FAIRFAX C.H. Va. SEP  10 [1861] cds with matching handstamped PAID 5 (ms.) on cover to Mrs. Sarah Barry, Yorkville, South Carolina before her husband, Wm. R. Barry, joined the war effort. CSA Catalog type C, CV $175, slightly reduced at left. Ex John Vagnetti.  $150.

William Randolph Barry (1827-1864) was a Confederate soldier from the York District, S.C. He served in the 1^st SC Infantry Battalion, AKA the Charleston Battalion and Gaillard's, which was organized at Charleston during the spring of 1862. Its six companies contained men from Sumter, Union, and Calhoun Counties. The unit was assigned to the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and served in the Charleston area. On September 30, 1863, the 27^th SC Infantry Regiment was formed at Charleston by consolidating the Charleston Infantry Battalion and the 1^st SC Battalion Sharpshooters. The unit was assigned to General Hagood's Brigade, served at Fort Sumter, then moved to Virginia. There it participated in the conflicts at Drewry’s Bluff and Cold Harbor before taking its place in the Petersburg trenches where Barry met his fate during the Siege of Petersburg at the Battle of the Jerusalem Plank Road 24 June 1864. His body was never found but a memorial was placed at Bethel Presbyterian Church Cemetery, York, SC.  Covers from the correspondence also indicate that he served in the 7^th SC Reserves. While military records found indicate he enlisted as a private, covers indicate that he rose at least to the rank of Lieutenant. The 1860 census lists him as a 33-year-old farmer and his wife Sarah L. (Barber) Barry as age 39 with three children ages 15, 5 and 3. His papers are housed in the SC Historical Society in which he describes battles in great detail, including an eyewitness account of the ironclad attack in Charleston Harbor.