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Archived 31 January 1999
History Part 1
The 2nd U.S. Artillery, along with the 1st, 3rd, and 4th, was organized by an Act of Congress on March 21, 1821. Each regiment was to have a colonel, a lieutenant colonel, a major, a supernumerary captain (for ordnance duty; all ordnance was to be done by the artillery), an adjutant, a sergeant major, and nine companies (as batteries were called until the time of the American Civil War). From what can be determined, the 2nd Artillery of the War of 1812 was a different organization from the one authorized in 1821.
Colonel Nathan Towson (of Oklahoma’s Ft. Towson fame) was nominated as the colonel of the 2nd. For reasons obscure today his confirmation was held up for 10 years, through three administrations, and finally denied. At the time of his nomination Towson was the paymaster general of the Army, a civil officer and not part of the Army proper. The Senate’s official reason for the denial was that selection of officers for the new regiments should be confined to the Army. In 1832 William Lindsay was confirmed as the regiment’s first colonel. He had been a major and with the old 2nd during the War of 1812. In that same year ordnance was separated from artillery.
During the fall of 1827 the 2nd was sent south to relieve the 1st Artillery. The were stationed in Augusta and Savannah, Georgia; then to Ft. Marion, Florida; and on to Fts. Pike and St. Philip, Louisiana. This was to supposed herald a routine rotation of regiments throughout the Army. Sickness followed the 2nd to its southern duty stations. Major Heileman, commanding the 2nd Artillery at Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, was ordered on alert due to the unrest generated by the Nullification Crisis of 1832. He was reinforced by companies from the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Artillery, and finally General Scott himself. Tensions were eased when the artillerymen pitched in to help the exhausted and beleaguered townspeople fight a raging fire that had broken out in Charleston.
In 1832 Companies A, B, and C were sent to Alabama to assist in keeping order by removing white settlers from lands ceded to the Creeks. The Alabama Legislature went so far as to pass a series of laws giving state courts jurisdiction over the territory. Writs were served on U.S. officers, who refused to honor them. Alabama countered by raising an army of state troops to drive the U.S. forces out, but nothing came of it after much blustering. States’ rights were a contentious issue in the 1820s and 1830s.
Second Artillery Companies A, B, and C were sent to Ft. Brooke, Tampa, Florida, in 1836, to enforce the removal of the Seminoles to that state; Company H was already there. Company D was at St. Augustine and Company F was at Ft. King in the heart of Indian country, midway between St. Augustine and Ft. Brooke, Tampa Bay. On the morning of December 28 Major Dade, along with Companies B of the 2nd and C of the 3rd, were ambushed on a march from Ft. Brooke to Ft. King to reinforce the latter. All but two of Dade’s men were killed, including Captain Gardiner and Lieutenants Basinger and Henderson of the 2nd. At the same time other Seminoles under the leadership of Osceola attacked and killed the Indian Agent and Lieutenant Smith of Company F as they walked outside Ft. King.
When General Scott took command in Florida early in 1836, he was joined by Colonel Lindsay of the 2nd (with Companies A, B, G, and H) forming a column to attack the various bands of Seminole warriors. Companies C, D, E, and F were scattered around the forts of eastern and central Florida. The Second Seminole War degenerated, in the Army’s view, into a war of attrition and in August the 2nd was ordered to Ft. Wolcott, Rhode Island. After only a few months the 2nd was ordered back to Florida, but not all of the regiment went. Detachments of Companies C, E, and F were in subsequent fights in Florida, losing several men in the process. In a little over two years of service in Florida the 2nd lost nine officers and 103 men due to battle and disease.
After 11 years of service in the south, the regiment was headed for the Cherokee country of Alabama and Tennessee by the spring of 1838. In July the regiment was sent on to the Niagara frontier to assist in fortifying that area as a result of the "Patriot’s War" raging in Canada. On the march north a battalion under Major Payne split off for Detroit while the rest of the regiment went on to establish its headquarters at Buffalo, New York. The 2nd actually worked in concert with some officers of the British Army to quell the rebellion to "free" Canada.
