Battery " E " , 1st Regiment Illinois Volunteer Light Artillery Battery " E " , 1st Regiment Illinois Volunteer Light Artillery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War . It played a minor but noteworthy role in the Battle of Shiloh — being mentioned specifically in General William T . Sherman ' s After - Action report on the battle — and also served in several other battles in the Western Theater of the war . Recruitment . Battery " E " was mustered into service at Camp Douglas , in Chicago , Illinois on December 19 , 1861 . Its members came primarily from Cook County . On February 13 , 1862 , they moved to Cairo , where they were issued with horses , artillery and other necessary equipment . A photo of the original Battery E flag may be seen here . Early operations in Mississippi . Battle of Shiloh . On the 27th of March , Battery E travelled by boat to Pittsburg Landing , Tennessee , arriving on the 30th . Joining Brig . General William T . Sherman ' s Fifth Division in Ulysses S . Grant ' s Army of the Tennessee ( together with its sister unit , Battery " B " ) , the battery was not assigned to a specific brigade during the upcoming Battle of Shiloh , on April 6 – 7 , 1862 . During this engagement , Battery E fielded four James Rifle s , a rifled bronze artillery piece that proved popular during the early stages of the war , but later fell out of favor due to the excessive wear that combat service imposed upon rifled bronze cannon . According to one history of this engagement , Battery E was entirely inexperienced , having received its horses only ten days before the battle , and having drilled with them only three times . According to General Sherman ' s After - action report , he placed Battery E on a ridge to the left of Shiloh Church , covering a section of open ground between the 57th Ohio Infantry and the 53rd Ohio , near a house called the Rea Cabin . It was the 53rd Ohio ' s colonel , Jesse J . Appler , who had earlier tried to warn Sherman of large Confederate forces to his front , only to be told : " Take your damned regiment back to Ohio . There is no enemy nearer than Corinth ! " The next morning would prove Sherman fatally wrong , as his division and the rest of the Union Army were attacked during breakfast by a large Confederate force under General Albert Sidney Johnston . During the coming battle , Battery E would be engaged in turn by elements of Patrick Cleburne ' s Second Brigade of Johnston ' s Third Corps , which was under the command of General William Hardee , and by elements of S . A . M . Wood ' s Third Brigade of the same corps , and later by elements of Patton Anderson ' s Second Brigade of the First Division of Braxton Bragg ' s Second Corps . Later , still , the battery would be engaged by two brigades from Leonidas Polk ' s First Corps , commanded by Bushrod Johnson and Robert M . Russell . Thus , Battery E would face units from all three of Johnston ' s main Army Corps , during the course of the engagement . When the battle began , one section ( two guns ) of Battery E deployed just to the right of the 53rd , which had abandoned its camp and moved into the edge of a treeline facing an open field . The other section remained to the left of the 53rd , as originally deployed . Across this field , Confederates of the 6th Mississippi Infantry and the 23rd Tennessee advanced rapidly toward them . Twelve Confederate guns from Shoup ' s Arkansas Battery opened up on the Federals , and after firing two rounds in reply , the section that had originally moved to the right was ordered by Sherman ' s chief of artillery , Major Ezra Taylor , to rejoin the rest of Battery E , on high ground to the left of the 53rd on the other side of Rea Springs and the east fork of Shiloh Branch . Sherman , who was on the scene as this attack unfolded , ordered Appler to hold his portion of the line , telling him that he had " a good battery " ( E Battery ) to protect him ; he also sent for three additional regiments to protect " Waterhouse ' s Battery " ( Battery E ) and the left flank of his line . Sherman later reported that Battery E and a companion battery further off to the right opened up " promptly " on the advancing Confederates along with the assembled infantry , and in Sherman ' s words : " the battle became general " . Battery E , together with Battery B of the 1st Illinois , fired into the Confederates advancing up the ridge toward Sherman ' s line , as well as on reinforcements crossing Rea Field to their front to aid in the assault . Although inflicting horrendous losses on the attacking Southerners , Appler ' s regiment ultimately broke and ran when its colonel lost his nerve , leaving Battery E unprotected and facing imminent annihilation by the Confederates . Wood ' s Confederates obliqued to the right to avoid Battery E ' s fire ; they were quickly replaced in turn by Cleyburne ' s and Anderson ' s brigades , which took horrendous losses at the hands of three Illinois regiments , including the 43rd Illinois , which immediately advanced to assist the artillerists — until they too ultimately broke under the ferocity of the Southern assault led now by elements from Cleybourne , Anderson , Russell and Johnson ' s brigades , including the 13th Tennessee . Viewing the imminent disintegration of his command , Sherman ordered the remnants of his division , including Battery E , to pull back and regroup on the Hamburg - Purdy