Battery F, 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...

. The battery briefly served as cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

, March 20 to May 18, 1862.

Service

The battery was organized at Camp Perry in Cranston, Rhode Island

Cranston, Rhode Island

Cranston, once known as Pawtuxet, is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. With a population of 80,387 at the 2010 census, it is the third largest city in the state. The center of population of Rhode Island is located in Cranston...

 and mustered in for a three year enlistment on October 29, 1861 under the command of Captain Miles G. Moies.

The battery first served unattached, Department of North Carolina, to December 1862. Artillery Brigade, Department of North Carolina, to January 1863. Artillery Brigade, XVIII Corps, Department of North Carolina, to May 1863. Defenses of New Berne, North Carolina, to November 1863. District of St. Marys, Department of Virginia and North Carolina

Department of Virginia and North Carolina

The Department of Virginia and North Carolina was a United States Military department encompassing Union-occupied territory in the Confederate States during the Civil War. In 1863 it was formed by the merging of two previously existing departments: the Department of Virginia and the Department of...

, to January 1864. U.S. Forces, Yorktown, Virginia, Department of Virginia and North Carolina, to April 1864. Artillery, 2nd Division, XVIII Corps, Department of Virginia and North Carolina, to June 1864. Artillery Brigade, XVIII Corps, to December 1864. Artillery Brigade, XXIV Corps, Department of Virginia, to June 1865.

Battery F, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery mustered out of service on June 27, 1865.

Detailed service

Left Rhode Island for Washington, D.C., November 7. Duty at Camp Sprague and at Camp California, near Alexandria, defenses of Washington, until January 1862. Moved to Annapolis, Md, Attached to Burnside's Expeditionary Corps to April 1862. Burnside's Expedition to Hatteras Inlet and Roanoke Island, N.C., January 9-February 7, 1862. At Hatteras Inlet until February 26, and at Roanoke Island until March 11. Moved to New Berne, N.C., March 11–14, and duty there until October 1863. Picket and outpost duty as cavalry March 20 to May 18, 1862. Action at Deep Gully March 31. Trent Road April 19. Expedition to Trenton and Pollocksville July 24–28. Expedition to Little Washington October 29–30. Expedition from New Berne November 2–12. Action at Rawle's Mills November 2. Demonstration on New Berne November 11. Foster's Expedition to Goldsboro December 11–20. Kinston December 14. Whitehall December 16. Goldsboro December 17. Expedition for relief of Little Washington April 7–10, 1863. Action at Blount's Creek April 9. Expedition to Swift Creek Village April 13–21 (section). Expedition to Washington April 17–19. Expedition to Trenton July 4–8. Actions at Free Bridge and Quaker Bridge July 6. Expedition to Winston July 25–26. Pattacassy Creek, Mt. Tabor Church, July 26. Expedition to Elizabeth City October 10–16. Moved to Norfolk, Va., October 30-November 5, then to Point Lookout, Md., November 23–24, and duty there until January 1864. Moved to Yorktown, Va., January 24. Wistar's Expedition toward Richmond February 6–8. Ball's Cross Roads February 7. Bottom's Bridge February 7. Expedition from Yorktown to New Kent Court House in support of Kilpatrick's Cavalry March 1–4. Expedition into King and Queen County March 9–12. Butler's operations on the south side of the James River and against Petersburg and Richmond May 4–28. Swift Creek or Arrow field Church May 9–10. Operations against Fort Darling May 12–16. Battle of Drewry's Bluff May 14–16. On Bermuda Hundred line May 16-June 15. Before Petersburg June 15–18. Siege operations against Petersburg and Richmond June 16, 1864 to April 2, 1865. Battle of Chaffin's Farm September 28–30, 1864. Duty at Aiken's Landing October 7-November 8, 1864, and at Chaffin's Farm before Richmond until April 7, 1865. Moved to Richmond April 7, and duty there until June 25.

Casualties

The battery lost a total of 27 men during service; 10 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 17 enlisted men died of disease.

Commanders

• Captain Miles G. Moies - resigned November 12, 1862
• Captain James Belger - captured at the battle of Drewry's Bluff
• Captain Thomas Simpson - commanded detachment at the siege of Fort Macon as lieutenant

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...
  
  

External links

• Battery F, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery living history organization