History of the Eighty-Fifth Regiment
Illinois Volunteer Infantry
By Henry J. Aten, 1901

The Field and Staff
Page 341

Chaplain Joseph S. Barwick

Chaplain Joseph S. Barwick was born in Maryland, September 22, 1815, and removed with his parents to Indiana when about seven years of age, locating on a farm near Brookville, in Franklin county. He graduated from Asbury (now DePauw) University, and was ordained a minister in the Methodist Episcopal church in 1837. After filling pastorates in Evansville and Indianapolis, he received the degree of doctor of divinity from the university from which he graduated. In the fall of 1850 he removed to Jacksonville, Ill., to accept the professorship of Latin in the Illinois Conference Female College. He continued teaching some six years, but was preaching at Havana when he was commissioned chaplain at the organization of the Eighty-fifth. This was an office so often filled by clerical adventurers that the men watched and waited before placing their confidence in the chaplain. The position was as difficult as it was thankless, and he who would fill it worthily must be pure in heart, chaste in act and clean in speech. Chaplain Barwick was thus equipped, and his presence put the men upon their honor. His care of the sick, kindly aid to the wounded and hearty sympathy for those in trouble, sealed the bond between him and the men which will hold good to the end of their lives.

He served through the war and was mustered out with the regiment. In 1866 he removed to Missouri and became principal of a college at Glasgow, and later was in charge of a church at Saint Joseph. Returning to Illinois, he preached some three years at Griggs' Chapel, near Beardstown, and in 1877 he was transferred to the Missouri conference, and in 1878 was the presiding elder of the Linneus circuit. He was residing in Linneus, Mo., and had been superannuated a year or more at the time of his death, which occurred on October 5, 1890.

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