Rufus Barringer, a third generation
American of Southern aristocracy, was born on December 2, 1821, in Cabarrus
County, North Carolina. His father was Paul Barringer, an influential citizen
of the county and officer in the militia during the War of 1812. His mother was
Elizabeth Brandon, daughter of Matthew Brandon, a veteran of the Revolutionary
War. Rufus was the tenth of eleven children, many of whom went on to achieve
prominence.
Rufus was graduated from the
University of North Carolina (UNC) in 1842, where he was active in the
Dialectic Society (Debating Club), and was one of the leaders opposing the
establishment of fraternities, which he considered too secretive and because he
detested the severe hazing. After graduation, he returned to Concord and read
law with his brother, Moreau. In June 1843, he obtained his license to practice
law.
Rufus served in the North Carolina
House of Delegates in 1848-49 and in the State Senate in 1850. Barringer
supported progressive measures during his terms in the North Carolina
Legislature, including establishment of a railroad system to serve the western
part of the state,”free suffrage,” and judicial reforms.
Just prior to and during his
legislative days, he purportedly had an affair with Roxanna Coleman, a mulatto
slave of a neighbor in Concord. He fathered two illegitimate sons, Thomas Clay
Coleman and Warren Clay Coleman. Warren Coleman is best known for establishing
a black owned and operated textile mill in Concord. He became one of the
wealthiest black men in the South before he died in 1904.
Also, during this period, Rufus was
involved in a bitter political dispute with a prominent political figure of the
time, Greene W. Caldwell. During the escalating clash with Caldwell, a duel was
narrowly averted, but Caldwell attacked Barringer in the streets of Charlotte.
The younger and stronger Barringer grappled with Caldwell and forced his
attacker’s arm down so that three shots went through Barringer’s coat while one
bullet hit him in the fleshy part of the calf of a leg. Both men were arrested
and were fined, ending the dangerous affair.
After one term as a senator, Rufus
tired of the legislative morass and returned to Concord, where he became
heavily involved in taking care of Moreau’s practice after Moreau was elected
to the U. S. House of Representatives, where, Moreau shared a desk with and
became friends with another Congressman, Abraham Lincoln. This relationship
proved fateful to Rufus Barringer.
In 1854 Rufus, a faithful
Presbyterian, became engaged to Eugenia Morrison, fifth child of Robert Hall
Morrison and Mary Graham Morrison of Lincoln County. Mr. Morrison was a
prominent Presbyterian minister and the founder of Davison College. Rufus and
Eugenia were married in May of 1854 and had two children, Anna Barringer and
Paul Brandon Barringer. In 1874 Anna Barringer, 17, died of typhoid fever. Paul
became a doctor, chairman of the faculty at the University of Virginia, and
sixth President of Virginia Tech. Two other Morrison sisters married soon-to-be
Confederate generals. Isabella Morrison married Daniel Harvey Hill, and Anna
Morrison married Thomas J. Jackson. Thus, Rufus, Jackson, and Hill were
brothers-in-law. In 1858, Eugenia died of typhoid fever. Three years later,
Rufus married Rosalie A. Chunn, who died of tuberculosis in 1864, after having
one child, Rufus Chunn Barringer. In 1870, he married Margaret Taylor Long, and
they had one son, Osmond Long Barringer.
Barringer was a Unionist at heart
and opposed secession until the failed Peace Conference of February 1861
(Moreau was a North Carolina representative to the conference). Rufus then
encouraged secession and preparing the state for the war that he saw as
inevitable. He raised a company of cavalry in Concord, and was elected its
captain. Barringer’s Company “F” became part of the 1st North Carolina Cavalry
Regiment (Ninth State Troops), commanded by Colonel Robert Ransom.
Barringer, Hill, and Jackson had
cordial relations before and during the war, but Barringer and Hill became
estranged over Reconstruction politics after the war. In July 1862, Jackson
summoned Barringer to his headquarters to discuss Jackson’s proposed
controversial “Black Flag” policy as a response to Federal commander John
Pope’s threats toward Virginia civilians. Jackson never received approval for
his “no quarter” war plan, and Pope’s offensive soon made the subject moot.
