The town of Sheffield is celebrating one of its own this Saturday 200 years after he was born in the small Massachusetts community.Born in Sheffield in 1815, Major General John Barnard would graduate from West Point at 18. He succeeded Robert E. Lee as the academy’s superintendent before the Civil War during which he designed the defenses of Washington.
“Which played a key role because at Arlington, Virginia with the guns of the period the Confederates easily could have fired on the White House itself,” said Hastings.
Harold Hastings is project director for the Massachusetts Sesquicentennial Commission of the Civil War which working with the Bushnell-Sage Library will celebrate Barnard’s life from 4 to 6 Saturday at the library in Sheffield. Barnard’s great grandson will speak while the general’s uniforms will be displayed.
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