12th Texas Artillery
The 12th Texas Artillery formed in late 2006 as a group of reenactors interested in participating in War Between the States Reenactments and school programs. The 12th Texas Artillery is not affiliated with any political group and stives to educate as well as preserve history and its events.
We attend reenactments spanning from Pennsylvania to our own back yard: Texas. The 12th has attended an increasing number of National events and has recently joined the Cleburne's Divison National Reenactment Organization.
The 12th Texas provides services to nearby schools by offering school programs. These programs last as long as the school wishes and teaches students about the War Between the States and the many types of arms, equipment, artillery, etc., used in the most bloody war in U.S. history. If you are interested in having the 12th Texas for a school program, contact the webmaster or fill out this form.
Val Verde Battery:
"During the Texas invasion of New Mexico, soldiers of Confederate brigadier general Henry H. Sibley'sqv brigade captured five guns, three six-pounders and two twelve-pound howitzers, at the battle of Valverde,qv New Mexico Territory, on February 21, 1862. Volunteers from three cavalry regiments then organized a battery with the trophy cannon under the leadership of Capt. Joseph Draper Sayers,qv later governor of Texas. The seventy-man unit fired its first shots as a provisional organization at the skirmish at Peralta, New Mexico Territory, on April 15, 1862. The battery was officially organized on June 1, 1862, at Fort Bliss, Texas. After the Confederate retreat from the region, the Val Verde Battery accompanied Sibley's brigade to New Iberia, Louisiana. The battery fought numerous battles and skirmishes in Louisiana. It was notable for the capture of the Union gunboat Diana in March 1863. In April the unit served in the battle of Bisland, where Sayers was seriously wounded, and performed well as the rear guard of Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor'sqv army at the battle of Vermillion Bayou. After Sayers was wounded at Camp Bisland, Capt. Timothy D. Nettles took command of the battery and retained it until the end of the war. In the summer and fall of 1863 the Val Verde battery served with Gen. Thomas Green.qv The Val Verde Battery also served in Taylor's army during the Red River campaignqv of 1864. In April the battery fought at the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill; two rifled cannons captured from federal forces replaced the two antiquated howitzers of the battery. The battery then served with Confederate forces shadowing the Union army's retreat through the end of May in skirmishes at Monett's Ferry and De Louch's Bluff. As Confederate forces disbanded in the spring of 1865, the gunners of the Val Verde Battery chose to bury their cannons rather than surrender them to federal authorities. After Reconstructionqv the guns were exhumed. The two six-pounders that had survived the war had badly deteriorated, but the two three-inch rifles survived and are displayed at the Freestone County Courthouse in Fairfield and at the Confederate Reunion Grounds near Mexia."
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Don E. Alberts, ed., Rebels on the Rio Grande: The Civil War Journal of A. B. Peticolas (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984). Alwyn Barr, "Confederate Artillery in Western Louisiana, 1862-63," Civil War History 9 (March 1963). Alwyn Barr, "Confederate Artillery in Western Louisiana, 1864," Louisiana History 5 (Winter 1964). P. D. Browne, "Captain T. D. Nettles and the Valverde Battery," Texana 2 (Spring 1964). Martin Hardwick Hall, The Confederate Army of New Mexico (Austin: Presidial Press, 1978). Martin Hardwick Hall, Sibley's New Mexico Campaign (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1960). Ludwell H. Johnson, Red River Campaign: Politics and Cotton in the Civil War (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1958). Morris Raphael, The Battle in the Bayou Country (Detroit: Harlo Press, 1975). John D. Winters, The Civil War in Louisiana (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1963).
Pulled from Handbook of Texas Online submitted by Donald S. Frazier
Chicago Mercantile Battery:
The unit that came to be called the Chicago Mercantile Battery was first organized on August 29, 1862 and was mustered in to service in Chicago, Illinois. The call for the battery’s formation began a month before (July 26, 1862) when approximated 20,000 people gathered on the Cook County Courthouse grounds to hear political speeches and oratory by the city’s leaders. All businesses had closed for the affair, prompted by President Lincoln’s call for another 300,000 volunteers to bolster the Union’s ranks. The war was going badly for the Union. The rally was one of many to help renew support for the war.
