Beekman Du Barry, Sr. (December 4, 1828 – January 12, 1901) was a brigadier general in the United States Army. He briefly participated in the Northern Pacific Railroad Survey of 1853 to 1854, and served with distinction in the Commissary of Subsistence of the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Early life Beekman Du Barry was born on December 4, 1828, in Bordentown, New Jersey, to Edmund Louis and Emma ( Duane) Du Barry. His paternal grandfather, Jean Baptiste Marie Du Barry, was a French citizen who owned plantations in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean. When the Haitian Revolution broke out in 1791, the Du Barrys fled to the United States and settled in Philadelphia. His paternal grandmother was Anne Louise Beekman, widow of Count Alexander Chodkiewicz of Poland. Beekman's father was a physician, and surgeon in the United States Navy. For a time, he served as personal physician to Joseph Bonaparte, the ex-king of Naples and Sicily and ex-king of Spain, and caretaker of Bonaparter's estate, Point Breeze, at Bordentown. His maternal grandfather was William J. Duane, a journalist and powerful politician in the state of Pennsylvania who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Andrew Jackson.
Du Barry initially wanted to pursue a career in medicine, and at the age of 16 was admitted to medical school. But for reasons which are unclear, Du Barry sought and won appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He was admitted as an at-large appointment from Washington, D.C. Du Barry entered the military academy on July 1, 1845, and graduated on July 1, 1849, seventh in his class.
Early military career
Florida and West Point Upon graduation from West Point, Du Barry was commissioned a brevet 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Army, and assigned to Company I, 1st Artillery Regiment. Most of the regiment was serving as coastal defense from New York City to Fort Washington, Maryland. But after some of the 150 or so remaining Seminole Indians in Florida attacked settlers in July 1849, the unit was sent in August to the interior of the state to preserve order. The official United States Army history of the unit said the service consisted "of fruitless marches and countermarches, scouts in this direction and in that, and in years of service scarcely an event worthy of record". On October 7, 1849, he was reassigned to Company B.
On February 13, 1850, Du Barry was appointed a full 2nd Lieutenant and assigned to the 3rd Artillery Regiment. He reported to the regimental headquarters at Palatka, Florida, where he joined Company E (although another source says Company F).
In August, his company was assigned to West Point, where Du Barry was appointed an assistant professor of geography, history, and ethics. He served there until April 29, 1853.
Stevens survey On February 10, 1853, outgoing President Millard Fillmore signed legislation creating the Washington Territory. On March 17, newly inaugurated President Franklin Pierce appointed Isaac Stevens the first Territorial Governor of Washington Territory. Congress had already appropriated $150,000 ($ in dollars) to survey railroad routes across the Pacific Northwest. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis was eager to complete the surveys, and on March 25, 1853, appointed Stevens to lead the survey project. The Stevens survey was the first transcontinental survey of the western United States since the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–1806, and considered very important by the United States government. Stevens largely had his pick of men for the survey project, and appointed Captain John W.T. Gardiner of the 1st Dragoons (cavalry) was appointed the chief officer of the group. Du Barry was one of five other Army officers chosen to participate in the survey.
Du Barry reported to St. Louis, Missouri, where Stevens was gathering his personnel. He was ordered on April 26 to travel upriver to St. Paul, a small town on the Mississippi River in the Minnesota Territory. He was told hire four men, and to push northwest from St. Paul across the territory to the frontier settlement of Pembina where he would meet with scouts sent by the Hudson's Bay Company. Du Barry duly arrived in St. Paul. Stevens arrived there on May 27, before Du Barry left for Pembina. Worried that the survey party would be delayed in Pembina waiting for the scouts, Stevens countermanded Du Barry's orders and had him join the main body of the survey party at St. Paul. Du Barry was assigned to take meteorological observations.
The Stevens party left St. Paul on June 6, 1853, and traveled along the Mississippi River northwest to Sauk Rapids. The group was split into three bodies: An advance mapping party, the main party, and the quartermaster and commissary train. Du Barry was given command of the main body. The advance and Du Barry parties reached the Sauk River on June 10, and the survey group reorganized. On June 14, Du Barry was placed in command of the scientific team and the quartermaster train, and ordered to take biological and botanical samples, and generally observe the natural history of the area, as the groups progressed westward. Stevens followed with the remainder of the group. Able to move much faster, Stevens overtook the Du Barry teams on June 16.
On June 18, Stevens sent a messenger back to Du Barry's teams, asking that two wagons be brought forward. Late on the evening of June 19, the messenger returned. Du Barry had misconstrued Stevens' orders, and refused to send the two wagons forward. The lack of wagons meant that the Stevens party could not push forward. A furious Stevens rode back to meet Du Barry on June 20. The two men exchanged heated words, and Du Barry asked to be relieved and sent back to West Point. Stevens granted his request. Du Barry asked permission to report to Secretary of War Davis and report on the mission thus far, another request which Stevens also granted.
