The Civil War is many times referred to as the first modern war, one in which the armies were broken into specialized arms. General Henry H. Hunt, a West Point graduate and career artillery officer, had advocated that Artillery should be a separate arm, like Cavalry, for many years prior to the war. In 1858, he was one of three officers chosen to rewrite the Field Artillery Manual, and defined that the service of batteries assigned to brigades of Infantry or Cavalry was subordinate to the operation of the unit, but that the Artillery Reserve was a distinct arm of battle, commanded by it's superior officer, under the immediate orders of the general commanding.

There were two distinct types of artillery units; Heavy (or Foot) Artillery, and Light (or Field) Artillery. Heavy Artillery units were responsible for seacoast, garrison and mountain artillery. During the war, there were so many extra regiments of Heavy Artillery that many of them were issued muskets instead of cannon, and served as infantry.

Light or Field Artillery is divided into two parts; Horse Artillery, where all the men rode horses and served with the Cavalry, and Mounted, where the men marched alongside the cannons. When the Mounted units went into battle,the men jumped onto the cannon and limber and rode into the action.

The makeup of the army changed during the early years of the war, but after 1863, the usual makeup of an army corps was three divisions of infantry and one brigade of artillery, consisting of five batteries of six guns each. The remainder of the Field and Horse Artillery made up the Artillery Reserve, even though it was hard for many in the army not to think of it as a place to get replacements.

GETTYSBURG
At Gettysburg, General George Meade originally thought he only had the guns attached to the corps, and questioned Hunt about having enough guns or ammunition for the fight. The battle showed the Artillery Reserve's strength, as there were 21 batteries mounting 118 guns of the Union total of around 360 guns. On the second day, when the Third Corps was broken at the Wheat Field and the Peach Orchard, it was the Artillery Reserve which stemmed the Confederates and held the line. Colonel Freeman McGilvery had the First Volunteer Brigade of the Artillery Reserve, which consisted of the 5th and 9th Mass, the 15th New York and Batteries "C" and "F", 1st Penn Light Artillery, in support. As the infantry was broken the artillery held its ground to cover the withdrawal. Under pressure of the Confederates, lead by General William Barksdale's Mississippians, one battery had withdrawn, out of ammunition, and the other three had been forced back to the Trostle Farm, when McGilvery noticed that the remains of the Third Corps had not reformed at the crest of Cemetery Ridge, as he had anticipated. He gave the 9th Mass commander, Captain John Bigelow, the task of holding off the Confederates while he rounded up what artillery he could, to form a new line. The 9th lost four of it's guns, and Bigelow was seriously wounded, but it gave McGilvery time to put about 15 guns along what was referred to as the Plum Run line, and held until General Winfield Hancock arrived with the Third Brigade of the Third Division of his Corps, which drove back the Confederates, mortally wounding Barksdale, and holding the line.

Sources:
Dean S. Thomas
Cannons, An Introduction to Civil War Artillery

C. Peter Jorgenson
Civil War artillery authority, and former Commander of the 10th Mass Battery, N-SSA, publisher of the Civil War News and The Muzzloading Artilleryman

John D. Billings
(A member of the 10th; also the author of Hard Tack and Coffee, a book of his experiences as a soldier in the Civil War)
The History of the Tenth Massachusetts Battery

BATTERY
The basic unit of artillery is the battery, which has 4 to 6 guns, is commanded by a captain, and has 4 lieutenants, 12 or so noncoms, and 120 or so privates. It typically had 4 guns in the South and 6 guns in the North. Batteries were a subdivided into gun crews of 20 or so, and into sections of 2 gun crews, 2 or 3 sections per battery. A gun crew was commanded by a sergeant and a section by a lieutenant.

BATTALION or BRIGADE.
At the start of the war, each side assigned one battery attached to each infantry brigade, plus an artillery reserve under the army commander. By mid-1862, larger organizations were used. The basic unit contained 3 or 4 batteries of artillery; it was called a battalion in the South and a brigade in the North (same unit, just a different name) and it was commanded by a colonel, lieutenant colonel, or major.

ARTILLERY RESERVE.
After 1862, it was typical for each infantry division to have an artillery battalion attached, and each corps or army to have a reserve of two to five battalions. Each division's artillery usually fought along side the infantry, while the corps/army reserves were used to form the massed batteries. The artillery reserve was commanded by a brigadier general or colonel.

Last Updated 12 April 2002

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