The Strange Case of Dr. Barret
ECW welcomes back guest author Greg Wolk.
On June 25, 1864, Lt. Gen. Ulysses Grant called his telegrapher and cypher officer into his headquarters cabin in City Point, Virginia. There, Grant scribbled a message to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton dealing with a domestic problem in St. Louis. Grant had just completed one of the most remarkable feats of his career as he organized and executed maneuvers that brought his army to the south side of the James River. Involving over 100,000 men, 5,000 vehicles, and 58,000 animals, the movement was highlighted by the construction of a half-mile long pontoon bridge to cross the James River.[1] The operation, completed on June 17, put Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army on its back foot.
On that same day out west, a squad of riders from the Union provost marshal’s office in St. Louis were on the Gravois Road southwest of the city near the estate that Ulysses Grant and his wife Julia Dent Grant occupied before the Civil War.[2] In June 1864, Mrs. Grant was living with her children at the estate on Gravois – her family’s ancestral home – while her husband was fighting the war. The provost guard’s mission was to arrest a man by the name of J. A. Barret, a physician who lived across the road from the Dent property. The arrest was accomplished on June 17. Dr. Barret was conveyed to the infamous St. Louis jail known as the Gratiot Street Prison.
Dr. Barret was a member of a prominent family, whose tree included United States Representative John Richard Barret and future St. Louis mayor Arthur B. Barret. The Barret clan of St. Louis had roots in Kentucky, but there was a branch in Illinois as well. His cousin James A. Barret, a friend of Abraham Lincoln, was colonel of the 10th Illinois Cavalry (“Lincoln’s Own”).
If government reports of the day are correct, Clement Vallandigham of Ohio – the leading “copperhead” of the Democratic Party – was acquainted with another James A. Barret. This is speculative, based on news that hit the front pages in late October 1864, on the eve of the national elections.[3] A James A. Barret was described as the chief of staff to the “Supreme Commander” of the Missouri chapter of a subversive organization known as the Order of American Knights. The articles set forth verbatim a report that had just been issued by the judge advocate general of the United States, which associated George McClellan (Lincoln’s election opponent) with Vallandigham and various suspected subversives. It should be noted though, that even Lincoln thought looks into the Order of American Knights was a political witch hunt.
From Army headquarters in City Point on June 25, the telegrapher sent Grant’s message to Stanton, requesting that the secretary order Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans (commanding the District of Missouri) to release Dr. J. A. Barret on bond or to grant him an early trial, also noting: “The doctor is a copperhead, but I have no idea that he has done anything more than that class of people are constantly doing, and not so much. He was a neighbor of mine, a clever man, and has a practice in the neighborhood which it will be very inconvenient to other people than himself to have interrupted.”[4]
On June 26, an inspector general in the War Department telegraphed Rosecrans, instructing him to release Barret on his bond of $2,000.[5] Either Rosecrans did not follow this directive, or Barret did not post a bond.
Whichever is the case, two weeks later Rosecrans telegraphed President Abraham Lincoln: “A telegram from the Secretary of War says you directed the release of Doctor Barrett … His release would endanger the public peace and defeat the ends of justice, and I respectfully request a reversion of the order.”[6] Rosecrans referred to Barret as one of the principal leaders involved in the Northwest conspiracy. Lincoln, in response, washed his hands: “If it is an old thing let it stand till you hear further.”[7]
As often was the case during his time in office, Lincoln found himself conflicted. A few weeks before the Barret incident, at the Republican National Convention in Baltimore, Lincoln approved an offer to Rosecrans to serve as vice president in Lincoln’s second term. A story exists: out of his disdain for Rosecrans, Stanton obstructed the offer by intercepting Rosecrans’ response. More likely, Lincoln preferred Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, who furthered the president’s interest in presenting a national unity ticket.
Rosecrans lost his place on the Republican ticket, but in June he was at risk of losing his command in Missouri as well. One day before wiring Stanton requesting the favor for Dr. Barret, Grant recommended to Army Chief of Staff Henry Halleck that Rosecrans be replaced.
Among other things he mentioned in a wire to Halleck on June 24, Grant noted what he called Rosecrans’s “secret police system,” and he dropped this damning comment: “It makes but little difference who you assign [as replacement], it would be an improvement.” [8] Grant’s timing may have been more than a coincidence. The arrest of Dr. Barret, virtually within sight of his own family, was perhaps “too close to home” to be ignored by the general-in-chief.
Now, the punchline: The man who was arrested on June 17 on the Gravois Road was not James A. Barret. It may be that the only army official who realized this was the man who signed Dr. Barret into the Gratiot Street prison, who correctly identified him as Joseph A. Barret. With the exception of Dr. Barret, it seems the joke was on every person involved in this incident, from the White House to City Point, and from Rosecrans to his secret police. Odd, but the government’s records – with the one noted exception – referred to the prisoner by using only his first and second initials.[9]
Greg Wolk is a retired trial lawyer and writer. He serves on the Boards of Directors of the Jefferson Barracks Heritage Foundation and the National U. S. Grant Trail Association, both based in St. Louis. His works include Friend and Foe Alike: A Tour Guide to Missouri’s Civil War (Eureka, MO: Monograph Publishing Co., 2010), and numerous magazine articles focused on the Civil War in Missouri.
Endnotes:
[1] “Pontoon Bridges: The Great Crossings,” Emerging Civil War podcast, by Chris Kolakowski, posted March 28, 2017.
[2] “Gravois” in the French language means rubble or gravel; the road takes its name from a creek that dissects the Dent property in St. Louis County.
[3] “The Great Western Conspiracy. Official Exposition by Judge Advocate Gen. Holt. Astounding Revelations!” The Liberator. Vol. XXXIV, No. 44, page 1, October 28, 1864.
[4] The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series II, Volume VII, Chap. 1 (hereinafter OR ser. II), 411.
[5] Ibid, 417.
[6] Ibid, 447.
[7] Ibid, 448.
[8] Ibid. Series I, Volume XXXIV, Part IV, 527. There is no evidence that Halleck conveyed this information to Lincoln.
[9] It is known that Dr. Barret was incarcerated at least until July 9, 1864. He died in 1868.
Was there a “Northwest Conspiracy?” Was there an attempt to “burn down New York City?” Did the Confederate Government sanction the “St. Alban’s raid?” Was the Dahlgren Raid sanctioned by the Lincoln Administration? Was the explosion at City Point “just an accident” or something more? Despite some attempts to create the illusion that the Civil War was “a bloody, yet honourable affair, conducted by gentlemen,” the truth is the last year of the war saw the introduction of attempted assassination (by both sides) and the increasing use of irregular warfare. And the inherent difficulty with irregular and guerilla warfare: once unleashed, the forces engaged are difficult to control.
Was this arrest of Dr. Barret just a case of mistaken identity; or was something more nefarious in the works? Thanks to Greg Wolk for revealing a little-known incident during the Civil War that may be deserving of more investigation.