Sergeant, Company E, 88th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Enlisted and mustered in on April 30, 1861, Company B, 20th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment as a Private. Mustered out on August 6, 1861. Enlisted and mustered In on August 30, 1861, Company D, 88th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment as a Private. Promoted to 1st Sergeant. Transferred to Company E on January 31 1862. Wounded in left leg, with partial paralysis, during the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863; Discharged on Surgeon's Certificate, September 17, 1864 at expiration of term.

"Case 854. — Sergeant C. Barber, Co. E, 88th Pennsylvania, aged 30 years, received a shot fracture of the fibula of the left leg, at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863. From a First Corps field hospital he passed to York and subsequently to Philadelphia. Acting Assistant Surgeon M. K. Knorr recorded the following description of the case at the South Street Hospital, where the patient was admitted August 14th: "The wound was caused by a minie ball passing in above the external malleolus, fracturing the bone, and passing through the interosseous space. About August 20th hospital gangrene set in and the wound filled with large sloughs; patient became very weak. Stimulating poultices of yeast and flaxseed were then used, and pulverized persulphate of iron was applied to the slough. After three applications the patient appeared much better and the slough came off. Poultices were now continued for a while, and afterwards stimulating applications. Still the wound was not healing, the discharge being yet great and the patient's constitutional state extremely low and weak. On examination Surgeon C. N. Chamberlain, U. S. V., found the bone to be necrosed and denuded of periosteum, and concluded to excise the fibula. This operation was accordingly performed on December 19th, it being deemed necessary to remove three-fourths of the length of the bone, including the external malleolus. The patient rallied from the operation and made rapid improvement. Tonics and stimulants were given and simple dressings used." Surgeon H. Janes, U. S. V., subsequently in charge of South Street Hospital, reported, in April, 1864, that the wound had healed with the exception of the upper part, where a small sinus still existed. The patient was afterwards transferred to Filbert Street Hospital, and on September 17, 1864, he was discharged from service and pensioned. Examining Surgeon H. L. Hodge, of Philadelphia, certified, December 21, 1864: "The limb is now much swollen, the ankle is painful and the foot turned outward. He is very lame and the limb is useless." The Philadelphia Examining Board, April 10, 1872, certified to the injury and operation and described the result as follows: "A long cicatrix with musculofascial adhesions; a slight varicose condition with tenderness about the ankle joint, and anchylosis of the ankle joint with atrophy of muscles years on posterior portion of leg. Increase of pension is recommended on account of increased pain and firmness of anchylosis of the ankle joint." In a communication dated April 18, 1881, accompanying the photographs represented in the annexed wood-cuts (Figs. 336, 337), the pensioner stated that " the ankle is very painful at present," and added that his disability had obliged him to give up working at his trade of stone cutter." -- The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Part III, Volume II. (3rd Surgical volume) by U. S. Army Surgeon General's Office, 1883.

1890 Veterans Schedule show he served in Co. B, 20th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry from April 26, 1861 until August 6, 1861. Also shows his wound was to his ankle on July 1, 1863 at Gettysburg

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Death Certificates Index, 1803-1915 about Charles Barber

Name: Charles Barber

Birth Date: abt 1833

Birth Place: Phila

Death Date: 30 Jan 1909

Death Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Age at Death: 76

Burial Date: 2 Feb 1909

Gender: Male

Race: White

Occupation: Gent

Marital Status: Widowed

Father: Barber

Mother: Mary E Logan

FHL Film Number: 1405062

BARBER – On January 30, 1909 CHARLES, husband of the late Mary E Barber aged 76 years. Relatives and friends, also members of the 88th Pennsylvania Association, Post 94 G.A.R. Encapment. No 2 U.V.L. are invited to attend the funeral services on Tuesday February 2 at 1 P.M. precisely at Parlor of John E. Stiles & Sons, 1417 East Susquehanna Ave. Interment private at Fernwood Cemetery.

Monday, February 1, 1909 Philadelphia Inquirer