Henry W. Barry (April 1840 – June 7, 1875) was a Union army officer during the American Civil War, reaching the rank of Brevet Brigadier General.

[1] He was commissioned Colonel of the 1st Regiment Kentucky Heavy Artillery, African Descent on April 28, 1864, when it was organized at Paducah.

Stationed to defend Kentucky, Barry and his men took part in the skirmishes of Haddix's Ferry and Smithland.

[1] Barry was promoted to Brevet Brigadier General in the wave of mass actions of March 13, 1865 in the closing days of the war.

[2] During that period, he was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department (Forty-second and Forty-third Congresses).

[3] After most blacks were disenfranchised across the South due to states' imposing barriers to voter registration, no African Americans received appointments to the Naval Academy for more than six decades.