Confederate States Postal History continued...

VERY FINE. A REMARKABLE COVER TO FAMED CONFEDERATE NAVAL COMMANDER, SAMUEL BARRON, AS A PRISONER OF WAR HELD ON GOVERNOR'S ISLAND, NEW YORK.

Samuel Barron left his powerful position as Chief of the Bureau of Detail in the U.S. Navy to offer his services to the Confederacy. He eventually became commander of the naval defenses of Virginia and North Carolina, basing his position at Fort Hatteras. He arrived there the day after the start of a Union bombardment and was forced to surrender the following day, when he was taken prisoner. He was exchanged eleven months later, and served most of the rest of the war in France overseeing the building of blockade-running ships for the Confederacy. According to http://www.rootsweb.co m/~nchyde/FTCLARK2.HTM: "After some hours of negotiation, articles of capitulation were signed aboard Stringham’s flagship, the USS Cumberland. The overall Confederate loss was great, as Barron surrendered some 700 men, 1,000 rifle-muskets and muskets, 31 artillery pieces and two forts...The captured officers and enlisted men of 7th and 10th Regiments were first sent to a military prison on Governor's Island, New York. After about two months, the prisoners were transferred to Fort Warren in Boston harbor...Upon their parole in 1862, the soldiers were returned to North Carolina and those who opted to remain in the Confederate Army were reformed as the 17th Regiment North Carolina Volunteers..." (Image)