Joseph Nicholson Barney (1818 – June 16, 1899) was a career United States Navy officer (1835–1861) who served in the Confederate States Navy in the American Civil War (1861–1865). Personal life and family Barney was born in Baltimore in 1818, the son of U.S. Congressman John Barney and Elizabeth Nicholson Hindman and the grandson of United States Navy Commodore Joshua Barney. He married Eliza Jacobs Rogers on June 9, 1846 in New Castle County, Delaware, with whom he had one daughter before her death in 1848. He married a second time in 1858 to Anne (Nannie) Seddon Dornin, daughter of Thomas Aloysius Dornin, with whom he had eight children. He died at his home in Fredericksburg, Virginia, aged 81, on June 16, 1899, after a month-long illness. His second wife died on October 11, 1913. His grandson Thomas Holcomb was Commandant of the United States Marine Corps (1936–1943) and first Marine to achieve the rank of general. United States Navy He entered a naval academy in 1832 and received a warrant in the United States Navy as a midshipman in 1835, was promoted to passed midshipman in 1841, the first of 22 passed by the board of examination. By 1843, he was acting master of the USS Vincennes. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1847. His postings included the USS Potomac, USS Columbia, USS Vincennes, USS Cyane, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and USS Susquehanna. In 1861, at the beginning of the American Civil War, he held the position of first lieutenant on the USS Susquehanna in the Mediterranean Sea. Upon returning to the United States on June 6, he resigned his commission the same day. Confederate States Navy Barney was appointed a lieutenant in the Confederate States Navy on July 2, 1861. He commanded the CSS Jamestown during the Battle of Hampton Roads, the famous battle with the , during which he captured two brigs and an Accomac schooner off Newport News Point while the CSS Virginia held the Union Navy's attention. After the Confederate evacuation of Norfolk, the Jamestown was scuttled to block the James River at Drewry's Bluff. In the subsequent Battle of Drewry's Bluff, in which Confederate shore batteries drove off a Union Navy force heading towards Richmond, the Jamestown's guns were considered the main factor in repulsing the enemy ships. Following the battle, he received praise from the Confederate Congress and was promoted to commander. In