Samuel Barron ( 1809 – 1888 ) Samuel Barron ( November 28 , 1809 – February 26 , 1888 ) was a United States , and later Confederate naval officer , acting as a representative in Europe for the Confederacy during the American Civil War . Early life and career . Born to a prominent military family in Hampton , Virginia , Barron was entered into the US Navy at age two on January 1 , 1812 ( presumably because his father , Commodore Samuel Barron ( 1765 - 1810 ) , had commanded the nearby naval base ) . In 1820 , Barron began serving as a midshipmen . He rose through the ranks and was commissioned a lieutenant on March 3 , 1827 . He was promoted to commander on July 15 , 1847 during the Mexican - American War . Commanding the USS " John Adams " from 1849 to 1853 , Barron was made a captain in September 1855 . He then was captain of the steam frigate USS " Wabash " , whose crew included George Dewey , from 1858 until 1859 . he was appointed chief of the Bureau of Detail in 1860 , and thus held considerable influence within the US Navy , Following Lincoln ' s inauguration the following year , he was suspected of attempting to gain control over the Department of the Navy . Civil War . In April 1861 , after Virginia announced its succession from the Union , Barron resigned from the navy and , although his resignation was denied by the United States ( later being listed by Navy Secretary Gideon Welles on April 22 as dismissed ) , he accepted a commission as Captain in the Virginia Navy and , as chief of the Office of Naval Detail and Equipment , later assisting in organizing a coastal defense of the Virginia and North Carolina coastlines . After Virginia ' s fleet was integrated with the Confederate Navy , Barron was issued a commission as commander and appointed chief of the Office of Orders and Details on June 10 . Barron would remain in that post until July 20 , when Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R . Mallory agreed to Barron ' s request to be assigned as commander of coastal defences of Virginia and North Carolina , an important port for Pamlico Sound based Confederate privateers . Arriving at his headquarters on Fort Hatteras on August 28 , Barron commanded the defense of both the forts Hatteras and Clark against Union Flag Officer Silas H . Stringham during the Battle of Hatteras Inlet on August 28 – 29 , Barron was captured following the surrender of the two fortresses . Held in Ft . Warren , Boston harbor , Barron was eventually released in a prisoner exchange the next year . In January 1861 while imprisoned at Ft . Warren , Boston , Lt . William T . Glassell stated : " Generals Buckner and Tilghman were then rooming with me , and together with Commodore Barron . . . " In November 1862 , Barron was briefly reassigned command of naval forces in Virginia before he was sent to Great Britain to take command of the two ironclad rams , CSS " North Carolina " and CSS " Mississippi " ( also known as the ' Laird Rams ' ) , that were being built under the direction of Commander James D . Bulloch for the Confederacy . After the ships were seized by British authorities the following year , Barron traveled to France , remaining in Paris as " Flag Officer " commanding Confederate States Naval Forces in Europe acting as a contact for Confederate naval officers as well as blockade runners and privateers until February 25 , 1865 when he resigned his commission returning to the United States shortly before the Confederacy ' s surrender a month later . Retiring to his home in Essex County , Virginia , Barron took up farm life until his death on February 26 , 1888 .