The Civil War in the East

1st Rhode Island Light Artillery, Battery A

Rhode Island's Battery A lost 1 officer and 12 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded and 5 enlisted men to disease during the Civil War.

 

It is honored by a monument at Gettysburg (right).

Monument to Rhode Island's Battery A at Gettysburg

1861

 

Organized at Providence

June 6

Mustered in under Captain William H. Reynolds

June 19

Left State for Washington, D.C. Duty in the Defenses of Washington, D.C. attached to Burnside's Brigade, Hunter's Division, McDowell's Army of Northeast Virginia

July 16-21

Advance on Manassas, Va.

July 21

Battle of Bull Run

July 28

Moved to Sandy Hook, Md. and duty there and at Berlin and Darnestown

August

Assigned to Dept. of the Shenandoah

September 16

Moved to Harper's Ferry

October 16

Action at Bolivar Heights attached to Banks' Division, Army of the Potomac

1862

October-March

At Muddy Branch and Poolesville, Md.

March 22-April 1

Moved to Washington, then to Hampton, Va. attached to Artillery, 2nd Division, 2nd Army Corps, Army of the Potomac

April - August

Virginia Peninsula Campaign

April 5-May 4

Siege of Yorktown

May 31-June 1

Battle of Fair Oaks (Seven Pines)

June 25-July 1

Seven days before Richmond

June 29

Peach Orchard and Savage Station

June 30

Charles City Cross Roads and Glendale

July 1

Malvern Hill

July-August

At Harrison's Landing

August 16-28

Movement to Alexandria

August 28-31

March to Fairfax C. H.

August 31-September 1

Cover retreat of Pope's Army from Bull Run to Washington

September

Maryland Campaign

September 14

Battle of South Mountain

September 16-17

Antietam

September 22

Moved to Harper's Ferry and duty there

October 16-17

Reconnaissance to Charlestown

October 16

Action at Charlestown

October 30-November 17

Advance up Loudoun Valley and movement to Falmouth, Va.

December 11-15

Battle of Fredericksburg

1863

January-April

Duty at Falmouth

April 27-May 6

Chancellorsville Campaign

May 3

Maryes Heights, Fredericksburg

May 3-4

Salem Heights

June 11-July 24

Gettysburg Campaign. Attached to Artillery Brigade, 2nd Army Corps, Army Potomac

July 1-4

Battle of Gettysburg

The battery was commanded by Captain William A. Arnold and brought to the field 139 men serving six 3" Ordnance Rifles. It fought on Cemetery Ridge on both July 2nd and 3rd in its position just to the north of the Angle. During the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble attack on July 3rd it fired all its ammunition, its last shot double-shotted canister into Confederate attackers only a few yards away.

 

From the monument: "July 2nd & 3rd, 1863. 4 killed, 24 wounded."

 

Three men were killed or mortally wounded by shellfire during the bombardment preceding the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble attack on July 3rd. Simon Creamer was mortally wounded with severe shell fragment injury to the head by the explosion that wrecked a gun in the Battery Left Section. John Zimla, acting No. 1 on the No. 6 gun, lost his head in another explosion, and John Higgins, a driver, was mortally wounded with his arm and shoulder torn off by another. The fourth mortal injury was Patrick Lannegan, lead driver, who was mortally wounded by a shot in the stomach.

 

The wounded were Lieutenant Jacob Lamb, Sergeant Benjamin H. Child, Corporals Wesley B. Calder, Edward Shaw, and Corporal Oliver S. Oaks; Privates Charles Cargill, John S. Chapman, Horace M. Curtis, William Dawson, Eugene Googin, Michael Grady, Gilbert F. Harrison, George Hathaway, Michael Markey, Emerson Middleton, Edward Morrissey, Charles Stopple, Morris Torndorf and George A. Wellman. Two other men were missing and presumed dead, and seven men were slightly wounded.

 

In addition to the gun that was wrecked, two limbers were damaged. Thirty horses died of wounds or fatigue.

September 13-17

Advance from the Rappahannock to the Rapidan

October 9-22

Bristoe Campaign

October 14

Bristoe Station and Auburn Heights

November 7-8

Advance to line of the Rappahannock

November 26-December 2

Mine Run Campaign

December

At Stevensburg, Va.

1864

February 6-7

Demonstration on the Rapidan

February 6-7

Morton's Ford

May-June

Campaign from the Rapidan to the James

May 5-7

Battles of the Wilderness

May 8-12

Spotsylvania

May 10

Po River

May 12-21

Spotsylvania C. H.

May 12

Assault on the Salient

May 23-26

North Anna River

May 26-28

Line of the Pamunkey

May 28-31

Totopotomoy

May 31

Shallow Creek

June 1-12

Cold Harbor

June 16-18

Before Petersburg; Siege of Petersburg begins

June 18

Non-Veterans mustered out

June 21-23

Jerusalem Plank Road

July 27-28

Deep Bottom

July 30

Mine Explosion, Petersburg (Reserve)

August 14-18

Strawberry Plains, Deep Bottom

August 25

Ream's Station

September 30

Transferred to Battery B, 1st Rhode Island Artillery