The Biographical Dictionary of America/Barrett, Edward

​BARRETT, Edward, naval officer, was born in Louisiana in 1828. From 1841 to 1846 he served as a midshipman, chiefly abroad. He then entered the naval academy at Annapolis and was graduated the same year. He served through the Mexican war, and at its close was assigned to the African coast station in 1848, as commander of the sloop Jamestown. In 1855 he was advanced to the grade of lieutenant, and after a few years more of service was made instructor of gunnery. He was subjected to court-martial in 1862, on the charge of disloyal conduct, but the evidence fully exonerated him, and he was given command of the gunboat Massasoit, having been promoted lieutenant-commander. He then commanded the ironclad monitor Catskill, and captured the blockade-runner Deer. He ascended the Yangtse-Kiang river to Hankow, and commanded the man-of-war that tested the jetties of the Mississippi river when completed by Eads. He is the author of "Dead Reckoning; or, Day's Work" (1863); "Temporary Fortifications: Prepared for the Naval Service" (1863); "Naval Howitzer" (1863); and the editor of "The Carlyle Anthology," selected and arranged with the author's sanction. He died in March, 1880.