Road , about 600 yards behind their then - current position . However , the battery had hardly made 100 yards before Major Taylor rode up and ordered it to unlimber and resume firing , insisting that every inch of ground had to be contested . Captain Waterhouse complied , but this futile gesture cost him three of his four guns , and resulted in both him and his First Lieutenant being wounded . According to David Reed ' s history of the Battle , Battery E was engaged on its front by several different Rebel regiments , while the 13th Tennessee flanked it on the left side and came up on it from the rear , capturing the guns as the battery members beat a hasty retreat . Colonel ( later General ) Alfred Vaughan , commanding the 13th Tennessee , reported that when his regiment took possession of Battery E ' s guns , they found " a dead Union officer [ lying ] near them , with a pointer dog that refused to allow the Confederates to approach the body . " The remainder of Sherman ' s division ( including the members of Battery E , minus their three lost guns ) finally stabilized their lines in conjunction with General John A . McClernand ' s First Division . The following morning the Federals counterattacked and the Southern army was forced to retreat to Corinth , leaving the exhausted Northerners victors in the bloodiest battle that America had seen up to that time . Sherman reported that during the battle , his division had managed to capture seven guns to replace those lost to the enemy ( three by Battery E , and four from other units ) earlier in the engagement ; thus Battery E was able to be re - equipped with this captured ordinance . All told , the battery lost one man killed and sixteen wounded , plus one missing , during the two - day engagement . Historians Mark Grimsley and Steven Woodsworth reported that Battery E had performed " magnificently " during the battle , making " an important contribution to prolonging Sherman ' s stand here . " " This is all the more remarkable , " they go on to say , " considering the complete lack of experience of Watherhouse ' s men . " A series of aerial photographs depicting the exact location of " Waterhouse ' s Battery " and other adjacent units may be seen at Hike Report : The Battle For Shiloh Church . Corinth and subsequent movements . Following the Battle of Shiloh , the battery moved with the rest of Sherman ' s division toward Corinth , Mississippi , which was occupied on May 29 , 1862 . Following this , they made their way down the Memphis and Charleston Railroad , skirmishing with Confederates along the way , until they reached Memphis , where they went into camp at Fort Pickering . Here they spent their time drilling with their artillery pieces and horses , seeking to improve their efficiency . During this time , the regiment received new recruits , one of whom was Private James Bolton Rice , whose letters to his wife paint a vivid picture of the battery ' s activities from the time he joined it to late in 1863 . On November 26 , Battery E accompanied Sherman ' s expedition to Oxford , Mississippi , part of a larger operation undertaken by Grant against Confederate General John C . Pemberton ' s forces entrenched along the Tallahatchie River near Holly Springs . Rice reports that the Federal force made twelve miles per day on average , until it encountered Confederate obstructions near College Hill , near Oxford on December 7 . These included trees felled across the road , and " every bridge burned . " Private Rice offers a description of a typical day in Battery E during this campaign : Pemberton ' s army fell back to Grenada without a fight , so Battery E continued with the rest of its division to Corinth . It entered the town of Holly Springs , Mississippi sometime prior to January 4 , 1863 , where Rice describes a scene of devastation left behind by Confederate General Earl van Dorn ' s raid on the town on December 20 , 1862 : " broken guns , dead horses , several unburned men , pieces of shells , lights out of every window , government wagons and ambulances half burnt up . The great depot all gone , a train of cars burned upon the track . The air filled [ with ] the smoke and smell of burning cotton . Large brick buildings blown to atoms , pillaged houses and sick men laying beside the streets . " White Station . Battery E moved through Holly Springs and on to White Station , Tennessee , where it arrived on January 31 , 1863 and encamped . In an effort to fight the cold conditions while wintering there in a Sibley tent , Private Rice describes heating two cast - iron wheels weighing forty pounds each in a fire until they became red - hot , then taking them into his tent , where according to him : " . . . they make it comfortable . " During this time of relative quiet , Rice reports one muster where the battery commander asked all of the " weak - kneed ones " to step forward , as " we would be in a fight in only three hours . " Four men answered this call — but another trooper who had been ordered to stay behind begged to change places with one of those being sent into battle , even offering " his last dollar " as an incentive , before being refused by every man in the battery . Apparently the battle did not materialize , as Rice makes no further mention of it . On February 19 and 20 , the members of Battery E were witnesses to the burning of Hopefield , Arkansas , a small town across the river whose