United States Regiments & Batteries > New York > Artillery & Engineers
“Empire Battery”
Battery B lost 16 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded and 10 enlisted men to disease during the Civil War. It is honored by a monument at Gettysburg.
See two photographs of Battery B.
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1861
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| Organized at Elmira, N.Y. | |
| August 30 | Mustered in under Captain Rufus D. Pettit |
| October 21 | Albert S. Sheldon was mustered in as first lieutenant |
| October 31 | Left State for Washington, D.C. and duty in the Defenses of that city attached to Sumner’s Division, Army of the Potomac |
| November 12 | Second Lieutenant Robert Rogers transferred in from Busteed’s Battery |
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1862
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| March 10-15 | Advance on Manassas, Va. attached to Artillery, 1st Division, 2nd Army Corps, Army of the Potomac |
| March | Moved to the Peninsula, Va. |
| April 5-May 4 | Siege of Yorktown |
| May | Attached to Artillery Brigade, 2nd Army Corps |
| May 31-June 1 | Battle of Seven Pines or Fair Oaks |
| June 25 | Oak Grove, near Fair Oaks |
| June 25-July 1 | Seven days before Richmond |
| June 27 | Battles of Gaines’ Mills |
| June 29 | Peach Orchard and Savage Station |
| June 30 | White Oak Swamp Bridge and Glendale |
| July 1 | Malvern Hill |
| July-August | At Harrison’s Landing |
| August 16-30 | Movement to Alexandria, thence to Centreville |
| September 1 | Near Centreville |
| September 2 | Germantown Road |
| September 15 | Arrived at the heights near Sharpsburg around 11 a.m. Engaged the enemy’s batteries until night, firing 400 rounds without loss. |
| September 16 | Relieved by a battery of 20-pounder Parrotts and moved a short distance to the rear. Was under enemy artillery fire for four hours, having one man wounded. Ordered to cross Antietam Creek and took up position in battery on a hill. |
| September 17 |
Battle of AntietamOrdered forward at the beginning of of the fighting. Private Nicholas House was killed by a ball while going into battery and was buried on the field. |
| September 18 | At dawn was ordered to take position on the left of Hancock’s Division, under fire of sharpshooters. |
| September 22 | Duty at Harper’s Ferry |
| October 16-17 | Reconnaissance to Charlestown |
| October 20- November 17 |
Advance up Loudoun Valley and movement to Falmouth, Va. |
| November 2 | Snicker’s Gap |
| November 17 | Falmouth |
| December 12-15 |
Battle of Fredericksburg |
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1863
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| January-April | Duty at Falmouth |
| January 20-24 | “Mud March” |
| April 27-May 6 | Chancellorsville Campaign |
| May 1-5 |
Battle of ChancellorsvilleSeargeant Charles Gates and Privates Robert Donahue and Bernard McBride were wounded. Donahue reportedly drowned in the Delaware River during his stay in a hospital in Philadelphia |
| May | Attached to 1st Volunteer Brigade, Artillery Reserve, Army of the Potomac |
| May 1 | Sergeant Joseph Slauson promoted to second lieutenant |
| May 15 | First Lieutenant Edward Underhill transferred from Battery A |
| May 30 | Captain Petit resigned due to health, leaving Lieutenant Albert S. Sheldon in command. |
| June | Attached to Artillery Brigade, 2nd Army Corps |
| July 1-3 |
Battle of GettysburgBattery B brought 114 men to the field serving four 10-pounder Parrott Rifles. It was commanded from July 2-3 by Captain James McKay Rorty. Rorty had been Second Corps Ordnance Officer, but had persuaded General Hancock to give him a combat command for the battle, and he took over Battery B from Lieutenant Sheldon on July 2nd, probably in the afternoon before Longstreet’s assault. On Juy 2 the battery fought near the Wheatfield before being withdrawn to the line of batteries set up by Lt. Colonel Freeman McGilvery along Plum Run. It lost one man killed and eight wounded, as well as 13 horses killed or disabled. On July 3 the battery was placed on Cemetery Ridge just south of the Copse of Trees – directly in the path of Pickett’s Charge. The