Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. Seth Barton was born on September 8, 1828 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. His father was a successful lawyer who made sure his sons were all well educated; Seth wanted to be a military man, so at the age of fifteen he was sent off to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Graduating in 1849, he served in the frontier posts of New Mexico and Texas and was involved in several campaigns against the Comanches. By 1861 he had been promoted to captain. When the Civil War broke out, Seth resigned his commission and joined the Confederacy as a lieutenant colonel in the Third Arkansas Infantry where he served under General Robert E Lee. Involved in the battles of Cheat Mountain and Greenbriar River as well as the Valley Campaign, where he served as chief engineer under Stonewall Jackson. He showed notable leadership skills on the field, and by March 1862 Seth was promoted to brigadier general. Assigned to the Department of East Tennessee under General Kirby Smith, he briefly led the Fourth Brigade during the Cumberland Gap Campaign before he was ordered to serve with General Carter Stevenson's division where he was captured by the Union after the Siege of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. He was freed shortly afterward in a prisoner exchange and assigned to command Armistead's Brigade at Kinston, North Carolina but was censured by General Pickett for being uncooperative; transferred to Drewery Bluff, despite being noted for gallantry in battle, there was another charge of being uncooperative and he was transferred yet again. After several officers intervened in his behalf, he was assigned another command, this time to a brigade at Chaffin's farm and ordered to defend Richmond. When Richmond later fell, he fought in the Battle of Sayler's Creek and was preparing to reinforce Lee's army when word came down that Lee had surrendered at Appamattox. Soon captured, he was imprisoned for three months until he signed a loyalty oath to the Union. Seth returned home to Fredericksburg and began studying chemistry as a hobby. Having a natural gift for it, he ended up becoming one of America's most eminent chemists and was lauded in his later years both for his past service and for his scientific mind. While visiting his son in Washington DC, Seth Barton was stricken suddenly and died on April 11, 1900 at the age of seventy-one.