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Civil War Soldiers - Barnard

Barnard, John C., brigadier-general, was born in Sheffield, Mass., May 19, 1815. In 1833 he was graduated at West Point, standing second in a class of forty-three, and was from that time until the outbreak of the Mexican war employed in various engineering works, being promoted in the meantime to captain. In the Mexican war he superintended the construction of the defenses of Tampico, and surveyed the battle-fields about the city of Mexico. For these services he was brevetted major, and in 1850 was appointed chief of a scientific commission to survey the isthmus of Tehauntepec, his report of this work being the first full topographical account of the isthmus. From then until the outbreak of the Civil war he was engaged in various important engineering works, with the exception of the years 1855 and 1856, when he was superintendent of the military academy at West Point. He was promoted major of engineers in 1858, and at the outbreak of the Civil war served as chief engineer of the Department of Washington and then as chief engineer to Gen. McDowell in the first Bull Run campaign. In the Virginia peninsular campaign of 1862 he served as chief engineer of the Army of the Potomac with rank of brigadier-general, and was later made chief engineer of the defenses of Washington, being promoted to lieutenant-colonel of engineers, March 31, 1863. He was on the staff of Gen. Grant in 1864 and at the close of the war was made colonel of the corps of engineers and brevetted major-general, U. S. A. After the war he was a member of various boards having charge of the fortifications and river and harbor constructions. He was the author of a number of valuable works on engineering subjects. Gen. Barnard died in Detroit, Mich., May 14, 1882.

Source: The Union Army: A History of Military Affairs in the Loyal States 1861-1865, Volume 8 Biographical, 1908
 


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