A.P. Sperry Collection

1409 WFCHS

Inventory created by Archives Staff 12/1999. Last revised 04/2022.

ACCESS RESTRICTIONS: Collection is open to all researchers.

USE RESTRICTIONS: Restrictions may apply concerning the use, photoduplication, or publication of items in this collection. Consult a member of the archives staff for information concerning these restrictions. The user assumes all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of copyright.

EXTENT:  0.88 linear feet

CREATOR: Sperry, Alexander Perry, 1833-1873

DATE: 1853-1871

SCOPE AND CONTENT: The A. P. Sperry Collection contains a commissary ledger kept by Alexander Perry Sperry during the Civil War with entries dating between September 25, 1862, to October 31, 1862 (with one entry for October 31, 1863). In addition to recording supplies provided to troops stationed in Winchester, Virginia, the ledger contains a mass of supplemental information about different aspects of life in Winchester during the Civil War and the logistics of supplying the Confederate Army. The ledger includes information about Union prisoners, hospitals, wagon trains, foraging efforts, and local sources of supplies. The collection also includes loose materials such as requisition receipts and other records of purchases. Additionally, the ledger holds clippings of Sperry’s published poetry dated 1853-1871, announcements of his wedding to Annie M. Green, and poetry readings which took place after the War in Glaizeview, Va., Baltimore, MD, and Raleigh and Greensboro, NC.

BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL: Alexander Perry Sperry was born in Winchester, Virginia on April 7, 1833, to Peter E. Sperry and Regina Maria Austin. He married Anna Moore Greene (1842-1912) in June 1858. Sperry served as a captain in the Army of the Confederate States of America. After the War, census records from 1870 show that he worked as a salesman at a store in Baltimore where he was living with Peter Sperry (most likely his father), his wife and four children. Sperry died on July 2, 1873, during a business trip to Charlotte, NC.

RELATED MATERIAL: MMF Sperry, Alexander Perry – Ancestors of, 1307-144 THL; Jacob Sperry Family Papers, 817 THL                                 

CITE AS: A. P. Sperry Collection, 1409 WFCHS, Stewart Bell Jr. Archives, Handley Regional Library, Winchester, VA, USA.

ACQUISITION INFORMATION: Acquired as a gift.

ORGANIZATION:

BOX 1

Commissary ledger, kept by A. P. Sperry, September-October 1862, 40 x 25.5 cm., manuscript, leather cover

BOX 2

Sperry, A.P. –Abstract of provisions issued, 1861-1862, unnumbered leaves, manuscript on printed form; manuscript

Sperry, A.P. –provision requisitions and receipts, 1860 and n.d., unnumbered leaves, manuscript on printed form; manuscript

Sperry, A.P. –provision requisitions and receipts, 1861, 3 folders (mixed dates), unnumbered leaves, manuscript on printed form; manuscript

Sperry, A.P. –provision requisitions and receipts, 1862, 2 folders (mixed dates), unnumbered leaves, manuscript on printed form; manuscript

Sperry, A.P.- requisition receipts, 1861, unnumbered leaves, manuscript on printed form; manuscript

Sperry, A.P.-requisition receipts, 1862, unnumbered leaves, manuscript on printed form; manuscript

BOX 3

Provision account book kept by A.P. Sperry, 1861-1862, 1 item bound, manuscript

Provision returns, 1861, 2 folders (mixed dates), unnumbered leaves, manuscript on printed form

Provision returns, 1862, unnumbered leaves, manuscript on printed form

OVERSIZE

MAPCASE 5, DRAWER 14

Sperry, A.P. –Provision returns, July and August 1861, 1 leaf manuscript on printed form, encapsulated