Battery E, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery was an artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

 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...

.

Service

The battery was organized in Providence, Rhode Island

Providence, Rhode Island

Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

 and mustered in for a three year enlistment on September 23, 1861 under the command of Captain George E. Randolph.

The battery was attached to Heintzelman's Division, Army of the Potomac

Army of the Potomac

The Army of the Potomac was the major Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War.-History:The Army of the Potomac was created in 1861, but was then only the size of a corps . Its nucleus was called the Army of Northeastern Virginia, under Brig. Gen...

, to March, 1862. Artillery, 3rd Division, III Corps, Army of the Potomac, to August 1862. Artillery, 1st Division, III Corps, Army of the Potomac, to June 1863. Artillery Brigade, III Corps, to March 1864. Artillery Brigade, VI Corps, to July 1864. Artillery Reserve, Army of the Potomac, to December 1864. Artillery Brigade, VI Corps, to April 1865. Artillery Reserve, Army of the Potomac, to June 1865.

Battery E, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery mustered out of service on June 11, 1865.

Detailed service

Left Rhode Island for Washington, D.C., October 4. Duty at Camp Sprague until November 5, 1861, and at Fort Lyon, near Alexandria, Va., defenses of Washington, until April 1862. Peninsula Campaign April to August. Siege of Yorktown April 5-May 4. Warwick Road April 15. Battle of Williamsburg May 5. Battle of Fair Oaks May 31-June 1. Seven days before Richmond June 25-June 1. Oak Grove, near Seven Pines, June 25. Jordan's Ford June 27. Peach Orchard and Savage Station June 29. Brackett's June 30. Charles City Cross Roads and Glendale June 30. Malvern Hill July 1. At Harrison's Landing until August 15. Movement to Centreville August 15-26. Bristoe Station August 27. Groveton August 29. Battle of Bull Run August 30. Chantilly September 1. Duty in the defenses of Washington until October 11. March up the Potomac to Leesburg, thence to Falmouth, Va., October 11-November 23. Battle of Fredericksburg December 12-15. "Mud March" January 20-24, 1863. At Falmouth until April 27. Chancellorsville Campaign April 27-May 6. Battle of Chancellorsville May 1-5. Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-4. Wapping Heights, Va., July 23. Bristoe Campaign October 9-22. Advance to line of the Rappahannock November 7-8. Kelly's Ford November 7. Mine Run Campaign November 26-December 2. Payne's Farm November 27. Rapidan Campaign May-June, 1864. Battles of the Wilderness May 5-7; Spotsylvania May 8-12; Spotsylvania Court House May 12-21; North Anna River May 23-26. Line of the Pamunkey May 26-28. Totopotomoy May 28-31. Cold Harbor June 1-12. Bethesda Church June 1-3. Before Petersburg June 18-22. Jerusalem Plank Road June 22-23. Moved to Baltimore, Md, July 9-16, then back to City Point, Va., July 17-19. Operations against Petersburg and Richmond July 1864 to April 1865. Fall of Petersburg April 2. Ordered to City Point April 3.

Casualties

The battery lost a total of 29 men during service; 17 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 12 enlisted men died of disease.

Commanders

• Captain George E. Randolph
• Captain William B. Rhodes
• Lieutenant Pardon S. Jastrum - commanded at the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville

See also

• List of Rhode Island Civil War units
• Rhode Island in the American Civil War
  Rhode Island in the American Civil War
  The state of Rhode Island during the American Civil War, as with all of New England, remained loyal to the Union. Rhode Island furnished 25,236 fighting men to the Union Army, of which 1,685 died. On the home front, Rhode Island, along with the other northern states, used its industrial capacity to...