Artillery is a class of heavy military weapons built to fire munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry's small arms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls, and fortifications during sieges, and led to heavy, fairly immobile siege engines. As technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery cannons developed for battlefield use. This development continues today; modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility providing the large share of an army's total firepower.
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of artillery, mortars, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface to surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles etc., so grouped to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems. The term is also used in a naval context to describe groups of guns on warships.
During the American Civil War, the Union Army referred to the United States Army, the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. Also known as the Federal Army, it proved essential to the preservation of the United States of America as a working, viable republic.
The battery was organized at Camp Olden in Trenton, New Jersey and mustered in for a three-year enlistment on September 3, 1861 under the command of Captain John E. Beam.
Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. it briefly served as the capital of the United States in 1784. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with the New York metropolitan area by the United States Census Bureau, but it directly borders the Philadelphia metropolitan area and is part of the Philadelphia Combined Statistical Area and the Federal Communications Commission's Philadelphia Designated Market Area. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913, making it the state's tenth most populous municipality. The Census Bureau estimated that the city's population was 84,034 in 2014.
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Northeastern United States. It is a peninsula, bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, particularly along the extent of the length of New York City on its western edge; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware River and Pennsylvania; and on the southwest by the Delaware Bay and Delaware. New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state by area but the 11th-most populous, with 9 million residents as of 2017, and the most densely populated of the 50 U.S. states; its biggest city is Newark. New Jersey lies completely within the combined statistical areas of New York City and Philadelphia and was the second-wealthiest U.S. state by median household income as of 2017.
In the United States Army (USA), U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), and U.S. Air Force (USAF), captain is a company grade officer rank, with the pay grade of O-3. It ranks above first lieutenant and below major. It is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the Navy/Coast Guard officer rank system. The insignia for the rank consists of two silver bars, with slight stylized differences between the Army/Air Force version and the Marine Corps version.
The battery was attached to Hamilton's Division, Defenses of Washington, to March 1862. Artillery, 3rd Division, III Corps, Army of the Potomac, to June 1862. Artillery Reserve, III Corps, to August 1862. Artillery, 2nd Division, III Corps, to January 1863. Artillery, 1st Division, III Corps, to May 1863. Artillery Brigade, III Corps, to March 1864. 2nd Volunteer Brigade, Artillery Reserve, Army of the Potomac, to May 1864. Artillery Brigade, II Corps, to June 1865.
There were four formations in the Union Army designated as III Corps during the American Civil War.
The Army of the Potomac was the principal Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in May 1865 following the surrender of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in April.
There were five corps in the Union Army designated as II Corps during the American Civil War. These formations were the Army of the Cumberland II Corps commanded by Thomas L. Crittenden from October 24, 1862, to November 5, 1862, later renumbered XXI Corps; the Army of the Mississippi II corps led by William T. Sherman from January 4, 1863, to January 12, 1863, renumbered XV Corps; Army of the Ohio II Corps commanded by Thomas L. Crittenden from September 29, 1862, to October 24, 1862, transferred to Army of the Cumberland; Army of Virginia II Corps led by Nathaniel P. Banks from June 26, 1862, to September 4, 1862, and Alpheus S. Williams from September 4, 1862, to September 12, 1862, renumbered XII Corps; and the Army of the Potomac II Corps from March 13, 1862, to June 28, 1865.
Battery B, 1st New Jersey Light Artillery mustered out of service June 16, 1865.
