Francis S. Bartow was a licensed attorney turned politician, who served two terms in the United States House of Representatives and became a political leader of the Confederate States of America. Bartow was also a colonel in the Georgia Militia commanding the 21st Oglethorpe Light Infantry during the early months of the American Civil War. Bartow was a delegate from Georgia's 1st congressional district to the Southern Convention in Montgomery, Alabama becoming an inaugurating member of the Confederate Provisional Congress—leading efforts to prepare local forces in the aftermath of secession, protracting into The American Civil War of 1861–65.

Bartow is a town in Jefferson County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 186. Initially the town was known as "Spier's Turnout", but was changed to honor the first Confederate officer to die in battle, Colonel Francis S. Bartow of Savannah, Georgia, who was killed at the Battle of Manassas, Virginia on July 21, 1861.