“Humphreys Light Artillery”; Became Company “A” 24th Tennessee Sharpshooter Battalion (q.v.)
This company was organized September 7, 1861, from Humphreys County. Soon after organization it was sent to Fort Donelson, where Colonel Heiman reported: “At 3:00 P.M. Saturday October 26, an expedition to obstruct navigation on the Cumberland River at Ingram Shoals left Fort Donelson.” Part of this expedition was a detachment from Captain Maney’s Company consisting of 40 men and four artillery pieces.
On November 29, 1861, a report of the forces at Fort Donelson listed Maney’s battery, but with no horses. On January 16, 1862, on arriving at Fort Donelson, Colonel Milton A. Haynes, Chief of Tennessee Artillery Corps, reported that Captain Maney’s was the only battery there.
As the Confederate forces there built up, Maney’s Battery was attached to Colonel Heiman’s Brigade, of Brigadier General Bush-rod Johnson’s Division. In the Federal attack on Johnson’s position on February 13, Johnson reported that Maney’s Battery came under heavy fire from sharpshooters, and that his loss was so heavy he was able to man only two guns out of four.
The company was surrendered on February 16, 1862; exchanged at Vicksburg, Mississippi in September, 1862; and reorganized December 1, 1862 as Light Artillery, but armed temporarily as Infantry. It fought in the Battle of Murfreesboro December 31, 1862 with the 1st (Feild’s) Tennessee Infantry.
In June 1863, General B. R. Johnson, reporting on the skirmish at Hoover’s Gap, June 24-26, stated that a section of two light field pieces from Maney’s Battery reported to him on June 26, and later fell back with Captain Darden. Maney’s Battery was mentioned as attached to Brigadier General W. B. Bate’s Brigade of Major General A. P. Stewart’s Division. This was the last record of the company as a battery, and this itself is somewhat confusing, for on May 1, 1863, two additional companies of infantry had been included with it, and the three companies organized as the 24th Sharpshooter Battalion. Muster rolls and individual service records of the battery are filed under the 24th Battalion.
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.