| If this website has been useful to you, please consider
making a Donation.
Your support will help keep this website free for everyone, and will allow us to do
more research. Thank you for your support! |
4th Battery
Massachusetts Light Artillery
in the Civil War
| Regimental History |
| Fourth Battery, Light Artillery. — Capts., Charles H. Manning,
George G. Trull. The total enrolment of this battery was 11 officers, 291 men. Its loss
during service was 1 officer and 1 man killed and 46 by accident or disease. It was
composed chiefly of men from Essex and Middlesex counties, Capt. Manning's artillery
section of Salem forming the nucleus ; it was mustered in, Nov. 18, 1861, and on the 20th
embarked for Ship island, Miss., the rendezvous of Gen. Butler's New Orleans expedition.
It was among the troops present at the surrender of Forts Jackson and St. Philip ;
debarked at New Orleans on May 2, and three days later proceeded to Carrollton, where it
remained until June 16, 1862. On that date one section under Lieut. Taylor reported to
Lieut.-Col. Kimball of the 12th Me., crossed Lake Pontchartrain and went into action at
Pass Manchac, La. The battery as a whole was not engaged until the battle of Baton Rouge,
Aug. 5, 1862, where it lost 1 killed and 5 wounded in addition to many of the horses. It
remained at Baton Rouge until the 21st, when it moved to Carrollton and occupied Camp
Williams. On Oct. 5 one section reported at Algiers, and on the 28th, the rest of the
command moved to Fort Pike, where the health of the men materially improved. Oct. 20,
Capt. Manning resigned, and was succeeded by Lieut. Trull of Nims' battery. The sections
remaining at Fort Pike engaged in several expeditions by water, being engaged without loss
at Bonfouca, Nov. 26, 1862, and again on Dec. 23. While the main portion of the battery
was thus engaged, the other section under Lieut Briggs accompanied Gen. Weitzel's brigade
through the La Fourche district and was sharply engaged at Labadieville. In March, 1863,
the battery, which had been reunited during the winter at New Orleans, was attached to the
3d division, 19th corps, Gen. Emory commanding, and took part in the movement to the rear
of Port Hudson. Later it took part in the siege of that place and after the surrender was
attached to the 3d brigade, 3d division, which returned to Baton Rouge. On Sept. 19 it was
ordered to Brashear City, and reached there on the 23d. With the 3d division, 19th corps,
it engaged in the Bayou Teche expedition, being engaged at Vermilion bayou, Oct. 9, and
again on Nov. 11. At the beginning of 1864, nearly all the members of the battery
reenlisted and were on furlough of 30 days from Feb. 11, 1864. On the return of the men to
New Orleans the battery was quartered at the tobacco warehouse, where it was equipped as
infantry and drilled until the end of June. It was then moved to the Apollo stables,
provided with a light artillery equipment, and on Sept. 5 was transferred to Morganza,
where it took part in an expedition to Bayou Fordoche on the 16th, a section, under Lieut.
Manning, being engaged in a skirmish all the following day as far as the Atchafalaya
river. On Nov. 28 it was transferred to Memphis, Tenn., then encamped at Kennerville, La.,
and near Fort Gaines, Ala., until March 17, when it participated in the operations against
Mobile attached to the 1st division, 13th corps. Mobile was occupied by the Union forces
on April 12, and after a march to Bellrose, the battery was transported to the captured
city on the 15th, remaining there until July 1, when it was ordered to Galveston, Tex.,
and remained in that vicinity until its return to Boston, where it was mustered out, Nov.
10, 1865. |
Footnotes:
Regimental history taken from "The Union Army" by Federal Publishing
Company, 1908 - Volume 1
|
Whats New
Bibliography
About Us
|