citizens had taken the Unionist Loyalty oath , but were secretly assisting local Confederate guerilla s . After several Federal soldiers had been murdered in or near the town , four companies of Northern troops attacked Hopefield and burnt the entire city to the ground . Though Battery E did not actively participate in this event , Rice described it as a " long - merited punishment . " Returning to Memphis on March 14 of that same year , they took steamboats to Duckport , Louisiana , a ( now vanished ) landing on the Mississippi River a few miles northwest of Vicksburg , Mississippi . Here , they rejoined the rest of Sherman ' s XV Corps , one of five corps assigned to Ulysses S . Grant ' s Army of the Tennessee that was then preparing to embark on the famed Vicksburg Campaign . Sometime during the winter , according to Private Rice , Battery E was reduced from a six - gun battery to a four - gun battery , numbering 128 effectives . During its time at Vicksburg ( see below ) the battery was brought back up to its usual six - gun size once again . Vicksburg campaign . Battle of Jackson . On May 2 the battery went to Grand Gulf , Mississippi ; from thence they advanced toward Jackson , Mississippi , the capital of the state . Private James Rice reports that the heat during this time was so intense that even " strong men " fell out of the march and " were left with some comrade to die or come on , as the case might be . " Dead horses and mules lay everywhere along the line of march , and Rice reports that Battery E lost six of its own horses to " sunstroke , and drinking poisoned water . " Reaching Jackson on May 10 , Battery E and the rest of their corps were appalled to discover that the Confederates had disembowel ed numerous mules and hogs , then thrown their carcasses into every pond and well to contaminate the water . The air , said he , was filled with the stench of dead animals and members of Battery E and others were detailed over the next two days to bury all the carcasses in the area . Starting on May 10 , Battery E commenced bombardment of the Confederate works at Jackson , beginning at 7am on that Sunday morning . Private Rice reported a bright sunny day , and said that fire and counter - battery fire continued for three hours " as if the heavens were at war with one another , and about to part . " Rice himself was nicked by an enemy shell , and others in the battery had what he referred to as " close calls , " though no one was seriously hurt . On May 14 , Battery E supported Sherman ' s final attack on Jackson . Advancing during a driving rainstorm across Lynch Creek — a rain - swollen stream that ran only two miles from the Mississippi State Capitol — the XV Corps quickly ran into the Third Kentucky Mounted Infantry , the First Georgia Sharpshooter Battalion and Captain Martin ' s Georgia Battery . The Federal advance was temporarily halted by these troops and by enemy artillery fire , before Battery E and a companion battery from the 2nd Iowa responded in kind . One Illinois soldier briefly described Battery E ' s role in this battle in these terms : The " accurate fire " from Battery E and the Iowa artillery , coupled with the overwhelming Federal advantage in manpower , quickly forced the Confederates to retreat into their defensive works ; within a matter of a few hours , Sherman ' s XV Corps had entered Jackson . Action at Vicksburg . On May 16 , Battery E moved on Vicksburg , the South ' s " Gibraltar of the West " , arriving on the 18th , where it took an active part in the siege as part of the Third Division of Sherman ' s XV Corps . Together with the 2nd Battery of Iowa Light Artillery , it was assigned as the division ' s artillery force . During this time , the battery fielded four James Rifles and three captured 6 - pound guns in a spot near the northeast corner of the Confederate defensive line ( currently located along Old Graveyard Road , between Union Ave . and Confederate Ave . ) . The battery supported the abortive Federal assault upon the " Stockade Redan " on May 22 , which resulted in more than a thousand Federal casualties , and led to the awarding of 78 Medals of Honor to attacking soldiers . A photo of the exact location of Battery E ' s position at Vicksburg may be seen here . The larger page from which this photo was taken may be viewed here . On May 30 , the battery was given a 30 - pount Parrott rifle , which it retained until 3 June , when the Parrott gun was moved to a more advanced position at " Battery Jenny . " On 5 June , Battery E was ordered to trade its old artillery pieces in for six new 12 - pound guns . The battery was divided into three two - gun sections ; two , under Lieutenants John Fitch and Orrin Cram , remained on the line . The third was moved up to an advanced battery . By 7 June , Private Rice reported to his wife that the battery had been split between five different places , and only counted 96 men as fit for duty . In contrast to the starving Confederates inside Vicksburg — whose lack of food ultimately doomed their defense of the city , rather than the unsuccessful Federal assaults on their defenses — Battery E and the rest of the Union Army fared well with regard to victuals during the siege . Rice reported that he had to eat here : " flour , tea , coffee , sugar , hardtack , pork , dried apples , rice , beans and fresh beef every other day . " He said that his favorite food was " flour and