Mordecai Barbour (October 21, 1763 – January 4, 1846)[1][2][3][4][5] was a Culpeper County Militia officer during the American Revolutionary War and a prominent Virginia statesman, planter, and businessperson.
[1][2][4][5][6] During the American Revolutionary War in May or June 1781, Barbour joined the Culpeper County Militia, serving first as a private, then lieutenant under General Mechlenburg.
[2][3][4] Prior to his relocation from Fredericksburg, Barbour had previously owned Burlington plantation in Dinwiddie County west of Petersburg and operated a mill in its vicinity.
[10] In 1819, the Virginia General Assembly authorized an act permitting Barbour to "receive toll for passing his bridge across the Appomattox river".
[15] Barbour stated in his letter to President Madison:[15] In the present crisis when the insolence pride and rapacity of an unjust and haughty nation has leaped upon our beloved Country such an accumulation of insults wrongs and injustice that the Nation is compelled to resort to arms to recover its own respect and enforce from others the observance of that rule by right which is our inherent birth right—It becomes the duty of every citizen to tender to his Country such services as he is capable to render—Under the influence of such a conviction and believing from the experience I acquired in the Revolutionary War that I can render essential services to my Country.
I have caused it to be communicated to the War office my willingness to accept the command of a regiment of those troops now raising by the United States—In the result of my appointment it shall be my glory and my pride to aspire at commanding a regiment which shall surpass all others in its military knowledge—whilst the whole energies of my mind shall be centered to prepare the feelings of my troops, and to inspire them with all that heroic praise that ought to characterize the soldiers of the only free government on Earth—If sir my services are deemed worthy of acceptance twill give me great pleasure to serve my country—whilst at the same time if my Country can be better served by the appointment of some other gentleman twill be to me cause of satisfaction rather than regret—With the highest esteem and coustanation, I have the honor to beSir Your Obed.