WAUPACA COUNTY POST

August 26, 2004

Confederate Veteran Buried at Crystal Lake Cemetery

By Vince Barker,

Sons of Confederate Soldiers

About 18 months ago, a friend of mine from the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War asked me if I would help out in an improvement project at Crystal Lake Cemetery. They wanted to obtain new military grave markers for those who needed them, for all the Civil War veterans buried in their cemetery.

Being in central Wisconsin I assumed all the veterans buried there would be Union soldiers. Besides, I had scoured that entire area searching in vain for any possible Confederate veteran who just might be buried there. So when a church member who was organizing the improvement project casually mentioned one day, "Oh, one of the guys buried out there is a Confederate," I about fell out of my chair. The story that I was about to uncover was even more incredible than I could have hoped for.

William Henry Barrington was born in 1832 in Rosetown, County Kildare, Ireland, the sixth of 12 children of William and Loveday Barrington.

In 1850, when he was 18 years old, William came to America with his older sister, her husband and their children. They were part of the huge influx of Irish immigrants who were escap8ing the infamous Irish Potato Famine. They arrived in New York Harbor on July 1, 1850.

Just one month later they were already settled in Oconto County, Wis., having been assisted by family members who were already there. According to the few existing records for this time period, William apparently stayed in Oconto County and worked as a farmer. Eventually several of his other siblings, including his brothers Richard and George, would settle in Oconto County as well.

William was still living in Oconto County when the Civil War began in 1861. At the time he was about 29 years old and still a bachelor. His brothers Richard and George both enlisted with Wisconsin regiments – Richard with the 12^th Wisconsin Infantry and George with the 3^rd Wisconsin Cavalry.

According to a family story passed down through time, sometime in 1861 or early 1862, William was on a trip to Tennessee supposedly on business trading horses. It is not known why or when he got there, but in May 1862, he was in Leesburg, Va.

We know this because on May 25, in Leesburg, he enlisted for "two years or the war" in Company C, the Confederates of the 18^th Mississippi Infantry. The 18^th was camped in the Leesburg area at the time recruiting and reorganizing since their one-year, state-service enlistments had just expired.

No one knows why William, who had lived in far northern Wisconsin for more than 10 years after emigrating from his native Ireland, would enlist in a Confederate regiment. A popular family story has it that "being a good Irishman, he wanted to get in the fight before it was over." That could very well be true, but could it also be that William had become more sympathetic to the Confederate cause during his trip South after the war started? Unfortunately, whatever his reasons were, they have been lost to the passage of time.

According to his service record, William was present during the 18^th’s actions at Malvern Hill and Antietam. He appears to have been sick in the hospital in Richmond in December 1862 and probably was not present during the Battle of Fredericksburg.

By February 1863 he was back with his regiment and was present at Chancellorsville, where the 18^th suffered heavy losses and much of the regiment was captured. William appears to have been one of the lucky ones who had not been wounded, at least seriously, or captured.

His luck would not last long. Just two months later, at Gettysburg, on July 2, 1863, William and the 18^th Mississippi, as part of Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade, made their famous charge into the Peach Orchard against Sickle’s Corps. According to the 18^th’s regimental history:

"At six in the evening, when Sickles still held the orchard after a terrific fight, McLaws ordered an assault, and soon, out of the circle of fire which surrounded the post on the south and west emerged the storming columns of Wofford’s Georgians and Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade. Yelling like demons, black with smoke and lusting for hand-to-hand conflict, the enveloping mass of Confederates rushed the enclosures and speedily gained possession of them … and a great gap was opened in the Federal line."

The desperate fighting in the Peach Orchard and in the wheat field took a terrible toll on the 18^th Mississippi and Barksdale’s Brigade. Gen. Barksdale was himself mortally wounded. The 18^th’s losses were 18 killed and 82 wounded.

When the Confederate Army retreated, 31 of the 18^th’s wounded were left with the assistant regimental surgeon. Among the wounded left behind and taken prisoner was Pvt. William Barrington. His wounds were serious. According to a veteran’s census taken in Wisconsin many years later, William stated he was wounded in the "arm, neck, knee, and face." His service record states he was "captured and in the hands of the enemy at Gettysburg." His records also show he spent the next six months in several Union hospitals in Chambersburg, Pa.

In January 1864, William’s wounds had apparently healed, at least somewhat, because during that month he "liberated" himself from Union hands and apparently made his way back home to Wisconsin. There is no record of him ever taking the Oath of Allegiance to the United States, being paroled, or being arrested on his way home. Making it all the way from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin as an escaped Confed-erate prisoner must have been a harrowing ordeal, and is an amazing feat, especially considering it was done in the dead of winter.

Why he chose not to try and rejoin his regiment, no one knows. Not being a real Southerner, with all his family in Wisconsin, he may have decided he had done enough fighting and just wanted to go home. His records show he had performed nothing but good and brave service during his 14 months with the 18^th Mississippi.

We know he was in Wisconsin by August 1864 because that is when he married his first wife, Mary Ann Bates. Family legend has it that at some point after his return to Wisconsin, William went to see his brother Richard, who had served three years with the 12^th Wisconsin Infantry. Richard apparently greeted his brother at the door with a shotgun pointed at him.

The two brothers must have eventually patched up their differences from the war because they both moved from Oconto County to Waupaca County, and lived very near each other. The third brother, George, drowned in 1863 while serving in the 3^rd Wisconsin Cavalry.

Four years after they were married, William’s wife, Mary Ann, died during he birth of their second child. IN 1874 he married Mary Harrison and together they had 10 children. William spent the remainder of his life farming in the town of Dayton. He was known by everyone in the area as "Rebel Bill."