water mixed together as you would make batter , fry it in grease with meat , a cup of coffee , a hardtack and sugar ; I make out a hearty meal . " Artillerists as infantry . Members of Battery E sometimes played the role of sharpshooter s and even infantry during the siege , as Private Rice relates : On 22 June Battery E relocated with two brigades of infantry from its 3rd Division to Bear Creek on the exterior line , where it remained until Vicksburg was surrendered by General Pemberton on July 4 , 1863 . Throughout the siege , the Battery lost two killed and six wounded . Later operations in Mississippi . Expedition to Brandon , Mississippi . On July 5 , 1863 , the day after Vicksburg ' s surrender , a detachment from Battery E was ordered with elements from the 72nd Ohio Infantry , the 114th Illinois , the 8th Iowa and the 9th Iowa under the command of General Frederick Steele to proceed to Brandon , Mississippi , where they were to locate and burn Confederate military stores and destroy the local railroad . The battery lost one of its three guns while crossing a pontoon bridge over the Pearl River , but the gun was recovered the next day . Encountering Southern cavalry about six miles past the bridge , the battery ' s " war dogs " ( to quote Private Rice ) quickly drove them back . Upon receiving reports from scout s that an enemy battery was on a nearby hill , Battery E was ordered to shell the hillside in an effort to discern the enemy ' s position . Private Rice describes what happened next : Riding into Brandon , Battery E fired on Confederate scouts in a house there , " knocking out every window in the house . " They set fire to a storehouse and burned down an entire block of the town , then turned their attention to the railroad depot and nearby trackage , which they equally destroyed . Return to Jackson . Following this event , Battery E returned to Jackson ( which had been reoccupied by Confederate forces ) . Though harassed during their march by Southern units , Private Rice reported that they " kept out of range of our brass band . For . . . when we play ' Dixie ' on it , it makes them more than dance . " Upon arriving at Jackson , it assisted in a nine - day siege , after which Confederate General Joseph E . Johnson evacuated the city . Private Rice describes Jackson as a " doomed city " in the battle ' s aftermath , affirming that he and his comrades tore up and burned tracks and ties from five different railroads extending twenty miles out from the city in all directions ; he equally describes the devastation wrought by the Federal inside the city itself . Ordered to return to Vicksburg , Battery E and other units crossed the battlefield at Champion Hill , scene of a Federal victory about two months earlier . Rice describes how rain had washed away the soil used to cover the corpses of Confederate dead ( who , says he , had simply been tossed into ditches on the battlefield by Federal troops , and covered with a layer of dirt ) ; he describes men seeing and even kicking at skulls , bones and clothing protruding from the half - opened graves . Bear Creek . On July 23 Battery E went into camp on Bear Creek , in rear of Vicksburg on Oak Ridge , where Private Rice reports that they were exceptionally troubled by chigger s and flies , not to mention the oppressive summer heat . This became their summer camp , and expeditions were made to Mechanicsburg , Miss . , Canton , and other places . On November 5 they went to Vicksburg , and took boat for Memphis , arriving there the 12th . During that winter they went to Lagrange , Tenn . ; also , Corinth , Jack Creek , then back again to Corinth , and back to Memphis via Lagrange . Meridian expedition . On February 6 , 1864 , Battery E was ordered to cooperate with a 7000 - man cavalry column led by General William Sooy Smith moving south from Memphis to link up with General Sherman ' s forces engaged in the Meridian Expedition ; by this point , it had been equipped with six 12 - pound Napoleon guns . On the 10th of February 1864 , it fought in a skirmish at Wyatt , Tennessee , on the Tallahatchie River . On February 15 the Battery was ordered back to Memphis , and took no further role in the campaign . In Memphis , they camped at the head of Main Street , near the city ' s Navy Yard . In April 1864 the Battery went to Bolivar , Mississippi , and Ripley in search of General Nathan Bedford Forrest ; but their supplies soon ran out , and they were forced to return to Memphis to refit . Brice ' s Crossroads and aftermath . June 1 , 1864 , the battery marched to Guntown , Mississippi , where it took part in the disastrous Battle of Brice ' s Crossroads on June 10 . Here , the battery together with the 9th Minnesota Infantry formed a reserve force deployed near the crossroads itself . Attacked by Confederates under General Forrest on both flanks at once , Colonel William McMillian , commanding the infantry on that portion of the field , ordered Battery E to sweep the Guntown Road with grapeshot and canister . Despite heroic efforts by the 9th Minnesota and other Federal units , the Northern army was pushed back , with Col . McMillian ordering Battery E and Battery B of the Second Illinois Light Artillery to hold off the advancing Rebels until the infantry could escape . The fleeing Federals became bottled up on a bridge just north of the crossroads , with Confederate artillery raking them as they struggled