Automaton Artillery

Lore & Background

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. On March 27, 1862, 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 for the upcoming Battle of Shiloh, on April 6–7, 1862. During this engagement, Battery E fielded four James Rifles, 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.

Reader's Guide

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 to the right opened up "promptly" on the advancing Confederates along with the assembled infantry.

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, together with reinforcements crossing Rea Field onto aid in the assault.

Did You Know?

• During the battle, Battery E lost three of its four guns when the 13th Tennessee flanked it and attacked from the rear.
• Colonel Alfred Vaughan of the 13th Tennessee reported finding a dead Union officer near Battery E's captured guns, with a pointer dog that refused to allow Confederates to approach the body.
• Private James Bolton Rice, who joined the battery after Shiloh, wrote letters describing a typical day during the Oxford expedition and the devastation at Holly Springs after Earl van Dorn's raid.