Memphis Battery Light Artillery ( African Descent ) The Memphis Battery Light Artillery ( African Descent ) was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War . The unit was also called 1st Tennessee Battery ( African Descent ) . Service . The Memphis Battery Light Artillery ( African Descent ) was organized at Memphis , Tennessee and mustered in for three years on October 31 , 1863 under the command of Captain Carl A . Lamberg . As was custom at the time , the battery was designated the Memphis Battery ( Colored ) Light Artillery . It was initially attached to the 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery Regiment ( African Descent ) as Battery M . The battery was attached to the garrison of Fort Pickering , District of Memphis , 5th Division , XVI Corps , Department of the Tennessee , to January 1864 . 1st Colored Brigade , District of Memphis , Tennessee , XVI Corps , to April 1864 . The Memphis Battery Light Artillery ( African Descent ) ceased to exist on March 11 , 1864 when its designation was changed to Battery D , 2nd United States Light Artillery Regiment ( Colored ) . This designation was changed again on April 26 , 1864 to Battery F , 2nd United States Colored Light Artillery . Detailed service . During its brief existence , the regiment performed post and garrison duty at Memphis , Tennessee , until April 1864 . One section under the command of Lieutenant A . M . Hunter was sent to Fort Pillow , Tennessee , on February 15 , 1864 . During the final assault on the fort , the section of 2nd U . S . Light Artillery ( colored ) manned two 6 - pound James Rifles cannon in the center two embrasures of the fort . All Union artillery was largely ineffective because the guns could not be depressed enough to fire upon the Confederates on the steep terrain below . Nearly every man in this detachment was killed or missing in action when Maj . Gen . Nathan Bedford Forrest captured the fort on April 12 , 1864 and Union troops were subsequently massacred . In his report of April 27 , 1864 , Captain Lamberg , who was not present at the battle , stated that the section had one officer and 34 enlisted men . Of these , six were killed , four wounded , five taken prisoner , and Lieutenant Hunter and 18 other men were listed as missing in action . Private John Kennedy , who was wounded and captured ( but escaped to report to Captain Lamberg ) , stated that he saw Lieutenant Hunter and several men of the section in the Mississippi River , but that he was captured before seeing what became of them . Captain Lamberg commanded one section in June 1864 under Brig . Gen . Samuel D . Sturgis on his expedition into Mississippi . The expedition ended in defeat Maj . Gen . Forrest at the battle of Brice ' s Cross Roads . The section was attached to the brigade of Colonel W . L . McMillen and consisted of two officers and 37 enlisted men . The section ' s guns were spiked and abandoned on the field . Casualties . Records are incomplete , but the battery lost at least 6 men killed or mortally wounded during service . The official report on the Battle of Fort Pillow identified only one soldier of the section of 40 men as a survivor . However , a review of individual service records identifies 8 survivors who were considered missing in action and 5 survivors who were released or paroled from prison camps . One reason for this oversight is that many soldiers of the 2nd US Colored Light Artillery were reported to be members of the 6th US Colored Heavy Artillery . Many eye - witnesses stated that the officer in command of the section , Lieutenant Alexander M . Hunter , was killed . However , Lt . Hunter survived the battle and the war . ( Source : " River Run Red " ) One example of a survivor is Daniel Tyler who was shot in the eye and right shoulder . The Confederates threw him into the ditch and buried him in a mass grave . By dawn of the 13th , he managed to dig himself out . Tyler ' s story was told in many newspaper accounts . Though badly wounded and almost blind , he returned to his unit in May 1864 . Then he left to recuperate from his wounds . When he returned in March 1865 , he was accused of being absent without leave and was imprisoned in Irving Block Prison in Memphis . Amid the filth and deplorable conditions , he died in prison 4 months later on July 12 , 1865 . ( Source : " River Run Red " )