Question on horse artillery

[Jabby76]

Hi all!

Does anybody know of a list of both Union and Confederate artillery that served only and specifically as horse artillery during the war? I'm needing accurate details for a project that I'm working on.

Many thanks in advance

 

[James Brenner]

While I can't answer your question, I may be able to provide a few leads. Generally speaking, many horse artillery units were regular army. A search of the Official Records (OR) would likely identify which ones. Similarly, since horse artillery accompanied the cavalry, checking the order of battle listings - also in the OR - would seem promising. The bibliography in Robert Trout's, Galloping Thunder (Mechanicsburg: Stackpole, 2002) will probably also give you some leads, particularly for Confederate horse artillery.

I hope this helps a bit.

 

[Stryker65]

Ah, this is my field of expertise!
Confederate:
- The Stuart Horse Artillery were the most famous horse artillery units of either side during the war.
- Graham's Petersburg(VA) Horse Artillery
- McClanahan's Staunton(VA) Horse Artillery
- Jackson's Charlottesville(VA) Horse Artillery
- Lurty's Roanoke(VA) Horse Artillery
- Shoemaker's Lynchburg(VA) Horse Artillery
- Thomson's Ashby (VA) Horse Artillery
- Hart's SC Battery
- Pillow Flying Artillery
- The Twelfth Texas Field Battery (aka the Valverde Battery).
- Wheeler's Horse Artillery:
- Huwald's Tennessee Battery
- Wiggins' Arkansas Battery
- White's Tennessee Battery
- Forrest's Horse Artillery:
- Morton's Tennessee Battery
- Pettus Flying Artillery
- Clanton's Alabama Battery
- Tobin's Tennessee Battery
Union:
- 24th Indiana Battery
- Chicago Board of Trade Battery
- A, BL, D, and M, 2nd USA
- CFK, 3rd USA

I think I may be missing some, so I might add later. Some of these I might be wrong, but i am pretty sure about these...

 

[Belfoured]

While I can't answer your question, I may be able to provide a few leads. Generally speaking, many horse artillery units were regular army. A search of the Official Records (OR) would likely identify which ones. Similarly, since horse artillery accompanied the cavalry, checking the order of battle listings - also in the OR - would seem promising. The bibliography in Robert Trout's, Galloping Thunder (Mechanicsburg: Stackpole, 2002) will probably also give you some leads, particularly for Confederate horse artillery.

I hope this helps a bit.

On the Federal side the only State units that were horse artillery and that I know of were the 9th Michigan, 6th NY Independent, and H, 3rd PA - but anything is possible, and someone else may know of such. I've never looked into whether all those units were true horse artillery but have assumed they were based on their assignment to the horse artillery. The rest were from the regular regiments. The Army of the Potomac had horse artillery brigades throughout the war so accessing OOB for campaigns/ battles should provide that.

For the "western" Union armies, it's not that easy. For example, the Army of the Cumberland assigned individual batteries to some of its cavalry brigades. How many of those were true horse artillery, or so-called "flying batteries", requires a look at each unit.

 

[Jabby76]

While I can't answer your question, I may be able to provide a few leads. Generally speaking, many horse artillery units were regular army. A search of the Official Records (OR) would likely identify which ones. Similarly, since horse artillery accompanied the cavalry, checking the order of battle listings - also in the OR - would seem promising. The bibliography in Robert Trout's, Galloping Thunder (Mechanicsburg: Stackpole, 2002) will probably also give you some leads, particularly for Confederate horse artillery.

I hope this helps a bit.

It does, thank you very much. Every bit of info I can glean from somewhere helps a great deal as it's often tough work to make heads or tails of it all. Again, thank you

 

[Jabby76]

Ah, this is my field of expertise!
Confederate:
- The Stuart Horse Artillery were the most famous horse artillery units of either side during the war.
- Graham's Petersburg(VA) Horse Artillery
- McClanahan's Staunton(VA) Horse Artillery
- Jackson's Charlottesville(VA) Horse Artillery
- Lurty's Roanoke(VA) Horse Artillery
- Shoemaker's Lynchburg(VA) Horse Artillery
- Thomson's Ashby (VA) Horse Artillery
- Hart's SC Battery
- Pillow Flying Artillery
- The Twelfth Texas Field Battery (aka the Valverde Battery).
- Wheeler's Horse Artillery:
- Huwald's Tennessee Battery
- Wiggins' Arkansas Battery
- White's Tennessee Battery
- Forrest's Horse Artillery:
- Morton's Tennessee Battery
- Pettus Flying Artillery
- Clanton's Alabama Battery
- Tobin's Tennessee Battery
Union:
- 24th Indiana Battery
- Chicago Board of Trade Battery
- A, BL, D, and M, 2nd USA
- CFK, 3rd USA

I think I may be missing some, so I might add later. Some of these I might be wrong, but i am pretty sure about these...

