1834-1896
Francis C. Barlow, New York State Attorney General from 1872 to 1873, was born in Brooklyn and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts. Barlow graduated first in his class from Harvard in 1855 and studied law in New York City under prominent attorney William Curtis Noyes.[1] Barlow, who was working for the New York Tribune newspaper at the outbreak of the Civil War, married Arabella Griffith on April 18, 1861. The next day he enlisted as a private in the Engineer Company of the Twelfth New York State Militia Volunteers. Despite a lack of military training Barlow enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks and played a prominent role in many of the war’s most important battles. He ended his military career in 1865 as a Major-General widely considered among the Union Army’s most capable officers.
“One of several ‘Boy Generals’ . . . Barlow’s looks were deceiving. Slightly built, clean shaven, with a high-pitched voice, he was nevertheless a demanding officer who would tolerate no dereliction of duty on the part of his men.”[2] In September 1862, Colonel Barlow and his regiment fought in the infamous Bloody Lane at the battle of Antietam. Severely wounded while in pursuit of retreating Confederate troops Barlow was nursed back to health by his wife, Arabella, a nurse with the U.S. Sanitary Commission. Barlow returned to the field as a Brigadier General and led his troops into battle at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg where he was severely wounded on July 1, 1863. Though both Union and Confederate surgeons pronounced his wounds fatal, his wife again nursed him back to health. Less than a year later, Barlow returned to command a Division and was at the forefront of major battles — the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor — that eventually led to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House in April 1865. In July 1864, while he was in the field, his wife died of typhus.[3]
After the war Barlow was elected Secretary of State of New York from 1866 to 1867. In 1869, he was appointed a United States Marshal for the Southern District of New York by President U.S. Grant. He was elected Attorney General in November 1871 and served one term from 1872 through 1873. Barlow was closely associated with Samuel Tilden, William Evarts, Charles O’Conor and the prominent anti-corruption leaders who led the investigation and prosecution of William “Boss” Tweed and the members of his corrupt ring.[4] Barlow played a key role in the impeachment of the Tweed Ring Judges and also prosecuted Mayor A. Oakey Hall who managed to evade conviction in three separate trials. After Tweed’s first trial resulted in a hung jury amid strong suspicions of jury tampering, Barlow hired the Pinkerton National Detective Agency to shadow jurors and their attending officers during the second trial, which led to Tweed’s eventual conviction of 204 counts of fraud and embezzlement in November 1873.
Attorney General Barlow began an investigation of the Canal Ring, a bipartisan alliance of legislators and other officials who embezzled monies appropriated for repairs of the Erie Canal. The investigation was carried on by his successors and eventually led to the breakup of the ring under the leadership of Governor Samuel Tilden.
Barlow was deeply concerned about the ethical and professional standards of the practicing bar. In early 1871, he penned a series of open letters and a pamphlet criticizing David Dudley Field, one of the most powerful lawyers of his day, for his representation of corrupt figures like Boss Tweed and the robber barons Jay Gould and James Fisk, Jr., whose protracted Erie Railroad litigation had spawned judicial bribery and corruption. Field defended himself vigorously, demanding that his critics identify what specific misconduct he had committed and arguing that it was the duty of the advocate to accept all cases offered him and that he was merely doing what every good lawyer should do, i.e., “everything for his client that he can honestly do.”[5] Upon becoming Attorney General, Barlow sought to formally censure Field for his actions in the Erie Railroad litigation. Field, however, marshaled the support of numerous judges and lawyer and no action was taken against him.[6]
Upon leaving office, Barlow practice law and was active in Republican politics. He was a founding member of both the New York State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. He also served as President Grant’s personal representative to investigate alleged irregularities in the disputed Hayes-Tilden election in the state of Florida.[7] Barlow angered his own party and was recalled and replaced by other Republican observers when he “openly voiced his disgust and his conviction that under a fair count Florida would have gone for Tilden by a small majority.”[8]
Francis C. Barlow died on January 11, 1896. In 1922, an 18-foot-tall bronze statue of General Barlow was erected at Gettysburg.
[1] History of the Bench and Bar of New York Vol. 2, New York History Co., 1897, at 35-36.
[2] “Francis Barlow: Rising Through the Ranks,” National Park Service, available at Francis Barlow: Rising Through the Ranks (U.S. National Park Service).
[3] Id.
[4] “Death of Gen. Barlow,” New York Times, Jan. 12, 1896.
[5] Michael S. Ariens, “David Dudley Field and the Limits of Conscience,” Legal History Blog, Feb. 14, 2023, available at legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com.
[6] Id.
[7] Louis W. Koenig, “The Election that Got Away,” American Heritage, Oct. 1960, Vol. 11, Iss. 6.
[8] Id.