Mary Thurston Fauntleroy Barnes, Vice Regent for the District of Columbia

American, 1824-1912

BiographyMary Thurston Fauntleroy [Mrs. Joseph K. Barnes] served as Vice Regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association from the District of Columbia from 1873 to 1912. She married surgeon Joseph K. Barnes (1817-1883) in 1844 in Louisiana, where he was stationed with the army from 1842-1846. The couple came to Washington shortly before the Civil War. Barnes was promoted to "acting surgeon general" in 1862 by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton; he was promoted Brigadier General and Surgeon General in 1864. General Barnes was an attending physician at the deathbed of Abraham Lincoln. He also attended President James Garfield following the 1881 assassination attempt on his life. Mrs. Barnes was a popular hostess in Washington, DC during the Civil War and reconstruction.

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