Rufus Barringer

Rufus Clay Barringer (December 2, 1821 – February 3, 1895) was an American lawyer, politician, and Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War.

Early life Barringer was born in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, the ninth of ten children of Elizabeth Brandon and Paul Barringer. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1842. He studied law in Concord with his older brother, Daniel Moreau Barringer, who would enjoy a successful law practice and serve two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Their brother, Victor Clay Barringer, like Rufus later served as officer in the Confederate States Army.

Entering politics as a Whig, Barringer represented Cabarrus County in the North Carolina House of Commons from 1848 until 1850. A Unionist in his political views, he represented his district as an elector during the 1860 presidential election.

As a young man before he married, Barringer is known to have had a relationship with Roxanna Coleman, a young enslaved African-American woman held by planter Daniel Coleman Sr. Barringer fathered two mixed-race sons with her, Thomas Clay and Warren Clay. Their son Warren Clay Coleman, born into slavery in 1849, after the war became a successful businessman in Cabarrus County, in part aided by his father's influence and expertise as a lawyer. In addition to owning stores and a rental company in Concord, Coleman was a founder in 1895 of the first African-American owned and operated textile mill.

First two marriages Barringer married Eugenia Morrison in 1854. They had two children, Paul and Anna. Eugenia died of typhoid fever in 1858. Two of her sisters also married men who became generals during the Civil War, Stonewall Jackson and Daniel Harvey Hill.

Barringer was a delegate to the 1875 North Carolina Constitutional Convention. He unsuccessfully ran for lieutenant governor in 1880 as a Republican, losing to James L. Robinson. He retired from his law practice in 1884. He became a writer, completing a history of the 9th North Carolina Cavalry Regiment.

He died in 1895 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery in Charlotte.