Frank was born in 1834...

Francis Channing Barlow (Frank as he was called) began life in Brooklyn, New York on October 19, 1834. He was the middle son to David Hatch Barlow of Windsor, Vermont and Almira Penniman of Brookline, Massachusetts. The marriage of David and Almira produced three sons but ended in roughly 1840. The most accepted account is that David left his family as a result of mental illness and alcohol use. However, I recently found a letter from Louisa Barlow Jay, Frank's daughter, written in 1947 to a Mr. Lathrop which read,  "I can't help feeling that his wife - my grandmother- who left him taking the three little boys while he was still in Brooklyn, must have had a good deal to do with him failing to pieces".

 

Regardless of the circumstances surrounding the failed marriage, Frank never saw his father again. What could have been a life of disadvantage became one of opportunity. Almira raised her sons back in Massachusetts at Brook Farm and Concord. Here Frank was living in social circles with men of intellect and influence. With those connections and his own drive for success, Frank led a successful life primarily as a lawyer, a politician and a tenacious Major General. He followed a strict discipline style for himself which he carried to the battlefield. Frank expected his men to have the same fearless fighting spirit that he did. That fighting spirit resonated throughout his life.

 

Continue following to learn more about what made Frank the man he was, beyond the boy general......


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