This is invaluable, thank you. Most of these units I already have marked down but not as horse artillery and the distinction is precisely what I was after. Anything you can find is of great use

 

[Jabby76]

On the Federal side the only State units that were horse artillery and that I know of were the 9th Michigan, 6th NY Independent, and H, 3rd PA - but anything is possible, and someone else may know of such. I've never looked into whether all those units were true horse artillery but have assumed they were based on their assignment to the horse artillery. The rest were from the regular regiments. The Army of the Potomac had horse artillery brigades throughout the war so accessing OOB for campaigns/ battles should provide that.

For the "western" Union armies, it's not that easy. For example, the Army of the Cumberland assigned individual batteries to some of its cavalry brigades. How many of those were true horse artillery, or so-called "flying batteries", requires a look at each unit.

It can be brain frying trying to sift through every battery attempting to define just what was what and soon enough I just begin to see it all as just artillery But yeah, from what I can make of it, particularly on the Union side of things was that most horse artillery units were gleaned from regular field artillery and as such the term 'horse artillery' wasn't much more than two words combined. But, I stand to be corrected, and happily so. 'Tis why I am here. Thank you kindly for your reply

 

[Jabby76]

While I'm here, I've noticed that in naming their batteries alphabetically (Battery A, B, C, D, etc, etc), the Union never (as far as I've noticed) used the letter J and would just skip past it onto K. That strikes me as odd. Why was that done?

 

[Dan Kohli]

While I'm here, I've noticed that in naming their batteries alphabetically (Battery A, B, C, D, etc, etc), the Union never (as far as I've noticed) used the letter J and would just skip past it onto K. That strikes me as odd. Why was that done?

I do believe that J was dropped to prevent confusion between I and J.

 

[Stryker65]

On the Federal side the only State units that were horse artillery and that I know of were the 9th Michigan, 6th NY Independent, and H, 3rd PA - but anything is possible, and someone else may know of such.

H, 3rd PA only served as Horse Arty for the Gettysburg Campaign, and not afterwards. The 9th Michigan was transferred west with the 11th and 12th Corps in August 1863 and served as heavy artillery thereafter. The 6th New York, while a famous horse artillery unit, was organized as light artillery, and served as such at the Battle of Ball's Bluff, supporting Stone's Division.

 

[Stryker65]

This is invaluable, thank you. Most of these units I already have marked down but not as horse artillery and the distinction is precisely what I was after. Anything you can find is of great use

Some might be wrong, so you might want to check individually. I've already found a few mistakes:
- Lynchburg and Petersburg Horse Artilleries served as light artillery from 1861-1863, so they wouldn't count
- Wiggins' Arkansas Battery, served as light artillery until Corinth, when it was converted to horse
- Battery D, 2nd US Artillery served only as horse artillery for the last year of the war
- Only Battery C, 3rd US Artillery was entirely horse artillery -- F and K were converted later

Other units:
- Lt. Nathaniel M. Newell's section of Battery D, 1st Ohio Light Artillery (the rest of the battery was captured at Munfordville)
- Battery K, 1st Illinois Artillery (Jason B. Smith's, not Charles B. Judd's)
- 1st Missouri Flying Battery (before its reorganization)

It may be necessary for your own research to know that none of the regular batteries were specially equipped as horse artillery. Upon the ACW's increase in military necessities, many regular batteries were converted to horse artillery to support the burgeoning cavalry corps (plural). If you are doing a series on exclusively horse artillery batteries, I'll have to edit the earlier list greatly, since the Union had hardly any units that were organized for the purpose of being horse artillery; rather, they had units that were organized as light artillery but were assigned only to cavalry units. If you want the only specially-equipped Union horse artillery unit, that would be the Chicago Board of Trade Battery.

 

[W Charles Young]

H, 3rd PA was only in the Gettysburg Campaign because the rest of its formal title included "Heavy Artillery."

