Barnett, George (General)

Born on December 9, 1859 in Lancaster, Wisconsin ^[2] . He grew up in the city of Boscobel of the same state. In June 1877 he entered the US Naval Academy , graduated in 1881. His class at the academy was the first to train officers for the marines ^[2] . Barnet spent two years as a midshipman on board the steamer USS Essex , after which he was transferred to the Marine Corps and on July 1, 1883, he was promoted to second lieutenant. In this rank, he served in various Marine barracks in the eastern United States and for three years commanded a Marine contingent in Sitka , Alaska . In September 1890 he was promoted to second lieutenant on board the sloop of the USS Iroquois ^[3] .

At the end of the second round of service at sea, he served a year in the barracks of the marines at the naval base in Washington , and then received an assignment to protect the marines at the world exhibition in Chicago , where he remained until its closure. By this time, he received a permanent post at the naval base in Washington.

In June 1896, Barnett again went to sea on board the battleship USS Vermont . In December 1897 he was transferred to the armored cruiser USS San Francisco and in April of the same year to the armored cruiser USS New Orleans. During his service on this ship, he saw several shelling of the forts of Santiago in Cuba . On August 11, 1898, he was promoted to captain and in November of the same year he was transferred to the armored cruiser USS Chicago . In the same year, he became a fellow veteran of the Pennsylvanian commandery of the military order of foreign wars.

In May 1901, Captain Barnett returned to the coastal service at the main headquarters of the Marine Corps in Washington and was soon promoted to major. The following year, he was given command of a Marine Corps battalion aboard the auxiliary cruiser USS Panther, who went to the Isthmus of Panama to defend American interests and guard rail traffic on the isthmus.

In December 1902, Major Barnett returned to Washington and took command of another battalion of marines, which in less than a month was transferred to the Philippines , where he joined the first brigade of marines. A few months after his arrival in the Philippines, Barnett was transferred to the post of naval officer of the US Navy and served until December 1904 on board various ships of this fleet, after which he rejoined the ranks of the first brigade of marines.

In April 1905, Barnett was transferred from the Philippines to Washington and soon after arriving in the United States was promoted to lieutenant colonel. In 1906, he attended the Naval College and served as commander of the barracks of the Marine Corps at the Naval Base in Washington for a year. He then led the Marine Expeditionary Battalion, which sailed aboard the armored cruiser in Havana , Cuba. There the battalion landed and became part of the Cuban appeasement army.

Shortly after the landing in Cuba, the unit of Lieutenant Colonel Barnett was increased to a regiment. At the same time, the number of marines expeditionary forces was increased to the brigade and placed under the command of Colonel Littleton Waller. Almost immediately, Barnett's regiment was transferred to Cienfuegos and spread out over a wide area, while Barnett himself controlled a large part of the island. Then a large army expeditionary detachment arrived and freed up some of the marines on the island. Barnett returned to Washington in early November 1906.

For one year, Barnett headed the Marine Corps barracks in Washington and then was transferred to the headquarters of the Marine Corps and soon after the transfer he was transferred to command the Marine Corps division of the US Mission in Beijing , China . At the end of the service tour in the Far East, in the summer of 1910 he returned to the United States and took command of the Marine Corps barracks in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . On October 11 of the same year, he was promoted to the rank of colonel.

For the next three years, he often visited Cuba, each time heading the first regiment of the marines there, who occasionally went to the troubled island due to serious local problems. The US was required to maintain control of the situation under the terms of the Platt Amendment . At this time in Philadelphia was organized by the first forward base of the marines under the leadership of Barnett. He organized large-scale maneuvers of the Atlantic fleet near Puerto Rico , from where he returned on February 15.

February 25, 1914 Barnett was appointed to the post of Major General Marine Commandant for a period of four years ^[2] . He became the first commandant appointed for such a period in connection with the law passed last year. On August 29, 1916, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.

The first important step in the administration of Commandant Barnett was to send a reinforced Marine brigade to participate in the occupation of Veracruz , Mexico in 1914. During the year, a minor invasion of Haiti was carried out. For some time, the expeditionary corps of the Marine Corps cruised along the west coast of Mexico. Serious problems arose in Haiti and San Domingo , during the year the Marine corps under the leadership of Barnett deployed to the brigade in both countries where they stayed until the end of the term of office of his administration.

Also under his general control, corps activities took place during the First World War. The corps increased to more than three thousand officers and about 75 thousand lower ranks. In addition to the occupation of Haiti and the Dominican Republic and the strengthening of regular corps bases, two brigades were deployed in France . Other parts of the corps occupied some areas of Cuba. A Marine brigade was also in reserve in Galveston , Texas . Large training centers were established in Quantico , Virginia and Parris Island , South Carolina . Barnett also conducted the corps through a difficult period of demobilization and reorganization at the end of the war. The French government rewarded him for his outstanding service with the title of commander of the Legion of Honor . The US Navy Minister awarded him a Medal for Distinguished Service .

On June 30, 1920, Barnett was relieved of his post as commandant of the corps according to the order of the Navy Minister Josephus Daniels and received the permanent rank of brigadier general. On March 5, 1921, he was promoted to major general ^[3] . The remainder of the service he spent on the post of commander of the Pacific Department ^[2] .

Barnett retired on December 9, 1923, reaching the age limit of 64 years, established by law ^{[2] [3]} . He died on April 27, 1930 in Washington and was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery , Arlington , Virginia, in a section assigned to the class of the Naval Academy in 1881 ^[4] .

Barnett was a relative of military strategist Thomas Barnett (born 1962). Barnett’s wife, Lelia (Montag), Gordon ^[2], was a relative of Alice (Montag) Warfield, mother of Bessie Wollsey Warfield , who became the wife of Edward , Duke of Windsor, and Captain Henry Mustin's sister-in-law. Her stepson, Basil Gordon (father of mathematician Basil Gordon) also served in the Marine Corps ^[5] .

• Barnett, George. George Barnett, Marine Corps Commandant: A Memoir, 1877-1923 / Andy Barnett. - Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company , 2015. - ISBN 978-0-7864-9707-2 .
• Daugherty, Leo J., III. Pioneers of Amphibious Warfare, 1898-1945: Profiles of Fourteen American Military Strategists . - Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company , 2009. - p. 66–95. - ISBN 978-0-7864-3394-0 .
• Major General George Barnett, USMC (Unreferenced) (not available link) . Who's Who in Marine Corps History . United States Marine Corps History Division . Circulation date is December 29, 2010. Archived June 15, 2011.
• Commandants of the Marine Corps . - Annapolis, Maryland : Naval Institute Press , 2004. - P. 174–193. - ISBN 978-0-87021-012-9 .

• George Barnett on findagrave.com