Battery C, 3rd Rhode Island Heavy Artillery

Battery C, 3rd Rhode Island Heavy Artillery
Battery C, 3rd Rhode Island Heavy Artillery
Active	December 19, 1861 to June 9, 1865
Country	United States
Allegiance	Union
Branch	Heavy artillery
Engagements	Battle of Secessionville; First Battle of Fort Wagner; Battle of Olustee; Bermuda Hundred Campaign; Siege of Petersburg; Second Battle of Deep Bottom; Battle of Chaffin's Farm; Battle of Darbytown and New Market Roads; Third Battle of Petersburg

Battery C, 3rd Rhode Island Heavy Artillery was a heavy artillery regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Service

The Battery C, 3rd Rhode Island Heavy Artillery was initially organized in Providence, Rhode Island as the 3rd Rhode Island Infantry in August 1861. It was officially changed to heavy artillery on December 19, 1861 at Hilton Head, South Carolina.

The battery was attached to Sherman's Expeditionary Corps to April 1862. 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, Department of the South, to July 1862. U.S. Forces, Hilton Head, South Carolina, Department of the South, to September 1862. U.S. Forces, Hilton Head, South Carolina, X Corps, Department of the South, to January 1863. District of Beaufort, South Carolina, X Corps, to June 1863. St. Helena Island, South Carolina, X Corps, to July 1863. U.S. Forces, Morris Island, South Carolina, X Corps, to October 1863. Artillery, Gordon's Division, Folly Island, South Carolina, X Corps, to December 1863. District of Hilton Head, South Carolina, X Corps, to February 1864. Artillery, District of Florida, Department of the South, to April 1864. Artillery, 3rd Division, X Corps, Department of Virginia and North Carolina, to May 1864. Unattached artillery, X Corps, Department of Virginia and North Carolina, to June 1864. Artillery 1st Division, X Corps, Department of Virginia and North Carolina, to August 1864. Artillery Brigade, X Corps, Department of Virginia and North Carolina, to December 1864. Artillery Brigade, XXV Corps, Department of Virginia, to June 1865.

Battery C, 3rd Rhode Island Heavy Artillery mustered out of service June 9, 1865.

Detailed service

Action at Port Royal Ferry, S.C., December 29, 1861. Venus Point February 15, 1862. Moved to Edisto Island, S.C., April 5. Operations on James Island, S.C., June 1–28. Action James Island June 10. Battle of Secessionville June 16. Moved to Hilton Head, S.C., June 28-July 1, and duty there until October. Expedition to Pocotaligo, S.C., October 21–23. Action at Caston and Frampton's Plantation, near Pocotaligo, October 22. Coosawhatchie October 22. At Hilton Head, S.C., until January 1863, and at Beaufort, S.C., until June 1863. Broad River April 8. Port Royal Ferry April 9. Combahee River June 1. Combahee Ferry June 2. Expedition to Darien June 5–24. Moved to St. Helena Island, S.C., then to Folly Island, S.C., July 4–5. Attack on Morris Island, S.C., July 10. Operations against Forts Wagner and Gregg and against Fort Sumter and Charleston, S.C., until December. Capture of Forts Wagner and Gregg September 7. Moved to Hilton Head, S.C., and duty there until February 1864. Expedition to Jacksonville, Fla., February 5–7, and to Lake City February 7–22. Battle of Olustee February 20. Occupation of Palatka March 10. Duty at Jacksonville until April 30. Moved to Yorktown, Va., April 30. Butler's operations on south side of James River and against Petersburg and Richmond May 5-June 15. Operations against Fort Darling May 12–16. Battle of Drewry's Bluff May 14–16. On Bermuda Hundred front May 17-June 15. Appomattox River May 28–31 and June 5. Before Petersburg June 15–19. Siege of Petersburg and Richmond June 16, 1864 to April 2, 1865. Demonstration on north side of the James August 13–20, 1864. Strawberry Plains, Deep Bottom, August 14–18. Laurel Hill August 17. Chaffin's Farm September 28–30. Darbytown and New Market Roads October 7. Fort Burnham December 10 and January 24, 1865. Fall of Petersburg and Richmond April 2–3. Duty in the Department of Virginia until June.

Casualties

Individual battery losses are not available, but the regiment's losses (all 12 batteries) are reported as a total of 135 men during service; 2 officers and 39 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 4 officers and 90 enlisted men died of disease.

Commanders

Regiment

Colonel Nathaniel W. Brown
Colonel Edwin Metcalf
Colonel Charles R. Brayton
Lieutenant Colonel William Ames

Battery

Captain Joseph J. Comstock, Jr.
Captain James S. Martin
Captain Peter J. Turner
Lieutenant Henry H. Metcalf - commanded at the battle of Olustee

References

Denison, Frederic. Shot and Shell: The Third Rhode Island Heavy Artillery Regiment in the Rebellion, 1861-1865 (Providence, RI: J. A. & R. A. Reid), 1879.
Dyer, Frederick Henry. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Des Moines, IA: Dyer Pub. Co.), 1908.
Egan, Patrick. The Florida Campaign with Light [sic] Battery C, Third Rhode Island Heavy Artillery (Providence, RI: The Rhode Island Soldiers and Sailors Historical Society), 1905.

Attribution

This article contains text from a text now in the public domain: Dyer, Frederick H. (1908). A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. Des Moines, IA: Dyer Publishing Co.