Background
He was born on November 28, 1809, at Hampton, Virginia, of distinguished naval ancestry, the son of the commodore of the same name and of Jane Sawyer of Norfolk.
He was born on November 28, 1809, at Hampton, Virginia, of distinguished naval ancestry, the son of the commodore of the same name and of Jane Sawyer of Norfolk.
Barron studied at William and Mary College, and received his early training at sea from his father.
Recognition of the service of his father, who died in 1810, doubtless accounts for his admission into the navy at the unparalleled age of a little over two years, his appointment as midshipman dating from January 1, 1812. His first cruise was in his eleventh year, in the Mediterranean, and he was in the frigate Brandywine which carried Lafayette to France in 1825. For four years, 1849-53, he commanded the John Adams on the African coast; and, with the rank of captain (promoted September 14, 1855), the steam frigate Wabash, flagship of Commodore Lavalette, in the Mediterranean, 1858-59.
During this cruise his ship remained some time at Constantinople, despite British protests that she was larger than was permitted through the Straits. Just before the Civil War, Barron was assigned to the Mare Island navyyard, but before going west he was sent to Pensacola to prevent hostilities between naval vessels and shore fortifications occupied by Florida troops. His resignation from the Navy, April 22, 1861, was not accepted, and he is recorded as dismissed. As a captain in the Confederate States Navy he took a leading part in the distribution of ordnance and the organization of naval defense.
From April to July 20, 1861, he was chief of the Bureau of Orders and Detail (see his report, June 10, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, V, 803), and was then put in charge of the naval defenses of Virginia and North Carolina. He brought up reinforcements during the attack on Hatteras Inlet, August 28-29, 1861, took command of Fort Hatteras, and after its surrender was a prisoner for eleven months until his exchange. On November 3, 1862, he was appointed "to command the naval forces in all the waters of Virginia". In the summer of 1863 he was sent to England with subordinate officers to bring to America two ironclad rams then under construction at Birkenhead. Upon their seizure in November by the British Government, he went to Paris with his staff, and remained there, as "Flag Officer Commanding Confederate States Naval Forces in Europe, " until his resignation from this duty, February 28, 1865.
While abroad he was active in fitting out and directing the operations of Confederate commerce destroyers, especially the Stonewall and Georgia. Of distinguished bearing, courtly, and punctilious, often referred to in Washington as "the navy diplomat, " Barron carried the customs and ideals of the old navy into his personal life. After the war his home was at "Malvern, " near Loretto, Essex County, Virginia.
He was married, October 31, 1832, to Imogen Wright of Norfolk, and was the father of three sons and three daughters.
