Francis Channing Barlow

A lawyer before the War, he had been first in his class at Harvard. He enlisted as a Private in the 12th New York Infantry in 1861, and mustered out as a First Lieutenant after 3 months. He was then appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the 61st New York Infantry. In April 1862 he was made its Colonel and led them on the Peninsula campaign.

He was in command of the 61st New York and jointly the 64th New York, part of Caldwell's First Brigade of the First Division/Second Corps. His was the flanking attack and enfilading fire that finally drove the last of the Confederates from the Sunken Road at about noon on the 17th. His Regiment took some 300 prisoners there. He later helped meet and break the counterattack of Colonel Cooke from north of the road. At that time he was wounded in the groin by a ball from a case-shot artillery round, and relieved in command by Lieutenant Colonel Miles.

Two days after the battle, he was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers, and led the 2nd Brigade/2nd Division/11th Corps at Chancellorsville. He commanded the 1st Division/11th Corps at Gettysburg, where he was seriously wounded and captured in the first day's fighting. He was exchanged, and later commanded the 1st Division/Second Corps at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. After sick leave, he commanded the 2nd Division/Second Corps at Saylor's Creek, VA in April 1865.

He was a politician, US marshal, state Attorney General, and a lawyer.

Notes: Left for dead on the field at Gettysburg he was (reportedly) tended and sheltered by Confederate General John B. Gordon.

Theodore Lyman, a zoologist of the period, wrote of Barlow that he carried "a huge saber, which he says he likes, because when he hits a straggler he wants to hurt him."

10/19/1834; Brooklyn, NY

01/11/1896; New York, NY; burial in Walnut Street Cemetery, Brookline, MA