An attempt was made in May, 1862 to form a regiment of light artillery out of the light artillery batteries which had belonged to the Artillery Corps of Tennessee. The attempt was unsuccessful; no field officers were elected, and the organization was never recognized by the Adjutant and Inspector Generals Office. However, some of the companies were mustered as companies in the First Tennessee Light Artillery Regiment. Some of them later formed a temporary field organization known as the 1st Tennessee Light Artillery Battalion, also called the 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery Battalion, the remnants of which were permanently consolidated into the 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery Regiment (q.v.) by order of Major General Leonidas Polk in January, 1864. The companies which have been identified as belonging to the 1st Tennessee Light Artillery Regiment are as follows:
- Hugh L. W. McClung’s Battery, Co. “A” Smith P. Bankhead’s Battery, 1st “B”, later William L. Scott’s.
- Jesse Taylor’s Battery, 2nd “B”, later P. K. Stankiewicz’, F. J. Weller’s.
- William Keiter’s, Co. “C”, later W. Y. C. Humes’, William C. Winston’s.
- W. H. Jackson’s Battery, Co. “D”, William W. Carnes’, L. G. Marshall’s.
- Robert Sterling’s Battery, Co. “E”
- Co. “F”-No record.
- J. G. Anglade’s Battery, Co. “G”, later James A. Fisher’s.
There is no record on Companies “H”, “I” and “K” except for Prisoner of War Rolls, which do not give the names of the captains.
All of the above companies will be found in battery histories under the names of the last battery commander.
This unit history was extracted from Tennesseans in the Civil War, Vol 1. Copyrighted 1964 by the Civil War Centennial Commission of Tennessee and is published here with their permission. This history may not be republished for any reason without the written permission of the copyright owner.