What is an independent battery?

[KPavia]

Hello

So, my ancestor was part of the 1st New York Independent battery. What is different about that unit to be called "independent?"

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: What is an independent battery?

Hallo!

In brief and to over-generalize...

In the 18th century, artillery was NUG placed battereies into a genral pool which were them parcelled out and attached to units and distrubted in small groups along the line under the command of that brigade or division commander. But, as early as the Napoleonic era, artillery was starting to be "massed" more and more.

What the change in thnking was by the time of the CW, was in the creation of semi-autonomous battery formations outside of the old system of parcelled out units so that there was innovation and greater coordination of artillery firepower that went along with designs for lighter and more mobile field artillery pieces.

Curt

[David Fox]

Re: What is an independent battery?

Also, I believe there were batteries raised and maintained independant of a given State's militia structure in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Same held true for certain companies of infantry and horse. "Independant" was often incorporated into their names.

[ajroscoe]

Re: What is an independent battery?

To add on to what Curt said, the United States Artillery in the Regular Army was organized into 12 company regiments, a "company" being the official name of a "battery" to the army. Many states also raised entire regiments of artillery, such as the 1st New York Light Artillery, 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery, 1st Ohio Light Artillery, 1st Michigan Light Artillery, etc. These regiments were split up and assigned to the armies and never fought in any larger formations (with 4 batteries to a battalion and 3 battalions to a regiment). Instead, batteries from all sources were mixed together at the army. These artillery regiments had the advantage of providing senior officers to the artillery arm, and many of the field officers of the regiments also became divisional and corps artillery commanders. For example, Colonel Charles Wainwright (I and later V Corps Chief of Artillery), Major Thomas Osborn (XI Corps Chief of Artillery), and Major John A. Reynolds (XX Corps Artillery Chief) were all officers in the 1st New York Light Artillery. However, many states either did not raise enough batteries to complete an entire regiment, or they observed that the regiments did not fight together as units, and instead raised single companies or "batteries" of artillery. The 1st New York Independent Battery was one such unit. The disadvantage of these units was that by not having the regimental organization to drawn senior officers from, many corps and division artillery units were led by battery commanders instead of a dedicated battalion/brigade commander. For example, at the Battle of Gettysburg, the Army of the Potomac had 14 Artillery Brigades between the 7 Infantry Corps, 2 in the Cavalry Corps, and 5 in the Artillery Reserve. Of these, only 4 were commanded by a field officer, not a battery commander - Cols Wainwright (I) and Thompson (VI), Lt Col McGilvery (1st Volunteer Brigade), and Maj Osborn (XI).