Members of the newly formed Chicago Mercantile Association held a war meeting two days later, and decided to call up and outfit an artillery battery, just as their competition, the Board of Trade, had done. Early discussion on the procurement of “coffee-mill guns” fell through since they would be difficult to quickly obtain. Charles G. Cooley became the unit’s first captain. Doggett’s Guards was an early, yet tentative name for the battery. Cooley would soon be replaced by Irishman Patrick H. White, who had served in Taylor’s Battery at the battle of Shiloh in April 1862.
The battery first saw duty and training at Camp Douglass, near Chicago. Upon moving to Memphis, they took part in General Sherman’s Tallahatchie March (Chickasaw Bayou). This was their first action. Later, they were attached to Grant’s Army of the Cumberland’s XIII Corps, 10th Division (General A.J. Smith). Their next major action was a part in the attack and destruction of Arkansas Post, a fort on the Arkansas River (Jan. 11 & 12, 1863). Their service led to recognition by General Osterhaus and public recognition before the army.
This had begun the Vicksburg Campaign, and the Chicago Mercantile saw action at a number of battles, including Champion Hills. The death of Confederate General Tilghman has been attributed to a shell fired from the battery’s Number 2 gun, a 3-inch gun, probably a 3-inch Ordinance Rifle, or Rodman Gun. The following day, while battered and bruised, the Mercantile Battery took part in the battle of Black River Bridge on the approaches to Vicksburg.
The greatest success of the battery was on May 22, 1863, when, in some of the hardest fighting of the campaign, one of the battery’s field pieces was rolled forward to within point blank range of the Confederate works near the 2nd Texas Lunette. Grant’s army had begun a major assault all along the defense lines, and this action was a part of this. Upon orders to move the gun forward, it was only possible to do so with one. Capt. White and five other artillerymen moved the gun forward (with the help of quite a number of infantrymen) down a hill and through a draw to within 20 feet of the fort. This position was held for 8 hours until nightfall allowed the gun to be withdrawn. These men were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for this action after the war.
Soon after the surrender of Vicksburg, the battery was reassigned to the Army of the Gulf under General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks, former governor of Massachusetts and a friend of Abraham Lincoln. For the remainder of the war, the battery would be station around New Orleans and Bank’s headquarters.
In December the Chicago Mercantile Battery set foot on Texas at Matagorda Bay, but his was short-lived. They were recalled to prepare for Bank’s infamous Red River Campaign.
At Sabine Crossroads, called also the battle of Mansfield, Louisiana, the Chicago Mercantile Battery fought the advancing Confederates at close-quarters and according to one source, was the only one to get its guns off the field. The narrow road, however, was packed with wagons, men and horses, and this was the end of the trail. The guns could be moved no further. Two guns were spiked and other left with a shot lodged in its breech. The horses that survived did so by having their traces cut. Two officers were killed, and two more were wounded. Among the enlisted men four were killed, nine wounded and twenty-three taken prisoner. The prisoners were sent to East Texas to Camp Ford near Tyler where they were held for fourteen months, the remainder of the war. Among these officers was Capt. White.
The battery never recovered from Bank’s folly. For a while those that remained were ordered to take up the musket and serve infantry duty. The non-commissioned officers that protested were arrested and stripped of rank. Later they received the guns of another unit, but this was late in the fall of 1864. They saw no other action. They were mustered out of service and sent back to Chicago in July 1865.
Please note: Any errors in the above history is completely unintentional. If an error is found, please contact the webmaster of the site, and be assured that all efforts will be made to correct the problem.
Sources:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilcivilw/history/ia-oo5.htm