Barton, also known as Barton Station, Barton Depot, or Barton's, is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located in western Colbert County,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, United States. It is about ten miles west of the county seat of Tuscumbia, and just south of

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is a long river located in the Southern United States, southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. Flowing through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, it begins at the confluence of Fren ...

. The community is about four miles southeast of

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

US Route 72 U.S. Route 72 (US 72) is an east–west United States highway that travels for from southwestern Tennessee, throughout North Mississippi, North Alabama, and southeastern Tennessee. The highway's western terminus is in Memphis, Tennessee a ...

History

Barton was settled as a station along the

Memphis and Charleston Railroad The Memphis and Charleston Railroad, completed in 1857, was the first railroad in the United States to link the Atlantic Ocean with the Mississippi River. Chartered in 1846, the gauge railroad ran from Memphis, Tennessee, to Stevenson, Alabama ...

. It was originally known as Barton Depot or Barton Station. Barton was founded in 1906 and named for Armistead Barton, a businessman from Tuscumbia who built

Barton Hall Barton Hall is an on-campus field house on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. It is the site of the school's indoor track facilities, ROTC offices and classes, and Cornell Police. For a long time, Barton Hall was the larges ...

and owned land in the area. Between December 1862 and October 1863, several skirmishes took place in Barton as part of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

forces sought to prevent the Union Army from invading the

Tennessee Valley The Tennessee Valley is the drainage basin of the Tennessee River and is largely within the U.S. state of Tennessee. It stretches from southwest Kentucky to north Alabama and from northeast Mississippi to the mountains of Virginia and North C ...

from their stronghold in

Corinth, Mississippi Corinth is a city in and the county seat of Alcorn County, Mississippi, Alcorn County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,622 at the 2020 census. Its ZIP codes are 38834 and 38835. It lies on the state line with Tennessee. His ...

. On December 12, 1862, the 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment under the command of Col. T. W. Sweeny engaged troops under the command of Col. Phillip Roddey. On April 17, 1863, the 1st Alabama Cavalry and 10th Missouri Volunteer Cavalry under the command of Gen.

Grenville M. Dodge Grenville Mellen Dodge (April 12, 1831 – January 3, 1916) was a Union Army officer on the frontier and a pioneering figure in military intelligence during the Civil War, who served as Ulysses S. Grant's intelligence chief in the Western Th ...

fought CSA forces under the command of Col. Roddey. October 20, 1863 saw the 3d Cavalry Regiment, 5th Ohio Cavalry, and Landgraeber's Battery under the command of Gen.

Peter Joseph Osterhaus Peter Joseph Osterhaus (January 4, 1823 – January 2, 1917) was a German-American Union Army general in the American Civil War and later served as a diplomat. Early life Osterhaus was born in Koblenz, Rhenish Prussia, the son of Eleanora (Kraem ...

engage CSA forces under the command of Col. Jeff Forrest. On October 25, 1863, Union forces, including the 13th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment and

76th Ohio Infantry The 76th Ohio Infantry Regiment, sometimes 76th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry ( or 76th OVI) was an infantry regiment of the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment served in the Western Theater, primarily as part of the XV C ...

under the command of Gen. Osterhaus fought CSA forces commanded by

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

Stephen D. Lee. A post office was operated in Barton from 1859 to 1972.

Notable person

* Cecil Dowdy, former professional football player

References

Populated places established in 1906 Unincorporated communities in Alabama Unincorporated communities in Colbert County, Alabama 1906 establishments in Alabama {{ColbertCountyAL-geo-stub