White House Historical Association

George W. Barnes

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"George W. Barnes," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/436.
Position
Butler
Years in President's House
circa 1870 – 1871
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
Black or African American
Presidency
Ulysses S. Grant
Biography
Little is known about George William Barnes, also known as Bill, outside of his work with Ulysses S. Grant. Barnes was from St. Louis, Missouri, and began working as a bodyservant for General Grant as early as 1863. He served the general throughout the Civil War and then worked for him after the war in Washington, D.C., where Grant continued to command the U.S. Army. According to Grant’s son Jesse: “He was with father at Vicksburg and he was with us on I Street [in Washington, D.C.].”1 Jesse went on to recall that Barnes struggled with alcoholism, and that Ulysses Grant would often dismiss Barnes, find him a new position, but later re-hire him.2 Evidently, this included hiring Barnes for work on and off at the White House. In June 1870, he was listed on staff as a waiter. Bill must have departed later that year, because by January 1871, Grant’s Private Secretary Orville Babcock wrote Secretary of War William W. Belknap: “I am directed by the President to say that he will be pleased to have you enlist into the General service, Geo. William Barnes (colored) for duty at the Executive Mansion.”3 Jesse Grant wrote that “Bill Barnes was a pensioner until his death” but further information about his life beyond the White House is scarce.4
  1. Jesse Root Grant, In the Days of My Father General Grant (Harper and Brothers, 1925), 210-211. See also Julia Dent Grant, The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant Ed. John Y. Simon (New York: G. P. Putnam’s and Sons, 1975), 133-134; An August 1866 bank document lists that he “was private servant to General Grant.” George William Barnes in the U.S., Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865-1874; ARC Identifier: 566522; Record Group Number: 101; Record Group: Records of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 1863-2006
  2. Ibid.
  3. “The White House-The Retinue of a Republican President,” The Greeneville Democrat (Ohio), June 1, 1870, pg. 2; The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 22: June 1, 1871-January 31, 1872 Ed. John Y. Simon (1998): 134-135.
  4. Jesse Root Grant, In the Days of My Father General Grant (Harper and Brothers, 1925), 211.
Birthplace
Unclear from Context
Unclear from Context