 

[Stryker65]

H, 3rd PA was only in the Gettysburg Campaign because the rest of its formal title included "Heavy Artillery."

Ironic, indeed, that a heavy artillery battery served instead as a horse artillery battery.

 

[Belfoured]

H, 3rd PA only served as Horse Arty for the Gettysburg Campaign, and not afterwards. The 9th Michigan was transferred west with the 11th and 12th Corps in August 1863 and served as heavy artillery thereafter. The 6th New York, while a famous horse artillery unit, was organized as light artillery, and served as such at the Battle of Ball's Bluff, supporting Stone's Division.

I should have been clear that those units served at points as horse artillery. The issue of "permanent" horse artillery goes back to the 1838 Poinsett Reforms and the establishment of four US companies as "mounted artillery" - C, 3rd US; E, 3rd US; A, 2nd US; and B, 4th US.. While the four companies became popularly referred to as "flying" artillery, it appears that only one - Ringgold's Co. C, 3rd US - was outfitted on any extended basis as true "horse" artillery. All four saw action in the Mexican War. It's clear that Battery A, 2nd US was established as horse artillery from the outset of the Civil War in 1861. A post-war dispute arose between the Captain of A, 2nd US as of 1861, John Tidball, and William Birkhimer, as to whether Ringgold's C, 3rd US or Tidball's A, 2d US was the first true "permanent" horse battery. Birkhimer, who had served in the 3rd US, claimed it was Ringgold's while Tidball claimed it was his. An interesting sidelight to this is that Tidball's "mentor" and sponsor for his promotion from Captain was William F. Barry, who had served under Ringgold in Co. C, 3rd US. So who knows ...

 

[Rhea Cole]

Eli Lilly's battery was attached to Wilder's Brigade of mounted infantry. As part of Wilder's out of the box repeating rifle tactics the ammunition boxes were repacked. Long range case shot was exchanged for canister. At both Hoover's Gap during the Tullahoma Campaign & at the "Ditch of Death" at Chickamauga Lilly's bugler sounded, "With long range canister… Load!"

#2 placed a powder charge, solid bolt, & three (yep) canister rounds into the 3 inch Rodmans / Ordinance Rifles. Viewing the execution inflicted on Longstreet's soldiers John Wilder was deeply shocked at what had been done with his tactic.

Gibbon's Battery C & G. Note the sabers dangling from everyone's belt. This kind of band box gee-gaa's were stashed into a box & put away somewhere once the real war commenced.

Loading & firing was a complex choreography repeated over & over again. Nothing, not even canteens were allowed to get in the way. Heavy Napoleonic pattern artillery swords suffered the same fate, discarded never to be seen again.

By some unknown, typically unconventional manner, Wilder acquired a battery of 12 pound mountain howitzers. At Hoover's Gap the "Jackass Battery" created a crossfire with Lilly's long range canister. General Bate's men, raked by canister & the inconceivable rate of fire from Wilder's seven shot Spencer repeaters drove his men into defilade in a swale in the open ground. Eventually, during a lull in the repeated attacks, the men in the raised their muskets by the muzzle in token of surrender & were allowed to enter Wilder's line.

After holding off Bate until regular infantry came double timing through the gap, the newly christened Lightening Brigade went far into Bragg's rear. The key to all of Middle Tennessee was the 2,228 foot long rail road tunnel through towering Monteage Mountain. Anyone who has driven up & down it on I-24 has no illusion as to what an obstacle it really was.

Wilder's men found a determined lot of men defending the tunnel & the considerable store of supplies at Dechard. They hunkered down & despite the shocking volume of fire from the Spencers, stood their ground behind an embankment. However, their determination was stretched beyond their ability to withstand when the Jackass'12 inch shells began to pop around their ears they ran howling into the trees.

Wilder's tactics of mobility, repeating rifles, attached artillery acting in concert was revolutionary. In time, virtually all Union cavalry followed suit.

