United States Marine Corps General. Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1881. This was the first class to provide officers to the Marine Corps. After two years at sea as a cadet midshipman, Barnett was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. During the Spanish-American War he served aboard the "USS San Francisco" and the "USS New Orleans" and while serving on the latter vessel participated in the engagements incident to the capture of Santiago, Cuba. In September 1902, he received his first expeditionary command, a battalion charged with keeping the Panama railroad open during a Panamanian bid for freedom from Colombia. During the succeeding years, Barnett commanded expeditionary units in the Philippines and Cuba. In January 1903 he was placed in command of another battalion of Marines being transferred to join the First Brigade of Marines in the Philippine Islands. Shortly after his arrival in the Philippines he was transferred to duty as Fleet Marine Officer of the Asiatic Fleet and served in that position until December 1904 when he rejoined the First Brigade. In 1905 General Barnett served with the Cuban Army of Pacification; in 1907 he commanded the Marine Detachment, American Legation, Peking, China; and then served again in Cuba from 1908 to 1911. He was appointed Major General Commandant of the Marine Corps on February 25, 1914 and served in that position, as the twelfth Commandant of the Marine Corps, until June 30, 1920. He was in time to send Marine forces to help occupy Vera Cruz, Mexico, that year, to settle domestic disturbances in Haiti in 1915, and in the Dominican Republic in 1916. As Commandant, Barnett commanded the Marine Corps during its rapid expansion in the First World War and successfully pressed to ensure that a Marine regiment was on board the first convoy to leave for France, living up to the Corps' tradition of being the "first to fight." He retired from the Marine Corps on December 9, 1923. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal, the Cuban Campaign Medal, the Spanish Campaign Medal, the West Indian Campaign Medal, and the Victory Medal. France conferred upon him the Legion of Honor. He died in Washington D.C. He is surrounded at Arlington by other members of the USNA class of 1881.