John Sanford Barnes (May 12, 1836 – November 22, 1911) was a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

officer and businessman and naval historian.

Biography

Barnes was born at

West Point, New York West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...

, in 1836, while his father, General James Barnes, served as an instructor there. He entered the

US Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy is ...

at Annapolis, Maryland, at age 14, serving after his graduation aboard Preble, and under Commodore Stewart on San Jacinto in Europe and the West Indies, and on Saratoga. He was aboard Arctic when it participated in the first survey for the original

Atlantic cable Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is now an obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and data a ...

in 1856. The following year, aged 21, he was appointed assistant professor of ethics at the US Naval Academy, and after a subsequent year in private business he was appointed master of Jamestown. In 1858 he resigned his commission and attended

Albany Law School Albany Law School is a private law school in Albany, New York. It was founded in 1851 and is the oldest independent law school in the nation. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and has an affiliation agreement with University at Al ...

. After passing the bar he practiced law until 1861. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, he returned to the Union Navy, initially as navigator of Wabash, and later as commander of Dawn, Paul Jones, Lenape, and Bat. In 1863 he married Susan Bainbridge Hayes, granddaughter of Commodore

William Bainbridge William Bainbridge (May 7, 1774July 27, 1833) was a Commodore in the United States Navy. During his long career in the young American Navy he served under six presidents beginning with John Adams and is notable for his many victories at sea. ...

and great-grandniece of Admiral John Barry. After the War, he served as commander of the Naval Academy's practice ships Marblehead and Savannah, as an instructor at the Academy, and wrote "Submarine Warfare": the first major work on the use of torpedoes. He left the navy as

lieutenant commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...

. From 1869 to 1880 he was in private business, largely engaged in obtaining financing for what was to become the Great Northern Railway. He devoted time also to collecting memorabilia of the Navy during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

and

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

. He served as the first President of the Naval History Society and edited the first volume of its publications, "The Log Books of the Serapis, Alliance, and Ariel," before his death in 1911. His manuscript collections and library formed the basis of the Naval History Society's collections, and were donated to the Society in 1915, by his son Col. James Barnes. The Collections became part of the

New-York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum ...

when the Naval History Society moved there in 1925.

Death and burial

Barnes died in New York City on November 22, 1911. He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

References

External links

*
John Sanford Barnes: A memorial and a tribute
', Privately printed 1912
Egotistigraphy", by John Sanford Barnes. An autobiography, privately printed 1910. Internet edition edited by Susan Bainbridge Hay 2012
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, John sanford 1836 births 1911 deaths 19th-century American lawyers Albany Law School alumni American male non-fiction writers American naval historians Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) Historians from New York (state) New York (state) lawyers People from West Point, New York People of New York (state) in the American Civil War United States Naval Academy alumni United States Navy officers Union Navy officers