intense bombardment before the charge disabled three of the four cannon of the battery, blowing one from its carriage. Captain Rorty dropped his sword belt and coat and grabbed a sponge staff to help work the remaining gun. He shouted a desperate plea to Colonel Arthur Devereau of the nearby 19th Massachusetts Infantry for a dozen men to help work his guns, and was rewarded with a score of volunteers. Lieutenant Moses Shackley risked his life to fill a sponge bucket from a nearby spring to keep the gun firing. Captain Rorty was killed and Lieutenant Sheldon wounded as the final charge of Confederate Brigadier General James Kemper’s Virginians swept up and over the battery. Sergeant Lewis Darveau shot a Confederate captain who had placed his colors on one of the guns, brained him with a handspike, and was in turn shot down. Captain Rorty, Sergeant Darveau, Privates John Barry, Michael Halloran, Patrick Kelley, Amos Maynard, Charles Radue, Henry Rosegrant, Napoleon Twitchell were killed or mortally wounded and 16 men were wounded. Lieutenant Robert E. Rogers then took over the battery. |
| July | Attached to 2nd Volunteer Brigade, Artillery Brigade, Army of the Potomac, |
| August 10 | Lieutenant Sheldon promoted to captain |
| October 9-22 | Bristoe Campaign |
| November 7-8 | Advance to line of the Rappahannock |
| November 26-December 2 | Mine Run Campaign. Attached to Artillery Reserve, Army of the Potomac |
| December 2 | Sergeant De Witt Perine promoted to second lieutenant |
| December 13 | Sergeant John Gibson transferred from Battrey H and promoted to second lieutenant |
| December 15 | Second Lieutenant Joseph Slauson promoted to first lieutenant |
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1864
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| January | Attached to 1st Brigade, Artillery Reserve, Army of the Potomac |
| March | Attached to 2nd Brigade, Artillery Reserve, Army of the Potomac |
| May 3-June 15 | Campaign from the Rapidan to the James |
| May 5-7 |
Battle of the Wilderness |
| May 8-12 | Laurel Hill May 8; Spottsylvania |
| May 9 | Lieutenant Rogers transferred to Battery C |
| May 12-21 |
Battle of Spotsylvania Court House |
| May 16 | Attached to Artillery Brigade, 5th Army Corps, Army of the Potomac |
| May 23 | Jericho Mills |
| May 26-28 | On line of the Pamunkey |
| May 28-31 | Totopotomoy |
| June 1-12 |
Cold Harbor |
| June 1-3 |
Bethesda ChurchCaptain Albert Sheldon and Privates James O’Hara and James Wheeler were wounded, Wheeler mortally. |
| June 16-18 |
First Assault on PetersburgSiege of Petersburg begins |
| July 30 | Mine Explosion, Petersburg (Reserve) |
| August 18-21 |
Weldon RailroadCorporal Daniel Rodgers was mortally wounded and Prinate Alonzo Ketcham was killed. Corporal Rogers died of his wounds on August 30 in Washington. |
| September 29- October 2 |
Poplar Grove Church, Peeble’s Farm |
| September 21 | First Lieutenant Joseph Slauson discharged |
| October 18 | First Lieutenant Edward Underhill transferred to Battery M and prmomoted to captain |
| October 27-28 | Boydton Plank Road, Hatcher’s Run |
| October 31 | Second Lieutenant John Gibson promoted to first lieutenant |
| November 28 | First Lieutenant Gibson discharged, end of term of service |
| December 13 | Private Charles Rooney promoted to second lieutenant |
| December 16 | Captain Albert Sheldon discharged for disability for his wound from Bethesda Church |
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1865
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| March 9 | Second Lieutenant Darius Chapin transferred from Battery L and promoted to first lieutenant |
| March 28-April 9 | Appomattox Campaign |
| March 31 | White Oak Road |
| April 1 |
Battle of Five Forks |
| April 2 | Fall of Petersburg |
| April 3-9 | Pursuit of Lee |
| April 9 |
Appomattox Court HouseSurrender of Lee and his army. |
| April 22 | Second Lieutenant Charles Rooney promoted to first lieutenant and Sergeant John Cunningham to second lieutenant |
| May | Moved to Washington, D. C. |
| May 23 | Grand Review |
| June 3 | Second Lieutenant James Decker transferred from Battery F |
| June 18 | Mustered out under First Lieutenant Charles Rooney |