The "modern," and most lustrous history of the 2nd, began with Secretary of War Joel Poinsett’s order to establish a camp of instruction for the light artillery at Camp Washington, near Trenton, New Jersey. For the 2nd it was Company A with Lt. James Duncan (USMA class of 1834) in command. The others were K of the 1st under Capt. Francis Taylor, C of the 3rd under Major Samuel Ringgold, and B of the 4th under Capt. John Washington--one additional company, E of the 3rd under Capt. Braxton Bragg, was added prior to the Mexican-American War.
All of the newly designated light artillery companies were ordered to a camp of instruction, Camp Washington, in 1839, for three months of training. Afterwards, Company A served at Buffalo and Ft. Hamilton, New York. The impending hostilities with Mexico found Company A, along with other units of the infantry and artillery, in route to Corpus Christi, Texas, to Join "Old Rough and Ready," General Zachary Taylor, arriving sometime during September or October of 1845. There, Duncan and his men joined General William Worth's division (of Ft. Worth, Texas, fame)
Moving southward with Taylor into the disputed area between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers, Duncan figured prominently in the first two battles of the war. At Palo Alto (place of the tall timber) on May 8, 1846, Duncan massed battery fire and then used obscuring smoke to change positions at a critical juncture of the battle, thereby surprising and greatly assisting in the defeat of the Mexican forces. As Taylor's army moved south the next day the enemy forces gave battle again at Resaca de la Palma (dry wash of the palms).
Determined not to repeat the mistakes of the previous day, i.e., affording the American artillery clear vistas of fire and ample room to maneuver, the Mexican commander, General Arista, picked a spot which would make it difficult for the gunners to use their weapons as they had the day before. In so doing, the Mexican commander also made it difficult for his own troops, especially the much feared lancers, to demonstrate to their best advantage. While the American artillery did not play as significant a role at the Resaca as they did at Palo Alto, it is fair to suggest that their mere presence still greatly influenced the conduct and outcome of the battle.
As was the case the day before, the Mexicans retired from the field at Resaca de la Palma leaving it in American hands and effectively conceding victory to General Taylor’s army. This time, however, the Mexican Army did not stop until they reached the safety of Matamoros, below the Rio Grande. Duncan won two brevets in the opening days of the war, one for each of the battles. Palo Alto also saw the demise of the most famous artilleryman in the Army. Major Samuel Ringgold was wounded through both legs and died a few days later. It was he who formed and drilled the first "flying batteries." Ringgold is remembered by artillerymen as the first operational innovator of what today would be called "shoot and scoot" tactics, having no doubt borrowed from predecessors Gribeauval and Lieutenant George Peter. His command was assumed by Capt. Randolph Ridgely, himself to succumb to a fall from his horse after the Battle of Monterrey.
September 20, 1846, found Taylor's forces in front of Monterey, Mexico. Taylor moved directly towards the city center, while Worth swung to the west in an attempt to neutralize two strong points on that end of the city. For the next two days Monterrey witnessed a bloody, house to house struggle. Mexican troops defended their city stubbornly and American Infantry used picks, shovels, and bayonets to burrow through the adobe walls to move ever closer to the plaza at the center of the city. Duncan's company fought along side Worth and helped capture Independence and Federation Hills. The artillery in the city proper, meanwhile, was used to clear streets, blow holes through walls in houses so the infantry could advance, and was also dragged to the roofs of the houses so that their fire might enfilade Mexican defenses and strong points. Against orders, quartermaster officer U. S. Grant assisted the artillerymen in hauling mountain howitzers to those rooftops. On the morning of the September 24 it was over. The casualties had been heavy on both sides, 488 Americans and 367 Mexicans. The Mexican forces moved south and the Americans rested.
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