 

[JulieWeathers]

Ah, this is my field of expertise!
Confederate:
- The Stuart Horse Artillery were the most famous horse artillery units of either side during the war.
- Graham's Petersburg(VA) Horse Artillery
- McClanahan's Staunton(VA) Horse Artillery
- Jackson's Charlottesville(VA) Horse Artillery
- Lurty's Roanoke(VA) Horse Artillery
- Shoemaker's Lynchburg(VA) Horse Artillery
- Thomson's Ashby (VA) Horse Artillery
- Hart's SC Battery
- Pillow Flying Artillery
- The Twelfth Texas Field Battery (aka the Valverde Battery).
- Wheeler's Horse Artillery:
- Huwald's Tennessee Battery
- Wiggins' Arkansas Battery
- White's Tennessee Battery
- Forrest's Horse Artillery:
- Morton's Tennessee Battery
- Pettus Flying Artillery
- Clanton's Alabama Battery
- Tobin's Tennessee Battery
Union:
- 24th Indiana Battery
- Chicago Board of Trade Battery
- A, BL, D, and M, 2nd USA
- CFK, 3rd USA

I think I may be missing some, so I might add later. Some of these I might be wrong, but i am pretty sure about these...

I think that's a pretty thorough list. Gallant Pelham, of Stuart's Artillery, was a brilliant artilleryman, and really perfected the flying artillery in many opinions.

Thank you.

 

[Cavalier]

It is my impression that Frederick the Great was an early user of Horse Artillery, but in my opinion it really came into its own in Napoleon's army. In addition to being attached to the heavy cavalry, by 1809 often one horse battery would be attached to an infantry division, in addition to the two or three foot batteries attached to it.

Maybe Napoleon being an artilleryman had something to do with that. Not sure of course.

John

 

[Belfoured]

It is my impression that Frederick the Great was an early user of Horse Artillery, but in my opinion it really came into its own in Napoleon's army. In addition to being attached to the heavy cavalry, by 1809 often one horse battery would be attached to an infantry division, in addition to the two or three foot batteries attached to it.

Maybe Napoleon being an artilleryman had something to do with that. Not sure of course.

John

Interesting points. The Brits actually established the Royal Horse Artillery not too long after the AWI (in connection with the French Revolution IIRC). The RHA troops were established specifically to support the cavalry. The Royal Artillery at the time was not "mounted" at all. In the AWI, for example, RA units had to hire/recruit civilian drivers and teams to move their pieces on campaign (a lot of RA units were equipped with 3 lb'rs so the need for horses was minimal). So there was a sharp line at the time between the RA and the RHA - one had nobody "mounted" and one had everybody "mounted". In the Civil War Union artillery was "mounted" (drivers with teams) or "horse" (everybody mounted).

 

[RedRover]

It can be brain frying trying to sift through every battery attempting to define just what was what and soon enough I just begin to see it all as just artillery But yeah, from what I can make of it, particularly on the Union side of things was that most horse artillery units were gleaned from regular field artillery and as such the term 'horse artillery' wasn't much more than two words combined. But, I stand to be corrected, and happily so. 'Tis why I am here. Thank you kindly for your reply

William Birkhimer's 1884 history of the US Army Artillery explains the distinction of horse versus light artillery, namely that before the late 1830s it was generally understood all "light" artillery was "horse artillery" (versus field artillery). But Sec. of War Poinsett in the late 1830s, in an act of budget saving, had three of the "light" artillery batteries formed and instructed to "mount" their men on the carriages, etc. to ride, and designated "light" batteries alongside the singular horse battery (Ringgolds'). Birkhimer noted in 1884:

Notes of the Horse artillery of the regular army artillery regiments in 1861-65; (from p. 70):

Historical Sketch of the Organization, Administration, Matérial and Tactics of the Artillery, United States Army

www.google.com

 

[Rhea Cole]

I must say how impressed I am with the collective knowledge of the members who have posted on this thread.

Image chosen by Lilly's Bugler in his memoir to illustrate movement during the torrential rains of the Tullahoma Campaign.

There was good reason for there being only a very few horse artillery batteries. In peacetime, quite often there were not enough horses the equip the battery. The reason was simple economics.

A regular battery had (+/-) 125 horses. At the average $150 / horse the Union quartermasters paid, an investment of $18,750.00 was required. At 26 pounds of feed per horse, 3,250 pounds / day was required to feed them. Just to put that into something that is a familiar sight in fields all over the country, a round bale weighs (+/-) 1,000 pounds.

A horse artillery battery consisted of (+/-) 300 horses when including the all important support wagons. In perspective, the $150 cost / horse was (+/-) = annual income of a free labor craftsman such as a joiner or journeyman blacksmith. 7,800 pounds of feed, eight of our round bale examples was also the net load of eight army wagons. Hay would gross out before reaching the 2,000 pound capacity of the wagons. The cost & magnitude of the logistical needs of a horse artillery battery vs those of a regular battery was no small consideration.