immediately volunteered for military service. He was appointed a captain in the 16t North Carolina Cavalry, and followed its fortunes in the Army of Northern Virginia - the Peninsular campaign, second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. He was still a captain at the action at Brandy Station in June 1863, where, as Wade Hampton reported, he "bore himself with marked coolness and good conduct, " and was severely wounded in the face; but promotion then came to him rapidly. He was a major in August 1863, and lieutenant-colonel soon after, and in June 1864, was appointed brigadier-general. He was assigned to the command of a brigade in Gen. W. H. F. Lee's cavalry division, and led it until its destruction on April 3, 1865, while covering Lee's withdrawal from Richmond.
Barringer himself was captured by scouts serving with the 15th New York Cavalry, which was commanded by Col. John J. Coppinger, afterward a brigadier-general in the regular army, and, during the war with Spain, a major-general of volunteers. Barringer was sent to Fort Delaware for confinement, and released in July, upon taking the oath of allegiance. So ended his military service, during which, it is said, he had fought in seventy-six actions, been three times wounded, and had two horses shot under him. Returning to North Carolina, he resumed the practise of law at Charlotte.
Recognizing the results of the war as fully and ungrudgingly as he had accepted the secession of his state, he favored loyal cooperation with the policies of the national Government, Negro suffrage included. He retired from law practise in 1884, and spent the rest of his life on his estate, writing occasional papers on historical subjects, chiefly relating to the Civil War, and taking a keen interest in educational matters.
A Whig in politics and a Union man in principle, he opposed secession but accepted the decision of his state and immediately volunteered for military service.
Joining the Republican party, whose principles an old Whig could accept more readily than a Democrat, he took an active part in political life. He was a member of the constitutional convention in 1875, and his party's candidate for lieutenant-governor in 1880.
As a soldier, he was "prudent, methodical and cautious, " - so wrote an officer who served under him; his courage was shown on many occasions.
He was married three times: first, in 1854 to Eugenia Morrison, who died in 1858; second to Rosalie Chunn of Asheville; third, to Margaret Long of Orange County.