Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/192

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BARLOW
BARLOW

nization, and Queen Elizabeth gave him a special charter constituting him a lord proprietary with almost unlimited powers. The intention was to colonize a more southerly latitude than up to that time had been occupied by English settlers. Two ships, one commanded by Barlow and the other by Philip Amidas, set sail on 27 April. They took the southerly course, touching at the Canaries and the West Indies, and made their way northward along the coast. Early in July they neared land, and perceived a fragrance coming off the coast "as if they had been in the midst of some delicate garden," abounding with all kinds of odoriferous flowers. On 13 July they entered Ocracoke inlet and landed on Wocoken, the southernmost of the islands forming the entrance to what is now called Pamlico sound. The beauty of the climate, the heavily wooded shores, the abundance of game, and the friendliness of the natives so captivated Barlow and his fellow-voyagers that, after exploring Pamlico and Albemarle sounds, they returned to England in September and gave such glowing accounts of their discoveries that the queen named the territory Virginia, in delicate compliment to her own unmarried state, and preparations for permanent settlement were at once begun.


BARLOW, Francis Channing, soldier, b. in Brooklyn. N. Y., 19 Oct.. 1884 : d. in New York city, 11 Jan., 18'J0. he was graduated at Harvard, studied law in the office of William Curtis Noyes, New York, and began practice in that city. For a time he was on the editorial staff of the "Tribune." In 1861 he enlisted as a private in the 12th regiment New York state national guard, and went to the front on the first call for troops to defend the capital. At the end of the three months' term of service he had been promoted lieutenant. He at once reentered the service as lieutenant-colonel of the 61st New York volunteers, was promoted colonel during the siege of Yorktown, and distinguished himself at the battle of Fair Oaks or Seven Pines (31 May and 1 June, 1862), for which he was afterward (19 Sept.) promoted brigadier-general. He brought his regiment in good form through the trying "change of base" from the Chickahominy to the James river. At Antietam (17 Sept.) his command captured two sets of confederate colors and 300 prisoners, but he was severely wounded, and carried apparently dead from the field. At Chancellorsville (2 May, 1863) he commanded a brigade in the 11th corps, but was not involved in the discreditable surprise of its commanding officer, having been detached early in the day to harass "Stonewall" Jackson in his flank movement on the national right. At the battle of Gettysburg (1 July, 1863) he was severely wounded and taken prisoner during the first day's fight; but he was exchanged, and recovered in time to take the field again the following spring. At Spottsylvania Court-House, 12 May, 1864, the 2d corps (Gen. Hancock's) was ordered to storm the confederate works at dawn. Gen. Barlow commanded the 1st division, which, with the 3d, formed the advance line. The works were carried with a rush, and 3,000 prisoners captured, comprising almost an entire division, with two general officers, Ed. Johnson and G. H. Steuart. This opened one of the most sanguinary and stubbornly contested engagements of the civil war, and was the first substantial success won during the campaign. Gen. Barlow participated in the final campaigns of the Potomac army under Gen. Grant, was present at the assault on Petersburg, and at the surrender of the confederate forces in April, 1865, and was mustered out of the military service on the conclusion of peace. He was elected secretary of the state of New York in 1865, and served until 1868, when president Grant appointed him U. S. marshal of the southern district of the state. He resigned in October, 1869. In November, 1871, he was elected attorney-general of the state, serving through 1872-3. Since that date he has practised law in New York city. Gen. Barlow married Miss Arabella Griffith, who, while her husband was in the field, was highly efficient in the hospitals as a member of the U. S. sanitary commission. She died 27 July, 1864, of fever contracted in the hospitals of the Army of the Potomac. His second wife is a daughter of Francis G. Shaw.


BARLOW, Joel, author, b. in Redding, Conn., 24 March, 1754; d. near Cracow, Poland, 24 Dec., 1812. He entered Dartmouth college in 1774, but soon removed to Yale, where he was graduated in 1778, delivering the commencement poem, “Prospect of Peace” (published in “American Poems,” Litchfield, Conn., 1793). In 1780 he became chaplain of Poor's brigade of the Massachusetts line, having previously spent his vacations with the army, and fought at White Plains. On the disbandment of the army, in 1783, Barlow settled at Hartford, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1786. He founded with Elisha Babcock the “American Mercury,” a political and literary weekly, and, joining the Hartford wits, wrote much satirical verse. In 1785 he edited and imposed the “Book of Psalmody” then in use in the Congregational churches of Connecticut, contributing general versions of psalms never before attempted. Two years later he published at Hartford his epic poem, “The Vision of Columbus,” which made him famous. As a result he was offered the agency of the Scioto Land Company, which, under cover of the Ohio Land Company, had purchased the right of redemption to nearly 3,500,000 acres of government land in Ohio, which it now desired to sell abroad. Barlow accepted, and sailed for France in May, 1788. Not succeeding in his agency, he turned to politics and letters. As a Girondist he contributed largely to the political literature of France in 1789-'91. Becoming interested in English politics, he crossed over to England in 1791, and resided for nearly two years in London, one of a circle of artists, poets, wits, journalists, and pamphleteers who formed the Constitutional society, and were intensely republican in tone. West, Copley, Trumbull, Hayley, Horne Tooke, and Priestley were among his associates. In London he published several political works, the most important being his “Advice to the Privileged Orders,” which Burke attacked and Fox openly eulogized in parliament, and which the British government proscribed. Taking refuge in France, Barlow in 1792-'3 accompanied a deputation of the national convention into Savoy for the purpose of erecting it