5th Maine Light Artillery

Miles Krisman

Sergeant
Joined
Feb 15, 2012
During the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, the 5th Maine Artillery was captured and two of their men were killed, with 16 others wounded. Can anyone tell me the names of the two men killed at Cedar Creek?
 
During the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, the 5th Maine Artillery was captured and two of their men were killed, with 16 others wounded. Can anyone tell me the names of the two men killed at Cedar Creek?
Hope this isn't too late. Jeremiah Murphy (of Augusta) was killed outright. John McKeen (of Patten) died of wounds the next day.
 
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Thank you so much the information.

Would it be possible to provide a source?
I used the HDS site. I got the personnel list for the Maine 5th battery and sorted it on "method out". Those who were killed in action were named along with the battle so it was easy to find Cedar Creek--there was only one (Jeremiah Murphy). Then I found those who were discharged in 1864 and found "John McKeen" ("opened his entry and discovered that he had been wounded at Cedar Creek and died a day later.

Incidentally, the Maine papers were very thorough in printing the names of those killed and (often) those wounded; also men taken prisoner. I found Mr. Murphy many times.
 
I used the HDS site. I got the personnel list for the Maine 5th battery and sorted it on "method out". Those who were killed in action were named along with the battle so it was easy to find Cedar Creek--there was only one (Jeremiah Murphy). Then I found those who were discharged in 1864 and found "John McKeen" ("opened his entry and discovered that he had been wounded at Cedar Creek and died a day later.

Incidentally, the Maine papers were very thorough in printing the names of those killed and (often) those wounded; also men taken prisoner. I found Mr. Murphy many times.
If I recall correctly the 5th Maine was the volunteer battery that Lt. Edmund Kirby was detailed to command during the Battle of Chancellorsville from his assigned Battery I, 1st US, after the 5th's commander (Leppien) was wounded. Kirby was mortally wounded and was to be pronoted to Brig. General but died before the promotion could be confirmed.
 
If I recall correctly the 5th Maine was the volunteer battery that Lt. Edmund Kirby was detailed to command during the Battle of Chancellorsville from his assigned Battery I, 1st US, after the 5th's commander (Leppien) was wounded. Kirby was mortally wounded and was to be pronoted to Brig. General but died before the promotion could be confirmed.
It very well may be. He was with the regular army but doesn't appear on the Maine roster. He did receive a death bed promotion.
 
I used the HDS site. I got the personnel list for the Maine 5th battery and sorted it on "method out". Those who were killed in action were named along with the battle so it was easy to find Cedar Creek--there was only one (Jeremiah Murphy). Then I found those who were discharged in 1864 and found "John McKeen" ("opened his entry and discovered that he had been wounded at Cedar Creek and died a day later.

Incidentally, the Maine papers were very thorough in printing the names of those killed and (often) those wounded; also men taken prisoner. I found Mr. Murphy many times.

For some context as to why I asked, the following is an excerpt from a history I am writing on the 5th Alabama Infantry Regiment:

Battle of Cedar Creek:
After successfully driving off the Yankee line, Battle’s Brigade was halted and formed across the pike and perpendicular to it, to secure it. They were posted about where the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation Headquarters is located currently (2014). Just before the brigade reached this point its gallant commander, General Battle, received a wound while nobly charging the enemy and was borne from the field. Due to Colonel Forsyth of the 3rd​ Alabama being reported sick and absent, General Ramseur placed the next senior officer, Lieutenant Colonel Edwin L. Hobson of the 5th​ Alabama Infantry, in command of the brigade and ordered him to hold it there until he could bring up the rest of the division. Captain Thomas C. Riley took command of the 5th​ Alabama Infantry Regiment. While there on the pike, the brigade was exposed to a withering and accurate shelling from a battery of the enemy which was oblique to the left, from a distant of about three hundred yards. The men behaved with unequalled calmness while those shells were rapidly thinning their ranks, none of them exhibiting any disposition to abandon their places but quietly waiting the order to advance. Grimes’ Brigade was recalled from the left and moved by the right flank through the abandoned camp of the Union VIII Corps, which had been completely routed, faced to the front and advanced to the pike, connecting with Battle’s right. This projection was perfected at about sunrise, the enemy being then in position on a small creek (Meadow Brook) to the left of the pike, with their artillery on a high ridge in the rear, and firing into this line of battle. General Ramseur had skirmishers thrown to the front and to the right, driving the sharpshooters of the enemy from Middletown.

After seeing the Federal line at Belle Grove disintegrate, Union General Wright had pulled his First and Third Divisions back across Meadow Brook and redeployed them on the crest of Red Hill. Captain Greenleaf Steven’s Battery “E”, 5th​ Maine Light Artillery, and the 1st​ Battery, New York Light Artillery, had unlimbered on higher ground to the left and rear of the First Division. It was these batteries that continued to pound the men of Battle’s Brigade on the Valley Pike. General Ramseur soon returned and ordered Lieutenant Colonel Hobson to move the brigade forward about two hundred yards and halt there. After waiting there about a half hour the brigade moved forward changing direction to the left, thereby flanking the battery that had been shelling them. At the command to charge, the men bounded forward with a yell crossing Meadow Brook and in a few moments, they were in the midst of the artillery calling upon the Yankees to surrender. The enemy defended this battery manfully and yielded possession of it only after the 5th​ Alabama and a portion of the 6th​ Alabama Regiment were amongst the guns. Captain Thaddeus C. Belsher of Company H, killed one man and cut down another with his sword while they were attempting to carry off three of the guns. Other Yankees were shot down by the men in the ranks. The men soon captured six guns of the 5th ​Maine Artillery. Besides capturing the six guns, the brigade captured one stand of colors, some prisoners, and several caissons and horses as well. Battle’s Brigade would capture a total of eighteen Union cannon before the day was over!

There is no doubt that the man killed by Captain Thaddeus C. Belsher was Jeremiah Murphy.
 
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