Du Barry reported at West Point on July 25, 1853, which ended his service with the Stevens survey party.
West Point and the frontier On August 29, 1853, Du Barry was again appointed to a professorship at West Point, this time as an assistant professor of French. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on December 23, 1853.
On May 3, 1854, he was reassigned to active duty again, this time to a company of the 3rd Artillery Regiment. He traveled via steamship to Panama, where he crossed the Isthmus by land and boarded a second steamship for San Diego, California. Initially, Company A marched overland to the settlement of Salt Lake in Utah Territory. After spending the winter there, it marched to Benicia, California, reaching the former state capitol on July 25, 1855. Company A was then assigned to Fort Yuma in the New Mexico Territory. While at Fort Yuma, Du Barry also served as post commissary, and acting assistant quartermaster. He also designed and helped construct most of the buildings and defensive works of the fort in the latter half of 1855, most of which are still standing and are now historic. Du Barry also made extensive survey of the plant and animal life around Fort Yuma. He collected an important specimen of Nama jamaicense, a flowering herb, which he sent to the Smithsonian Institution. An important, adult specimen of the desert daisy Trichoptilium incisum was also collected by Lt. Du Barry. Only immature specimens had been examined to this point, and Du Barry's fully grown sample led to a more correct classification of the plant.
Du Barry remained at Fort Yuma until July 3, 1856. He was assigned to Light Battery E, 3rd Artillery, and ordered to report to Fort Snelling in the Minnesota Territory. He traveled overland, and reported to Captain Thomas W. Sherman, commander of 3rd Artillery and the fort. In March 1857, the renegade Santee (also known as the Eastern Dakota or Eastern Sioux) leader Inkpaduta led his people in a raid into the state of Iowa, known as the Spirit Lake Massacre, where they killed 32 white settlers. Escaping into Minnesota, the Santee band killed a few white settlers near Springfield, Minnesota. Du Barry participated in an August 1857 expedition in the Yellow Medicine River area against the Santee. During the campaign, Company E agreed to hold a peace council with several hostile bands of Native Americans. The Indians were asked to camp at least away from the Army camp, and arrive at the meeting disarmed. At one point, several Indians, their firearms hidden under blankets they wore, attempted to infiltrate the meeting and massacre the Army soldiers. 2nd Lt. William T. Spencer spotted them and roused the troops. Spencer's quick action discouraged the Native American warriors, who fired a few desultory shots and fled. The expedition was generally a failure, as Inkpaduta's Santee were never captured.
On August 13, 1857, Du Barry's unit was transferred to Fort Leavenworth in the Kansas Territory. The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 had called for elections to decide if the territories of Kansas and Nebraska were to allow or ban slavery. In Kansas Territory, the anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery Border Ruffians engaged in a long-running guerrilla war against one another in a series of incidents generally known as Bleeding Kansas. The 3rd Artillery replaced the 2nd Dragoons, a cavalry unit sent to Utah to participate in the Utah War. Pro-slavery elements drafted the so-called "Lecompton Constitution" on November 7, 1857, and voters were asked whether they wanted to accept it "with slavery" (with slavery and slave buying, selling, and importation legal) or "without slavery" (the right to hold existing slaves protected, but importation barred). Anti-slavery elements boycotted the December 21 election, and the constitution was adopted 6,226 to 569. Violence escalated statewide, and a second vote held on January 4, 1858. Boycotted by pro-slavery elements, the Lecompton Constitution was rejected by a vote of 10,226 to 162. Once more, violence surrounded the election and its aftermath. During the winter of 1857–1858, Du Barry led a team which mapped the Missouri River from Fort Leavenworth to the mouth of the Platte River, to locate a site for an Army depot. Congress rejected Kansas' application for statehood, and offered voters a third option: Accept the Lecompton Constitution, and Congress would give the new state extensive grants of land for schools, roads, and public buildings, or reject it and be penalized by not only not obtaining the land grants but also not being able to apply for statehood until Kansas Territory had at least 93,500 residents. On August 2, 1858, in a relatively calm and violence-free election, voters rejected the compromise by 11,300 to 1,788. The 3d Artillery assisted Territorial Governors Robert J. Walker and James W. Denver in keeping order throughout this process.
The 3rd Artillery was sent to Fort Ridgely in southwestern Minnesota on September 1, 1858. Tensions between whites and Native Americans in the region were tense, as Minnesota's statehood (granted on May 11, 1858) led to white settlement of Indian lands. Although this would lead to the Dakota War of 1862, Du Barry's time at Fort Ridgely was quiet. He received his first lengthy leave on May 18, 1859, and did not return to duty until August 31, when he was again appointed to an assistant professorship at West Point, where he taught French.
Civil War service The American Civil War broke out on April 12, 1861, when the Confederate States Army fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, beginning the Battle of Fort Sumter.