Welch, Richard F. 1945–

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Welch, Richard F. 1945–

PERSONAL:

Born January 11, 1945. Education: Quincy University, B.A., 1967; Wichita State University, M.A., 1970; State University of New York at Stony Brook, Ph.D., 1990.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Huntington, NY. Office—Department of History, C.W. Post Campus, Long Island University, 720 Northern Blvd., Brookville, NY 11548. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Glen Cove High School, Glen Cove, NY, history teacher, 1972-2001; Long Island University, C.W. Post College, Brookville, NY, adjunct professor of history, 1982—; State University of New York at Farmingdale, adjunct professor, 2008—.

MEMBER:

Historical Society, Association for Gravestone Studies, New York Irish History Roundtable, Suffolk County Historical Society, North Shore Civil War Roundtable (vice president), Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities.

AWARDS, HONORS:

New York State Department of Education Multicultural Scholarship, 1988.

WRITINGS:

Memento Mori: The Gravestones of Early Long Island, 1680-1810, Friends for Long Island Heritage (Syosset, NY), 1983.

An Island's Trade: Nineteenth-Century Shipbuilding on Long Island, Mystic Seaport Museum (Mystic, CT), 1993.

(Editor, with Robert B. MacKay) Long Island: An Illustrated History, American Historical Press (Sun Valley, CA), 2000.

The Boy General: The Life and Careers of Francis Channing Barlow, Farleigh Dickinson University Press (Madison, NJ), 2003.

King of the Bowery: Big Tim Sullivan, Tammany Hall and New York City: From the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era, Fairleigh-Dickinson University Press (Madison, NJ), 2008.

Contributor to The Encyclopedia of New York State, edited by Peter R. Eisenstadt and Laura Eva Moss, Syracuse University Press (Syracuse, NY), 2004. Contributor to academic journals, including History Today, Military History, and Civil War Times. Editor, Long Island Forum, 1991-2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

Richard F. Welch has published books on the history of Long Island and a biography of Civil War Union General Francis Channing Barlow. The lat- ter, The Boy General: The Life and Careers of Francis Channing Barlow, is the first major biography of the military leader, a privileged Boston youth. Barlow was the son of a Unitarian minister, and among his early acquaintances were Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Having recently graduated from Harvard University with a law degree, Barlow was establishing his practice in New York when the Civil War began, and he promptly enlisted as a private in the Union Army. His social standing soon assured him a commissioned position, but shortly thereafter he overthrew his colonel and became the commander of his regiment. He campaigned to be appointed a brigadier general after the Battle of Antietam, in which he was seriously wounded, when he was still in his twenties.

Barlow's physique did not match those of other generals: he was a clean-shaven, slight man who eschewed a general's formal uniform for a checked shirt and an unbuttoned coat. Despite his appearance, he was known for his ruthless command of troops, his bloodlust, and his ability to carry out orders effectively. He was gravely wounded at Gettysburg, but managed to survive the war to enjoy a long and successful political and legal career, eventually becoming the New York State Attorney General.

Much of Welch's information for the book came from Barlow's personal papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Welch debunks the legend that while Barlow lay gravely wounded on the battlefield at Gettysburg, Confederate General John Gordon read him letters from his wife and that the two men reconciled years after the war and became friends. While that story may be wishful thinking, Welch does explain that even though Barlow was not expected to survive, his wife, Arabella, who was a Union nurse, was denied permission to visit her husband's bedside. She disregarded the order and crossed the line anyway. He survived only to see her die a short while later of typhus.

Barlow and his troops then participated in General Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign, fought in Virginia in May and June of 1864. With Barlow's health still compromised, Welch suggests, he was unable to effectively lead his troops and they suffered heavy losses, even though the Union ultimately proved victorious.

"Welch successfully rescues Barlow from historical obscurity," wrote Gregory J. Dehler in the online journal H-CivWar. "One does get an excellent sense of Barlow's personality from Welch's biography," Dehler continued. "Barlow believed he belonged to a privileged class, the natural elites of society…. As a general, he was cold and aloof from his men and had almost no relationship with them as individuals or as a body." Reviewing the book in the journal Parameters, Clay Mountcastle wrote that "the book's greatest strength lies in Welch's ability to remain focused on the key people, places, and events that shaped Barlow's life without meandering off into the kind of insignificant side stories that plague so many Civil War biographies." Alan K. Lamm, writing in the Journal of Southern History, believed that "the author has done a fine job of making his subject come to life. Foibles such as Barlow's arrogance and prejudice toward Irish and German troops are revealed and balanced against strengths such as toughness and competent generalship in battle."