According to family members, William spoke little of his wartime service. By all accounts no one in his family, or any of his friends and neighbors, held any ill will against him for his service in the Confederate Army. He was well-liked and a respected member of the community.

He died on Sept. 11, 1924, at the age of 92. His wife, Mary, followed him less than a week later.

Until the summer of 2003, there was no proper marker on William’s grave indicating his Confed-erate service. After learning this story, a proper Confederate marker was ordered for him and on a hot day in August, 2003, with the help of my friends and SCV associate member Col. (Ret.) Dan McGraw, we placed the new marker on Rebel Bill’s grave. He finally had the marker he deserved.

What made the day even more special was that we were joined by William’s grandson, Walter Batten. Batten was not in the best of health but he had driven the 30-plus miles from his home to the cemetery when he heard we were placing the marker that day.

He told us he was 8 years old when William died so he remembered him fairly well. He said at that time, ol’ Rebel Bill was nearly blind, but he would still play and wrestle with the grandkids in the yard. Apparently they all like pulling his long chin whiskers.

He also shared that William himself had planted the tall white pines that rim the cemetery.

WAUPACA COUNTY POST

September 9, 2004

Three Wisconsin Brothers Served During Civil War

By Vince Barker

Sons of Confederate Veterans

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a two-part series on the Barrington brothers who fought during the Civil War, and then settled in the town of Dayton. Two of the brothers, Richard and William, are buried in Crystal Lake Cemetery in Dayton. The story of "Rebel Bill" Barrington, who fought with the Confederate Army, was presented in the Aug. 26 Waupaca County Post.

Richard Barrington was born on Aug. 19, 1834, in Rosetown, County Kildare, Ireland. He was the seventh of 12 children of William and Loveday Barrington.

Around 1850 Barrington came to America with some of his family as part of the massive Irish immigration to America during the Irish potato famine. The Barrington family settled in Oconto County, Wis.

Little is known of Richard’s early years; however, he must have loved his new home in America because it did not take him long to enlist when war broke out in April 1861. In October of that year he enlisted as a private in Company F, 12^th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry.

After mustering into federal service in Madison, Barrington’s regiment left for Fort Leavenworth, Kan., on Jan. 16, 1862. They remained there until May 29, when they were ordered to St. Louis and then on to Columbus, Ky.

They performed railroad repair duty in Tennessee until November 1862, when they were assigned to Gen. Grant’s Central Mississippi Campaign. They participated in the siege of Vicksburg from May to July 1863 and remained in the Vicksburg region until February 1864, at which time they took up the march again as part of the Meridian (Mississippi) Campaign.

During this time Barrington and many of his comrades in the 12^th Wisconsin re-enlisted "for the war." In doing so they were given the coveted veteran status and received a 60-day furlough to return home.

With their furloughs over, Barrington and the rest of the 12^th’s veterans rejoined their regiment in Cairo, Illinois, in April 1864, and were transported to Clifton, Tenn., and then on to Ackworth, Ga. They would be part of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s massive army assembling for the up-coming Atlanta Campaign.

However, soon after his regiment arrived in Georgia, Barrington became seriously ill. According to pension application records, filed 20 years later, he was suffering from bronchitis, or "disease of the lungs." He was "coughing up blood from the lungs" and was sent to the Union General Hospital in Rome, Ga. He remained there until he was transferred to Harvey Hospital back in Madison.

Richard remained in Wisconsin, recovering from his illness for the rest of the war. On July 20, 1865, he and the rest of the men of the 12^th Wisconsin Infantry were officially mustered out of service.

Soon after being discharged, Barrington moved from Oconto County to the town of Dayton in Waupaca County. On Aug. 3, 1865, he married Lucy Warren, the daughter of Thomas T. and Marah Warren. They would have seven children together.

In a touching tribute to his wife, Lucy, Ricahrd stated on his pension application when asked if he had ever been married previously, "I have not been married before. I thank God for a devoted wife who has stood by me."

For the remainder of his life Barrington worked as a farmer and laborer in the towns of Dayton and Springwater. He died on April 10, 1907, at the age of 75. Cause of death was listed as bronchitis, the same illness that he had contracted in the service of his country some 43 years before.

There is a long-told Barrington family story that when Richard’s brother William returned to Wisconsin after his service in the Confederate Army, he went to Richard’s home to see him. Richards supposedly met him at the door with a shotgun pointed at him. At some point later, however, in the spirit of the once again united nation, the two brothers patched up their differences and moved together, and lived next to each other in the town of Dayton, and later in Springwater, until Richard’s death in 1907.

The story of Richard and William Barrington is truly remarkable and unique for Wisconsin. There was a third brother, George Barrington, who died in the service of his country. George Barrington enlisted as a private in Company I, 3^rd Wisconsin Cavalry, on Nov. 18, 1861.

On June 4, 1863, he drowned while his regiment was stationed near Lightning Creek in the Cherokee Nation, present-day Oklahoma. The location of his final resting place is unknown.

September 9, 2004

Civil War Brothers’ Graves to be Dedicated

All descendants of the Barrington family (William, Alexander, Margaret and Richard), who settled in the Crystal Lake area in the 1850s, are invited to the dedication of the graves of two Waupaca County Civil War veterans, William Barrington and Ricahrd Barrington, Crystal Lake Cemetery, at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18.

The dedication ceremony is open to the public.

The dedication of William’s grave will be conducted by the Sons of Confederate Veterans and Confederate re-enactors. Richard’s grave will be dedicated by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.