"Fear Was Not in Him": The Civil War Letters of Major General Francis C. Barlow, U.S.A., and: The Boy General: The Life and Careers of Francis Channing Barlow (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: “Fear Was Not in Him”: The Civil War Letters of Major General Francis C. Barlow, U.S.A., and: The Boy General: The Life and Careers of Francis Channing Barlow D. Scott Hartwig “Fear Was Not in Him”: The Civil War Letters of Major General Francis C. Barlow, U.S.A. Edited by Christian G. Samito. (New York: Fordham University Press, 2004). Pp. 247. Cloth, $55.00.) The Boy General: The Life and Careers of Francis Channing Barlow. By Richard F. Welch. (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2003. Pp. 301. Paper, $24.95.) At first glance, Francis Channing Barlow was an easy man to underestimate. Clean-shaven in an era where most men wore facial hair and looking like a lad barely out of his teens, Barlow offered no outward appearance of the fiber within. Except for his eyes, which were penetrating and strong and suggested that he was a man of enormous self-confidence and one who did not suffer fools kindly. Few volunteer soldiers of the Civil War achieved the success that Barlow did, rising from a private in 1861 to major general in 1865. His upbringing was hardly that of a future warrior. Raised by his mother, Barlow spent his formative years among the educated and cultured of society. He graduated as class valedictorian in 1855 from Harvard University and embarked on a career in law in New York City. Those who knew him were struck by his keen mind and frank and often painfully blunt personality. He also possessed a fearlessness that prompted one young man who knew him [End Page 308] to write, "I think I never knew anyone so perfectly without fear of personal injury" (Welch, 27). When the war broke out, Barlow immediately left his successful law practice and enlisted as a private in the 12th New York Volunteers, a three-month regiment. Within a short time he was a lieutenant, although by his own admission, he wrote, "I confess I understand but little of an officer in battle" (Welch, 36). But Barlow was a quick learner. When the 12th New York mustered out, he reenlisted immediately, this time as lieutenant colonel of the 61st New York. The men of the regiment soon learned that Barlow was their true commander, and an exacting one. At Seven Pines, in the Seven Days battles, and at Antietam, where he was severely wounded, Barlow proved himself as a soldier and earned his general's star. He led the Eleventh Corps division at Gettysburg, where he was again severely wounded. After recovering from his Gettysburg wound, he returned to command a division of the Second Corps throughout the 1864 Virginia campaign. By the end of the war, he was a major general and perhaps the most distinguished volunteer soldier in the Army of the Potomac. Barlow returned to New York and civilian life after the war, resuming his law practice and entering the political arena, first as U.S. marshal of southern district New York and then as attorney general of New York state. While his uncompromising principle and blunt manner rendered him unsuited for the diplomacy of politics, he proved the nemesis of greed and corruption, taking on William Marcy Tweed and his powerful and corrupt Tammany Hall organization with the same fearlessness with which he led his regiment's assault at Antietam. It is remarkable for a man of Barlow's accomplishments that aside from the New York Monuments Commission, In Memoriam: Francis Channing Barlow, 1834-1896 (Albany: J. B. Lyons Company, 1923), he has had no biographer. The two books reviewed here have at last given him the attention he deserves. The first, Christian Samito's "Fear Was Not in Him," consists of Barlow's wartime correspondence from May 2, 1861, to July 19, 1864, the latter date only ten days before his wife, Arabella, died of typhoid fever. This devastating event shook the seemingly imperturbable Barlow and contributed largely to a decline in his health that forced him to take a leave of absence from the army, which lasted until March 1865. Samito has done a marvelous job of editing the letters and has further complemented them with a fine...