Alfred Madison Barbour
Alfred Madison Barbour was a Virginia lawyer, one-term delegate in the Virginia [House of Delegates] and also in the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861. He may be best known for his role as Superintendent of the Harpers Ferry Armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia during John Brown's raid.
Although Barbour voted against secession, he became a major in the Confederate States Army and served as a quartermaster during the American Civil War.
Early life
Barbour was born on April 17, 1829, on a plantation in Culpeper County, Virginia. He was the son of John S. Barbour, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 15th congressional district, and his wife Ella A. Byrne, and had several siblings.Barbour attended the University of Virginia and Harvard Law School.
Government service
Returning to Virginia, Barbour moved to the state's northwest corner. Monongalia County voters once elected him as one of their two representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he served in 1857–1858.In January 1859, he was appointed as Superintendent at the federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He served there until the American Civil War began in 1861. In October 1859, abolitionist John Brown raided the arsenal. Brown's raiders captured the entire armory and town, which Brown knew to be minimally guarded by civilians, although ultimately he failed and was captured because he remained in town too long. Recent research questions whether Brown really attempted to steal the weapons to support a slave rebellion, considering that explanation Virginia slaveholder propaganda. Barbour wrote that he was visiting the federal armory at Springfield, Massachusetts. "Had I been here, I could have done no good. Old Brown would have taken Gen. Scott if he had been here. A military man could have done nothing more than a civilian, unless there had been a corps of soldiers under him... It is ridiculous to talk about it, as if the presence of a military man would have awed Old Brown."
Despite the fiasco, voters from Jefferson County elected Barbour and fellow former delegate Logan Osburn to represent them in the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861. While Osburn resolutely voted against secession on both April 4 and April 17, Barbour switched his vote, voting on April 17 to secede, as did his brother James Barbour, who was a delegate representing their native Culpeper County.