Four historic state-owned sites and structures across Virginia are set to receive more than $1 million in federal funding through the Semiquincentennial Grant Program in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
Early Career
Barron was born in Hampton, Virginia, on November 28, 1809, the son of Samuel Barron (1765–1810) and Jane Sawyer Barron. He had at least one sister. His family had a distinguished naval tradition. His father and his uncle James Barron (1768–1851) were both captains in the United States Navy. They had learned seamanship as young men during the Revolutionary War (1775–1783) when their father James Barron (1740–1787), who also had a brother in the navy, was commodore of the Virginia State Navy. Before Barron’s first birthday his father died, and as a tribute to the elder Samuel Barron, the Department of the Navy appointed his namesake son a midshipman on January 1, 1812.
Raleigh and
Beaufort (the latter of which was renamed
Roanoke), joined the squadron from North Carolina early in 1862. In the meantime, at the suggestion of Matthew Fontaine Maury, a Virginia-born naval commander who helped to develop torpedoes, the Confederate Congress appropriated $2 million for a large fleet of small gunboats. Two of them,
Hampton and
Nansemond, were completed and joined the squadron.
The squadron’s first commander was Captain French Forrest, who also commanded the Norfolk Navy Yard for the Virginia State Navy and the Confederate Navy. He commanded the squadron again from 1863 until 1864. Six other officers also took turns at command during the war: Captain (later Admiral) Franklin Buchanan, Captain Josiah Tattnall, Captain Sidney Smith Lee, Captain Samuel Barron, Captain John K. Mitchell, and Admiral Raphael Semmes. Like Forrest, they were senior officers who had long pre-war service in the U.S. Navy.