1st Arkansas Field Battery The 1st Arkansas Field Battery ( 1861 – 1865 ) was a Confederate Army artillery battery during the American Civil War . Also known as : the " John D . Adams Artillery , " or usually just " Adams Artillery " ; Gaines ' Battery ; McNally ' s Battery . The battery made the crossing of the Mississippi River in April 1862 with Major General Earl Van Dorn ' s Army of the West . After being surrendered at the conclusion of the Vicksburg Campaign , the battery was reorganized in the Department of the Trans - Mississippi and served there for the remaineder of the war . Organization . The battery was organized as the " John D . Adams Artillery , " and mustered into state service in April , 1861 . Re - enlisted for Confederate service , effective December 1 , 1861 . The unit was named in honor of an Arkansas Veteran of the Mexican – American War . John D . Adams had served as a private in Colonel Yell ' s 1st Regiment of Arkansas Mounted Gunmen and suffered a wound at the Battle of Buena Vista . Following the war he became a successful merchant , planter and steamboat operation in Little Rock . John D . Adams did not serve with the battery that bore his name . He did later obtain a commission as a Major in the Quartermaster Department under General Thomas C . Hindman . The battery officers were : Captain James J . Gaines ; Captain Francis McAnally ; Lieutenant Frank A . Moore ; Lieutenant David W . Hudgens , Second Lieutenant John P . Murphy . Unfortunately , there are no known surviving muster rolls of the Adams Artillery . Battles . Assigned to support Hébert ' s brigade of McCulloch ' s division in northwest Arkansas in December , 1861 . The unit was stationed at the Leetown portion of the Battle of Pea Ridge on March 7 – 8 , 1862 . The battery was armed with two 12 - pounder rifled guns and two 12 - pounder howitzers . The battery participated in the retreat to camp near Van Buren , Arkansas , after Pea Ridge , and then moved with the Army of the West to Corinth , Mississippi , in April , 1862 . Reorganized at Corinth on May 16 , 1862 , as a result of the Confederate Conscription Act , and assigned to support of Roane ' s ( later Phifer ' s ) brigade of Maury ' s division , Army of the West , serving in northeast Mississippi . Capt . Francis M . McNally assumed command , and it was thereafter known as McNally ' s Arkansas Battery . Fought at the battle of Corinth on October 3 – 4 , 1862 , and at the Battle of Hatchie Bridge crossing on October 7 . Served as an unattached battery of Maury ' s ( later Forney ' s ) division in north central Mississippi from November , 1862 , to April 1863 , fighting in an engagement at Oakland , Mississippi , on December 3 . Assigned to support of Shoup ' s brigade , Martin Smith ' s division , where it served during the Vicksburg campaign and in the defenses of Vicksburg during the siege . Surendered with the Vicksburg garrison on July 4 , 1863 , and was paroled there later the same month . When the battery was captured at Vicksburg , a section of two 3 - inch brass rifle guns under First Lieut . Frank A . Moore had been on detached service outside the Vicksburg lines and thus escaped capture . However , when McNally ' s Battery was exchanged back in Arkansas , Moore ' s section was stranded east of the Mississippi . It was subsequently attached to King ' s 2nd Missouri Battery and served east of the Mississippi to the end of the war . This section served with Cosby ' s brigade , Jackson ' s division , Lee ' s cavalry corps . The battery surrendered at Vicksburg on July 4 , 1863 , and was exchanged near Washington , Arkansas , in November 1863 and remained in the Trans - Mississippi Department for the rest of the war . The battery was reorganized in Arkansas using four 6 - pounder smoothbores . In General E . Kirby Smith ’ s September 30 , 1864 report on the Organization of the Army of the Trans - Mississippi Department , McNally ' s Battery is listed as belonging to the 5th Mounted Artillery Battalion along with West ' s and Marshall ' s Arkansas Batteries . The battery supported Churchill ' s First Arkansas Division , and served with this division until the end of the war . On November 19 , 1864 , General E . Kirby Smith , commanding the Confederate Trans - Mississippi Department , issued Special Orders No . 290 , re - organizing the artillery of the department and for the first time providing numerical designations to the batteries and battalions . In this reorganization , the Adams Artillery , armed with 4 guns , and commanded by Capt . Francis M . McNally was redesignated as the 1st Arkansas Field Battery and assigned to the 5th Artillery Battalion , commanded by Maj . William Durbin Blocher . On December 31 , 1864 , General E . Kirby Smith listed the battery as belonging to Blocher ' s Artillery Battalion of Acting Major General Churchill ' s First Infantry Division of Major General John B . Magruder ' s Second Army Corps , Army of the Trans - Mississippi . One of the last reports of the unit comes from the report of Union Scout C . S . Bell , who was attempting to pass through southern Arkansas when he was recognized and imprisoned . He managed to win release , only to be consripted into Confederate Service and assigned to McNally ' s Battery . Bell was sent , in leg irons , to join McNally ' s Battery on April 19 , 1865 at Rocky Mountain , La . , thirty miles northeast of Shreveport . A few days after reaching is new command , he witnessed the reading of an order from General Kirby Smith dated the 23 April 1865 in which Smith recounted the disasters to Lee ' s army and bade his army to be hopeful ; to not abandon their colors ; that the eyes of the world were upon them ; that their resources were inexhaustible , and that on them depended the fate of the Confederacy . The battery was involved in the following engagements : Surrender . When the Trans - Mississippi Army surrendered in May 1865 , McNally ' s Battery , along with most other units , simply disbanded and never formally surrendered . The battery was officially surrendered by General E . Kirby Smith with the Trans - Mississippi Department on May 26 , 1865 . The date of the military convention between Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith and Union General Edward Canby for the surrender of the troops and public property in the Trans - Mississippi Department was May 26 , 1865 , however , it took awhile for parole commissioners to be appointed and for public property to be accounted for . As a result , a final report of field artillery which was part of the accounting process , was not completed until June 1 , 1865 . The final report lists McNally ' s Battery with four , six pounder smooth bore cannon being turned in at Shreveport , Lousisiana .