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12 A Soldier’s Letter from Shiloh Robert P. Barry, Brevet Major, Sixteenth U.S. Infantry major robert p. barry was born in NewYork City on March 30,1839. His father was Samuel F. Barry, originally of Boston, and his mother was Martha Lewis Peabody,originally from Salem,Massachusetts.Robert Peabody Barry was the youngest son.After education in private preparatory schools,he attended Columbia College. When he first entered the institution it was located at Church Street, between Murray and Barclay, but during the time that he was there the grounds were sold and Park Place was cut through. The college then moved to Madison Avenue and Forty-ninth Street. While at college he became a member of the Delta Psi fraternity, and as a delegate attended a convention held at Raleigh, North Carolina. In his memoir he says, “Here I met members from many states, but what impressed me was the tone of our Southern members. All expressed a sort of dislike for and an enmity to the Union. It struck me as very strange and most unusual, for up to this time I had never heard anything like it.” After the convention he visited friends in South Carolina, and his memoir continues,“It was a very enjoyable visit to me,but I noticed here also the strange views of my host when any remarks were made about the country, how the government was regarded,not as theirs,but as a sort of hostile one.” The memoir further continues, I was at an evening entertainment given by a young friend—a Southern girl— the night the news arrived of the attack on Fort Sumter. Boys crying “Extra” ran along Fifth Avenue; some one went out and bought one and, bringing it into the parlor, read aloud the news of the attack upon the fort by the Southerners. An instantaneous chill fell upon the guests and the party soon broke up. The next day troops were being mustered to go toWashington,and on the Seventh Regiment,New York militia, being called, I volunteered. I hurried home and told my parents and, without my uniform, joined the regiment and left with it for Washington.We mustered at the Tompkins Market, near Eighth Street and Bowery, and marched from there through Broadway to the Jersey City ferry. The houses all along the route, also the pavements, were filled with an excited and cheering crowd. He served as a private in the ranks of the Seventh Regiment during its historic expedition to Washington in 1861, but upon its return to New York he sought a commission in the Regular army,and through the influence of HamilA Soldier’s Letter from Shiloh • 139 04.101-196_Cozz 12/2/03, 8:47 AM 139 140 • part 4: the war in 1862 ton Fish and other influential friends of his family he secured a personal interview with Secretary [of War Simon] Cameron, and received an appointment as captain in the newly organized Sixteenth Regiment of Infantry of the Regular army. He was first detailed upon recruiting duty in a mining territory on Lake Superior, but his regiment was subsequently attached to the Army of the Cumberland and sent to the front. They took the field at Nashville, and it was shortly after this that his regiment participated in the battle of Shiloh, which is described in the accompanying letter. After the battle of Murfreesboro, in which he was wounded, he was placed in an ambulance to be sent to the hospital at Nashville.A part of the wagon train, including his ambulance,was captured by Confederate cavalry,but he and other officers were paroled and ultimately reached Nashville.When he was wounded his sword dropped on the battlefield, where it was subsequently found and, having his name engraved upon the hilt, was sent to the regimental headquarters .While in the hospital at Nashville,his general called upon him and brought him the sword which had been thus recovered from the battlefield. Had it not been for this incident it would undoubtedly have been taken from him at the time of his capture, but through this caprice of fortune it remains a treasured relic in his family today. After his convalescence he was duly exchanged and returned to the front, where he served throughout the Atlanta campaign under Sherman, at times, owing to the scarcity of officers, he being himself in command of the regiment. During his active service in...

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