United States Regiments & Batteries > Rhode Island
The 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery, 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.
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1861
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| 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, The battery was equipped with six Thrirteen-pounder James Rifles. |
| July 16-21 | Advance on Manassas, Va. |
| July 21 |
Battle of Bull RunThe battery fought on Matthews Hill. It is referenced on a trailside marker on the Bull Run battlefield. |
| 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 |
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1862
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| 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 | Left the division in the morning by order of Major F. N. Clarke, chief of artillery of the Second Corps, and crossed the Antietam Creek by the bridge on the Williamsport Road. Camped on Hoffman’s farm. |
| September 17 |
Battle of AntietamCommanded by Captain John A. Tompkins, the battery went into position at around 8 a.m. on a knoll on the right (east) side of Hagerstown Pike. It brought 6 10-pounder Parrotts to the field and lost 4 men killed and 15 men wounded. It was engaged for four hours and fired 1,050 rounds – 83 rounds of canister, 68 rounds of solid shot, 427 rounds shell, and 454 rounds of case shot. At noon it was relieved by Rhode Island’s Battery G. Lieutenants Jefferey Hayard and Charles F. Mason were mentioned by Captain Tompkins in his report as having “displayed great coolness during the engagement, and handled their guns with excellent effect.” |
| September 22 | Moved to Harper’s Ferry and duty there. The Parrotts were exchanged for 3″ Ordnance Rifles. |
| 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 |
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1863
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| January-April | Duty at Falmouth |
| April 27-May 6 | Chancellorsville Campaign |
| May 3 |
Maryes Heights, Fredericksburg |
| May 3-4 |
Salem Heights |
| May | Attached to Artillery Brigade, 2nd Army Corps, Army Potomac |
| June 11-July 24 | Gettysburg Campaign. |
| July 1-4 |
Battle of GettysburgThe 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. |
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1864
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| 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 |
Battle of the Wilderness |
| May 8-21 |
Battle of Spotsylvania Court House |
| May 10 | Po River |
| 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 |