CS Con Barry, William Taylor Sullivan - C.S. Delegate, MS

William Taylor Sullivan Barry:​

Born: December 10, 1821

Birthplace: Columbus Mississippi
Father: Major Richard B. Barry 1788 – 1869
(Buried: Friendship Cemetery Columbus Mississippi)
Mother: Mary Sullivan 1795 – 1863
(Buried: Friendship Cemetery Columbus Mississippi)

Wife: Sarah Fearn 1824 – 1895
(Buried: Friendship Cemetery Columbus Mississippi)


Political Party: Democratic Party


Education:
1841: Graduated from Yale College

Occupation before War:
1844 – 1853: Attorney and Planter in Columbus Mississippi
1849 – 1851: Mississippi State Representative

1853 – 1855: United States Congressman from Mississippi
1853 – 1855: Member of House District of Columbia Committee
1855: Speaker and Mississippi State Representative
1855 – 1861: Attorney and Planter in Columbus Mississippi
Owner of plantations in Oktibbeha and Sunflower Counties
1860: Withdrew from Democratic Party National Convention

Civil War Career:
1861: President of Mississippi State Secession Convention
1861 – 1862: Mississippi Delegate Confederate Provisional Congress
He was an advocate for reopening the African Slave Trade
He advocated giving the president unlimited power to raise volunteers for the army.
He advocated the nonrecognition of United States patents.
Advocated complete commercial independence of the Confederacy.
1862: Choose not to seek a term to the regular Confederate Congress.
1862 – 1865: Colonel of 35th​ Mississippi Infantry Regiment
1863: Captured and paroled at Vicksburg Mississippi
1864: Shot thru the lung at Allatoona Georgia
1865: Captured at Fort Blakely and exchanged on May 1st​
1865: Paroled at Meridian Mississippi on May 9th​

Occupation after War:
1865 – 1868: Attorney in Columbus Mississippi

Died: January 29, 1868
Place of Death: Columbus Mississippi
Age at time of Death: 46 years old
Burial Place: Friendship Cemetery Columbus Mississippi

 

[Pollaco]

In addition to his own Regiment Barry sometimes led the ill Gen. Sears' brigade during the Atlanta Campaign.

 

[Luke Freet]

Barry led the brigade during the middle stage of the Atlanta Campaign. I forget if Sears was ill or wounded, but Barry was in command during the July battles.

 

[danny]

5/23/62 Corinth, Hqs Western Dept, S O #67 [68] Col Barry's 35th​ Ms is assigned to the Army of the West

5/24/62 S O #97
-Listing officers newly elected, confirmed & now appointed [including following]
35th Ms Col Barry cdg, is assigned to Col J C Moore's Bgde

9/28/62 The 2nd​ Tex joins up with Van Dorn at Ripley-This combined Army now numbers about 20,000 men. Gen Moore's Bgde is part of Maury's Div, which also consists of Bgdes led by Gen'ls Phifer & Cabell.
Moore's Bgde consists of:
2nd Tex Col Rogers
42nd Ala Col Portis
15th Ark Lt Col Boone
23rd Ark Lt Col Pennington
35th Ms Col Barry
Bledsoe's Btry


10/15/62 in a letter home to Rachel, just ten days after the battle at Davis Bridge, Isham [42nd​ Ala] wrote that he was six miles below Holley Springs…

It is impossible at present to make an accurate report of the killed, wounded, & missing in battle, as the 35th​ Ms dispersed after the fight at Davis' Bridge, there being now present but some 40 men & 1 line officer-Lt Henry. From the best information we can obtain we are assured that many of the officers & men have gone to their homes. This conduct on their part is astonishing & unaccountable, for the Regt acted nobly & did good service during the three days' fighting. It is to be regretted that its commander, Col Barry, was not present on the 5th, he having been sent to Corinth under a flag of truce to bury the dead. He is a gallant & efficient officer, of whom his State may well be proud.

10/10/62 Maury's Div Hqs, Camp on Tippah-…

Maury writes-When Van Dorn, after the battle, detailed a party under Col Barry to bury our dead, Rosecrans courteously replied that "he could not admit them within his works, for reasons which Gen Van Dorn could appreciate, but that the latter might rest assured that all possible care would be bestowed upon the wounded & all respect showed the dead, especially those who fell so bravely as the men of Maury's Div."
Rosecrans was a great soldier & a generous gentleman. He had been my instructor at West Point, & our relations had always been of a very cordial nature. After the battle, he sent me a message through one of my most gallant Btry captains, Tobin, who was captured that day, bidding him, "Tell Maury, with my regards, I never used to think when I taught him, a little, curly-headed boy at West Point, that he would ever trouble me as he has today." Rosecrans buried Col Rogers of the 2nd Tex, which led the assault, with the honors of war, & marked & enclosed his grave.