At the battle of Brandy Station on
June 9, 1863, Captain Barringer, acting as major that day, was seriously
wounded while placing some of his troopers in position as sharpshooters to
protect the Confederate artillery of Robert F. Beckham. Barringer was shot off
his horse, being hit through the right cheek by a Federal sharpshooter. The
bullet exited his mouth, causing serious injury that kept him out of service
for five months. He was promoted to major on August 26, 1863, and returned to
service at the time of the Bristoe Campaign in mid-October. Here, he rallied
his troopers at Auburn and led a mounted charge at Buckland. He was promoted to
Lt. Colonel on October 17.
During the 1864 spring campaign,
North Carolina Brigade commander James B. Gordon was mortally wounded on May 12
at Brook Church, five miles north of Richmond during Sheridan’s attack on
Richmond to draw out and fight JEB Stuart. After the death of Gordon and the
wounding of Colonel William H. Cheek on May 11, Lt. Colonel Barringer took over
temporary command of the 1st North Carolina Cavalry Regiment. Three senior
colonels stood ahead of Barringer to be promoted to brigadier general to
command the North Carolina Brigade, but Barringer, favored by Gordon and
recognized as a sound organizer and disciplinarian, was promoted over the
colonels, bypassing the rank of colonel to command the brigade as a brigadier
general.
General Barringer performed well
during the 1864 campaigns, leading Rooney Lee’s Division due to Lee’s illness
during the victorious battle of 2nd Reams’s Station on August 25, 1864. He led
his brigade in other fights, including Davis’s Farm, the Wilson-Kautz Raid, and
Wade Hampton’s “Beef-Steak” Raid.
At the opening of the 1865 campaign,
General Barringer was conspicuous in the Battle of Dinwiddie Court House
(Chamberlain’s Bed), Five Forks, and Namozine Church, where a band of Maj.
Henry Young’s scouts, disguised as Confederates, captured him on April 3, 1865.
He was taken to Phil Sheridan’s headquarters, where he breakfasted with the
Union general. He was then sent to Petersburg and to City Point, and was at
City Point on April 5, when President Lincoln visited. Barringer was the first
Confederate general officer captured and brought to City Point, and Lincoln,
hearing the name Barringer of North Carolina, asked that Barringer be brought
to see him. Lincoln thought that the prisoner might be his old friend Moreau
Barringer. The two men had a congenial conversation for a period of time.
Lincoln gave Barringer a note of introduction to Secretary of War Edwin
Stanton, since Barringer was being sent to the Old Capitol Prison in
Washington. Barringer then met with Stanton for short periods over several
days. Stanton had to clear out the prison because many prisoners were being
received and gave Barringer the choice of prisons to be sent to. The hapless
Barringer chose Fort Delaware (the worst choice he could have made).
Barringer arrived at Fort Delaware
and stayed there until July 25, 1865, even though he made numerous attempts to
obtain a release. After his release, he went to Washington in an unsuccessful
attempt to obtain his pardon, and then went home to Concord, North Carolina.
Moving to Charlotte during the post war period, he became a “Radical”
Republican and strongly supported Reconstruction and was condemned by the
Democratic press as a “traitor to his state.” D. H. Hill termed Barringer, and
other Republicans, especially James Longstreet, as “lepers in their own community.”
Hill, an elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte, refused to serve
Barringer the sacraments at communion, declaring that “Republicans were not fit
to sit at the Lord’s Table.” Barringer, angered at such treatment, transferred
his membership to the Second Presbyterian Church and became an elder. A
fearless politician, Barringer boldly stood his ground and supported black
suffrage and other progressive measures to better the lives of the common
people.
In 1880, Rufus Barringer was the
Republican candidate for Lt. Governor, and was defeated along with Republican
gubernatorial candidate Ralph Buxton, even though they nearly carried
Barringer’s Democratic district. During the 1888 national election, Barringer
switched parties, supporting Democrat Grover Cleveland for president. Suddenly,
he was a hero to the Democratic Press, and remained so for the rest of his
life. He died of stomach cancer on February 3, 1895 and was buried in Elmwood
Cemetery in Charlotte.
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