Detailed service
Left New Jersey for Washington, D.C., October 22, 1861. Duty in the defenses of Washington, D.C., until March 1862. Ordered to the Virginia Peninsula March 1862. Siege of Yorktown, Va., April 5-May 4. Battle of Williamsburg May 5. Battle of Fair Oaks May 31-June 1. Action at Fair Oaks Station June 21. Seven Days before Richmond June 25-July 1. Battles of Oak Grove, Seven Pines, June 25. Peach Orchard and Savage Station June 29. White Oak Swamp and Glendale June 30. Malvern Hill July 1. At Harrison's Landing until August 16. Moved to Washington, D.C., and duty in the defenses of that city until November. Operations on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad November 10–12. Near Falmouth, Va., November 28-December 11. Battle of Fredericksburg, Va., December 12–15. At Falmouth until April 27, 1863. "Mud March" January 20–24. Operations at Rappahannock Bridge and Grove Church February 5–7. Chancellorsville Campaign April 27-May 6. Battle of Chancellorsville May 1–5. Gettysburg Campaign June 11-July 24. Battle of Gettysburg July 1–3. Pursuit of Lee to Manassas Gap, Va., July 5–24. South Mountain, Md., July 12. Wapping Heights, Manassas Gap, Va., July 23. Near Warrenton, Va., until October. Bristoe Campaign October 9–22. Auburn and Bristoe October 14. Advance to line of the Rappahannock November 7–8. Kelly's Ford November 7. Brandy Station November 8. Mine Run Campaign November 26-December 2. At and near Stevensburg until May 1864. Campaign from the Rapidan to the James May 3-June 15. Battle of the Wilderness May 5–7. Spotsylvania May 8–12. Spotsylvania Court House May 12–21. Assault on the Salient ("Bloody Angle") May 12. Harris Farm (or Fredericksburg Road) May 19. North Anna River May 23–26. On line of the Pamunkey May 26–28. Totopotomoy May 28–31. Cold Harbor June 1–12. Before Petersburg June 16–18. Siege of Petersburg June 16, 1864 to April 2, 1865. Jerusalem Plank Road June 22–23, 1864. Demonstration north of the James River August 13–20. Strawberry Plains August 14–18. Russell's Mills August 18. Ream's Station August 25. Watkins' House March 25. Appomattox Campaign March 28-April 9. Hatcher's Run March 29–31. Boydton Road, Fall of Petersburg, April 2. Sutherland Station April 2. Sailor's Creek April 6, Farmville April 6–7. Appomattox Court House April 9. Surrender of Lee and his army. Moved to Washington, D.C., May. Grand Review of the Armies May 23.
The Grand Review of the Armies was a military procession and celebration in the national capital city of Washington, D.C., on May 23 and May 24, 1865, following the close of the American Civil War (1861-1865). Elements of the Union Army in the United States Army paraded through the streets of the capital to receive accolades from the crowds and reviewing politicians, officials, and prominent citizens, including U.S. President Andrew Johnson, one month after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Casualties
The battery lost a total of 32 men during service; 1 officer and 8 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 23 enlisted men died of disease.
Commanders
Captain John E. Beam - killed in action at the Battle of Malvern Hill
1st New Hampshire Light Artillery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Battery E, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Battery A, 1st New Jersey Light Artillery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Battery G, 1st New York Light Artillery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
11th New York Light Artillery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Battery F, 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery was a light artillery battery that served in the Union Army as part of the Pennsylvania Reserves infantry division during the American Civil War.
Battery "K" 4th Regiment of Artillery was a light artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Battery L, 1st New York Light Artillery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Battery "B", 4th Regiment of Artillery was a light artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Battery B, 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery was a light artillery battery that served in the Union Army as part of the Pennsylvania Reserves infantry division during the American Civil War.
Battery B, 1st New York Light Artillery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Battery "C" 4th Regiment of Artillery was a light artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Battery "A" 4th Regiment of Artillery was a light artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
3rd New York Independent Light Artillery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Battery "G" 2nd Regiment of Artillery was a light artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The 3rd Massachusetts Light Artillery, was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Battery "D" 5th Regiment of Artillery was a light artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Battery C, 1st New York Light Artillery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
5th New York Independent Light Artillery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Battery "K" 1st Regiment of Artillery was a light artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
References
Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Des Moines, IA: Dyer Pub. Co.), 1908.
Hanifen, Michael. History of Battery B, First New Jersey Artillery (Ottawa, IL: Republican-Times, Printers), 1905.
Attribution
This article contains text from a text now in the public domain: Dyer, Frederick H. (1908). A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. Des Moines, IA: Dyer Publishing Co.
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