to cross the narrow structure , upon which the retreat became a rout , and Forrest won one of the greatest victories in his career . Battery E , which had been ordered to hold the crossroads itself at all costs , found itself stranded amidst the advancing Southern attack , deserted by all infantry support — but still firing without letup . Captain John Fitch , commanding the battery in this battle , describes the scene amid the tangled underbrush and forest : " I could not see the enemy , but judged from their firing that they were very near . I immediately gave them canister with both pieces , as fast as I could load and fire . " Fitch and the rest of Battery E managed to hold their ground until the last of the Federal regiments had passed , though by this time they were being fired on from front , left and rear — including the garden of a plantation house only seventy - five feet away . Incredibly , Battery E managed to limber its two guns and escape to the nearby creek , where they simply stormed through the water to the safety of a road on the other side . In his after - action report , Colonel Alexander Wilkin , commanding the 9th Minnesota , commended Captain Fitch of Battery E for the " judicious and gallant manner " in which he and his battery had conducted themselves during the battle . Total losses for this battle were one killed , three wounded and four missing . The battery returned to Memphis after the defeat , " every man for himself " , with the men listed as " very much demoralized " . The battery next marched on Tupelo , and July 12 it fought at Pontotoc , Mississippi . On July 13 , they were ambushed , and lost one wounded . On the 14th , the battery participated in the Battle of Tupelo , which resulted in a defeat for Forrest . Actions in Missouri . On July 15 , 1864 , Battery E returned to Memphis . On September 3 , 1864 , they took steamboats down the Mississippi to White River Gap and from thence to Duvall ' s Bluff , Arkansas . Marching through Arkansas swamps to Cape Girardeau under General J . A . Mower , they next travelled up the Missouri River to Jefferson City , Missouri , where they joined in the ongoing Federal pursuit of Confederate General Sterling Price ( then engaged in a campaign that became known as Price ' s Missouri Raid ) to the western boundary of the State . After Price ' s defeat at the Battle of Westport , the Battery returned to St . Louis , arriving there on November 15 , 1864 . Service in Tennessee . After drawing a new complement of horses , Battery E took boats for Nashville , Tennessee , and were with General Thomas during the siege of Nashville and annihilation of Hood ' s Army . Muster out . The battery ' s enlistments expired December 19 , 1864 , but the battery was not mustered out of service until December 24 , 1864 , at Louisville , Kentucky . New recruits were brought into replace those who had been discharged ; these continued to serve until July 15 , 1865 , when they were discharged near Chattanooga , Tennessee . Total strength and casualties . The battery lost 5 enlisted men who were killed in action or who died of their wounds and 25 enlisted men who died of disease , for a total of 30 fatalities . Anecdotes . Camp followers . Private James Bolton Rice , whose letters home to his wife provide a vivid description of life and action in Battery E from 1862 to 1865 , gives a picture of the seedier side of life in a Federal army camp during mid - 1862 : Rice followed this statement up with his own assurance of loyalty to his wife , telling her that this sight " disgust [ s ] me more than anything I see in the Army . " On the march . In a letter dated January 22 , 1863 , Rice describes what it was like to be on the march , on half - rations , in the Federal army : Needless to say , conditions in the Confederate forces were even worse , as their logistics system was not nearly as well - supplied or developed as its Federal counterpart . Dissention in the ranks . In another letter , Rice describes the antipathy many Federal soldiers felt following the issuance of Abraham Lincoln ' s Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863 : In subsequent paragraphs , Rice voraciously attacks Northern " Copperheads " , referring to them as " damning traitors " and saying they should be " choked down and served as we serve them down here . " He goes on to say that four men in his own regiment are Copperheads ( in his estimation ) , describing them as " weak - kneed , weak - backed ones who were scared into the Service through fear of the draft . " He ends , however on a note of guarded optimism that the government will overcome the " arch - traitors " and " rise like the morning mist , and show the world that America still stands with its government and institutions stronger better dearer than ever . " General Grant . During the Siege of Vicksburg , Rice wrote down his impressions of Ulysses S . Grant ' s generalship , together with his opinion of the rampant rumors of his drunkenness earlier in the war : Rice does not indicate whether his glowing opinion of Grant ' s generalship was shared by his comrades in Battery E , or what their opinions of their military leaders might have been . His assessment of Grant ' s talent certainly proved well - founded , as Grant would be elevated to General - in - Chief of all Federal armies the following year , and go on to lead the North to victory two years later .