MUSCOGEE COUNTY, GA - Military Croft's Battery - GWL Perry Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: ruthwalsh@excite.com Ruth Walsh Table of Contents page: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/crawford.htm Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm CROFT'S BATTERY p. 604: G. W . L. PERRY, Forreston, Texas - Born Feb 22, 1845 in Randolph County, Alabama. Enlisted in the Confederate Army Oct. 24th, 1861, at Selma, Ala., as private in Croft's Battery, Georgia Artillery, Ross Brigade, Jackson's Cavalry. Army of Tennessee. Edward Croft, first Captain. After Hood was placed in command of Johnston's Army and went to Tennessee, on our return to Corinth, our company was detached from Ross' Brigade to Major Cline's Battalion. Was never wounded, captured not promoted. Was in the battles of Jackson, Miss; Reynolds Camp, Rome, Ga; New Hope Church, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Franklin, Tenn; Columbia, Tenn. Then we came to Corinth, Miss., then to Alabama, and later returned to Meridian, Miss., where we were discharged. From Morningside Press website: Haulin' Brass (a reference to bronze 6 pdrs. often referred to as brass) is the first history of a little-documented battery that took part in the Mississippi, Atlanta and Nashville Campaigns from May 1863 through January 1865. Written by a career U.S. Army officer , the book is the result of many years of research. Former National Park Service Chief Historian Edwin C. Bearss tells in the introduction of his own interest in the Columbus Flying Artillery. Bearss says that when he was researching his The Vicksburg Campaign the only information available on the battery was in the Official Records and Compiled Service Records at the National Archives. Author William Forbes 11 provides a chronological history of the battery as opposed to a narrative. Entries are given by date and location. The story begins in the spring of 1861 when Edward Croft of Columbus , Ga., was authorized to raise an artillery battery. Filling the ranks took the remainder of the year. The story of the recruiting, training, drill and public demonstrations is told through newspaper accounts, one of which announces the arming of the battery with four brass 6-pdrs., and two 12-pdrs. howitzers, The Columbus Artillery, also known as Capt. Croft's Company of Flying Artillery, was left to guard the port of Savannah on Christmas Eve, with 125 men and 65 horses. Later in the war, after Croft retired because of illness, the battery was known as Captain Young's Battery. Forbes' research has turned up some of the battery's records, so the reader learns the pay that officers received (when they were paid early in the war), how many pounds of fresh beef and salt beef were allocated, and when the men received new clothing. Support from the people of Columbus was important in feeding and clothing the battery. Although the men of Croft's Battery were native Georgians, diseases that spread through camp from the nearby swamps hit them hard as the weather warmed in 1862. Seventy-six of the men were hospitalized and 17 died, while others were furloughed home to recover. In December 1862 all light batteries along the coast were reduced to four guns. Forbes explains that in this way demands for officers, men and horses were reduced. Croft's battery lost two 6-pdrs. In May 1863 the battery went to Mississippi where it would begin two years of battle, much of it attached to the cavalry commands of Gens. Lawrence S. Ross and Nathan Bedford Forrest under the armies of Gens. Joseph Johnston and John R. Hood.. Battery records for the remainder of the war illustrate the problems with horses and feed. In one four-day period of action around Jackson, Miss., the battery lost 45 horses. In July 1863 a request for 28 tons of forage for the remainder of the month was met with 19 tons. A special requisition had to be made that September for 126.5 pounds of iron to make horseshoe nails. By late 1863 requests for shoes, shirts and blankets could not be met. Two artillery accidents are recorded. In late June 1864 the No.3 man who thumbed the vent didn't move fast enough and the recoiling cannon broke the bones in the arch of is foot. A battery member related another accident that occurred in November: "Two of my company who had lost their horses were riding on the ammunition chest which contained 40 rounds of shells. Some defect in the packing caused an explosion and those two men were torn to atoms." It was during the months of the Atlanta and Nashville campaigns that the Columbus battery saw heavy engagement and suffered many casualties and prisoners taken. Near Jonesboro, Ga., in August 1864 a corporal was hit by a round and blown "to pieces." The last surviving record of the battery is the muster roll for July and August 1864 which details the Aug. 20 action in which 1st Lt. George B. Young's detachment stayed with their 12 pdr. howitzer after their brigade was overrun. They kept the enemy at bay by firing double rounds of canister rapid fire. "The howitzer was finally abandoned by order of General Ross but not until it was almost completely surrounded and every round of ammunition expended." Captain Young's Battery, which was supporting cavalry, found itself attached to Forrest's artillery in November 1864 when Forrest was given command of all the cavalry then with the Army of Tennessee. Forrest lived up to his reputation for leadership and fearlessness. At Murfreesboro Dec. 7, 1864, the battery supported Forrest when some Confederate infantry began to retreat. Forrest shot the colorbearer in the arm, grabbed the colors and "galloped up and down the line, waving them fantically." Young's battery fired double charges of canister into the advancing Yankees, slowing the charge and allowing Forrest to rally his men. Dec. 15 was a highlight of the campaign when Confederate troops captured a Union train carrying supplies and rations with the help of Young's battery. A private in the battery wrote that he loaded so much food from the train on his old mare that he had to walk for two days. After the Nashville campaign the battery didn't have the horsepower to continue. Guns and remaining horses were taken and the men were sent to Mobile to train on the siege guns and defend the city. Young's Battery took part in the April 11, 1863, evacuation of Mobile to Meridian, Miss., where they were assigned as infantry to a battalion. There, 57 men were paroled, 18 of them from the original group first mustered. The appendices include the muster roll of Jan. 2, 1862, and a detailed roster for those who would like to learn more about the men of the Columbus Artillery. Readers will also appreciate the thorough 11-page index and the bibliography. From: "Reminiscences of the Boys in Gray 1861-1865" Complied by Miss Mamie Yeary, McGregor, Texas, published by Morningside in 1986. (This is a reprint of a 1912 edition printed in Dallas),