Talk:William Barton (soldier)

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Military history: Biography / North America / United States / Early Modern / American Revolution

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Rank[edit]

The original article said that Barton was a General in the Continental Army. Actually he was a brevet colonel. He was possibly a General of the local militia in Rhode Island. The word used in his online bios is "locally."Student7 14:47, 8 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Kevin Myers, could you footnote the rank(s) with Boatner? This will save a lot of work later. A lot of people thought he was a "general" and have often referred to him that way. Thanks. Student7 (talk) 16:10, 7 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've done one better and provided a link in the references right to the page in Heitman's Historical Register that Boatner cited, thanks to the magic of Google Book Search. Now everyone can easily read the dates of Barton's promotions. None of the scholarly (or semi-scholarly, in the case of American Heritage Magazine) sources listed here refer to Barton as a general. The other two web sources, which don't really qualify as reliable sources, say he was later a general, which is perhaps a confused reference to his eventual role as adjutant general. —Kevin Myers 16:54, 7 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]