Brief History of Battery E 43rd Pennsylvania Volunteers

43rd Pennsylvania Volunteers
1st Light Artillery
Battery E
Recruited in York County

Brief History

Organized as part of the Reserve Corps, the 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery comprised eight original batteries mustered into service in June, 1861. A ninth company, Battery "I" was formed in March, 1865 from the surplus recruits of the other batteries. The eight original batteries never acted as a unified force, being parcelled out to battalions and brigades in different divisions and corps. As a result, the individual batteries saw much varied action with both the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James.

BATTERY E

Units Attached To

Date	Unit
June 20, 1861	Organized at Philadelphia
August 05, 1861	Ordered to Washington, DC
October 1861 to November 1861	Attached to William Farrar Smith's 2nd Division, 4th Corps, Army of the Potomac
November 1861 to March 10, 1862	Don Carlos Buell's Division, Army of the Potomac
March 10, 1862 to June 1862	Artillery, Darius Nash Couch's 1st Division, Erasmus Darwin Keyes' 4th Corps, Army of the Potomac
June 1862 to June 1863	Reserve Artillery, Erasmus Darwin Keyes' 4th Corps
June 1863 to July 1863	2nd Brigade, 1st Division, Erasmus Darwin Keyes' 4th Corps
July 1863 to June 1864	United States Forces, Yorktown, VA, Department of Virginia and North Carolina
June 1864 to July 1864	Unattached, Department of Virginia and North Carolina
July 1864 to August 1864	Artillery Brigade, Godfrey Weitzel's 18th Corps
August 1864 to December 1864	Artillery Brigade, David B. Birney's 10th Army Corps
December 1864 to July 1865	Artillery Brigade, Godfrey Weitzel's 25th Corps, Department of Virginia

Engagements

Date	Event
June 20, 1861	Mustered in Philadelphia, PA
June 20 to August 05, 1861	Training at Camp Curtin, Harrisburg, PA
June 22, 1861 to Late July 1861	Relief of Colonel Wallace in West Virginia
August 1861 to March 1862	Duty at Camp Barry and the Defences of Washington, DC
March 10 to 15, 1862	Advance on Manassas, VA
April 05 to May 04, 1862	Moved to the Virginia Peninsula, Siege of Yorktown
May 05, 1862	Battle of Williamsburg
May 31 to June 01, 1862	Battle of Fair Oaks, Seven Pines
June 25 to July 01, 1862	Seven days before Richmond
June 25 to June 29, 1862	Defense of Bottom's Bridge
July 01, 1862	Malvern Hill
Till August 16, 1862	At Harrison's Landing
August 16 to August 24, 1862	Retreat from the Peninsula
August 24, 1862 to April 1864	Garrison duty at Yorktown and Gloucester
June 26, 1863 to July 08, 1863	John Adams Dix's Peninsula Campaign
October 04. 1863 to October 09, 1863	Expedition to Matthews County
December 11 to 15, 1863	Expedition to Gloucester Court House
April 1864	At Williamsburg, VA
Till July 05, 1864	Defences of Yorktown
July 05, 1864	Ordered to join 18th Corps in the field
July 1864 to April 1865	Siege operations against Petersburg and Richmond
September 28 to 30, 1864	Chaffin's Farm, New Market Heights, and Fort Harrison
September 30, 1864	Near Richmond
Till April 1865	In trenches before Richmond
Till July 1865	Duty dismantling forts and removing ordinance
July 20, 1865	Mustered out, Philadelphia, PA

Lost 2 enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 21 enlisted men by disease

SOURCE

A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion

Dyer, Frederick H.
Part III, Page 1573
Morningside Press, Dayton Ohio, 1879

Last Updated 05 November 1999

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times