The 1st Minnesota Light Artillery Battery was an artillery battery

Artillery battery

In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...

 that served in the Union Army

Union Army

The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

 during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. The battery was mustered in at Fort Snelling, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

. on November 21, 1861.

The 1st Minnesota Light Artillery Battery was mustered out at St. Paul

Saint Paul, Minnesota

Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 on July 1, 1865.

Commanders

• Captain Emil Munch - November 7, 1861 to December 25, 1862
• Captain William Z. Clayton - December 25, 1862 to July 1, 1865.

Casualties and total strength

The 1st Minnesota Light Artillery Battery lost 1 officer and 7 enlisted men killed in action or died of wounds received in battle and 1 officer and 29 enlisted men died of disease. Total fatalities were 38.

Battles and Campaigns

The 1st Minnesota Light Artillery Battery took part in the Battle of Shiloh

Battle of Shiloh

The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. A Union army under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and...

, Siege of Vicksburg, the Atlanta Campaign

Atlanta Campaign

The Atlanta Campaign was a series of battles fought in the Western Theater of the American Civil War throughout northwest Georgia and the area around Atlanta during the summer of 1864. Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman invaded Georgia from the vicinity of Chattanooga, Tennessee, beginning in May...

 and Sherman's March to the Sea

Sherman's March to the Sea

Sherman's March to the Sea is the name commonly given to the Savannah Campaign conducted around Georgia from November 15, 1864 to December 21, 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army in the American Civil War...

. They served in the 4th Division of the 17th U.S. Army Corps. On the 5th of March, 1864, Captain Clayton exchanged the old guns, two 12-pound howitzers, and two 6-pound rifled guns, caliber 3.67, for four new rifled 3-inch Rodman’s guns. The 3-inch Rodman guns were actually 3-inch ordnance rifles.

External links

• The Civil War Archive Website
• Civil War letters of Thomas and William Christie who were part of the 1st MN Light Artillery
• 1st Minnesota Light Artillery in the Atlanta Campaign May-Sept. 1864