“Always Ready, Always Willing:” Battery M, Second U.S. Artillery’s Finest Day
Battery M, Second U.S. Artillery was a versatile and active unit that served continuously throughout the Civil War in the Army of the Potomac. As a horse-artillery unit, its mobility allowed it to act as a crucial support element for cavalry, and it distinguished itself on numerous battlefields. Historian Fairfax Downey said it was, “One of the best Union horse artillery batteries in the service.”[i]
Battery M was created as part of an artillery expansion for the Mexican-American War, but it got off to an inauspicious start. Authorized by Congress on March 1847, its organization was too late for active service in that war. Captain John F. Roland was the unit’s first commanding officer. Dying of yellow Fever while in Charleton, South Carolina, Roland was replaced on September 28, 1852 by Capt. Henry Jackson Hunt.
March 1860 found Hunt and Battery M stationed at Ft. Brown, Texas. When the sectional crisis started and Texas newly seceded from the Union, Texas department commander Gen. David E. Twiggs said he would turn over all U.S. army troops to the Texans. While technically surrendered, Hunt would have none of that. Battery M got its guns to the mouth of the Rio Grande and, despite having to leave their horses behind, the men of the unit, with their guns, boarded the steamer Daniel Webster in late March and steamed for Ft. Hamilton, New York.[ii]
Battery M participated in First Bull Run. Following Bull Run, it was converted to horse-artillery. It would fight with the cavalry until the surrender at Appomattox.
Battery B, Second U.S. Artillery Miller’s Photographic History
In the reorganization before Gettysburg, Battery M and its recently installed commander, Lt. Alexander Pennington, were assigned to Brig. Gen. H. Judson Kilpatrick’s cavalry division’s 2nd Brigade. That brigade was commanded by newly minted Brig. Gen. George A. Custer. Both Kilpatrick and Custer had been classmates with Pennington at West Point.
Twenty-four-year-old Lt. Alexander Cummings McWhorter Pennington Jr., from New Jersey, was transferred from Battery A to command Battery M. He graduated from the United States Military Academy, Class of 1860. Ironically, due to a bureaucratic mix-up, he wasn’t officially assigned or promoted to captain until November 1864, which was after he left the battery. Nonetheless, Pennington was “an aggressive, young commander who proved more than a match for [JEB] Stuart’s finest ‘Invincibles.’” He would lead Battery M with distinction. [iii]
Lt. A.C.M. Pennington, public domain
On July 3, east of Gettysburg, Battery M and Lt. Pennington had one of their finest days.
Battery M found itself supporting Custer’s brigade at the intersection of the Hanover and Low Dutch Roads. Despite orders to rejoin Kilpatrick at Two Taverns, Brig. Gen. Gregg directed Custer to stay. Reports of increasing numbers of Confederate cavalry filing into the woods atop Cress’s Ridge almost a mile away caused Gregg to be concerned about the threat to the Union army’s rear. As a result, Pennington unlimbered two sections of his guns northwest and one section southeast of Spangler’s farm house on Hanover Road.
Soon emerging from the woods on Cress’s Ridge were six Confederate cannon – four guns of Capt. Thomas E. Jackson’s Charlottesville “Kanawha” Horse Artillery and a two-gun section from Capt. Charles Green’s Louisiana Battery. Opening fire, they soon made it hot for Custer’s command.[iv]
Custer recognized that the enemy enjoyed the advantage of a higher position and would deliver a plunging fire. “The enemy had obtained the correct range,” wrote Custer, “and was pouring shot and shell into my command with great accuracy . . .. I ordered [Pennington] to silence the enemy’s battery . . . notwithstanding the superiority of the enemy’s [elevated] position.”[v]
Major Henry B. McClellan never forgot how:
“The first signs of [artillery] activity on the Federal side came from a battery near the house of Joseph Spangler. This was a fine horse battery M, 2nd United States artillery, consisting of six, 3-inch rifles and commanded by Lieutenant A.C.M. Pennington. The fire of these guns was the most accurate and effective. They came so fast and accurate that the first shot struck in the battery, and shot after shot came with such precision and rapidity that the battery was soon disabled and forced to seek shelter.”[vi]
One Yankee cavalryman observed:
“Pennington had supreme accuracy standing beside his second gun directing a shot which struck a rebel gun squarely on the muzzle, rupturing the barrel, and dismounting it. . .. the distance was three-fourths of a mile . . . his next shot struck a wheel hub, smashing the gun and killed the crew. The remainder of the battery retired.”[vii]
The artillery duel was one-sided. The inferior Confederate guns were no match for the superiority of Battery M.
Around this time, a group of mounted officers came out of the woods on Cress’s Ridge and rode to Brinkerhoff Ridge, which was an open ridge. It was Gen. Stuart and his staff. Stuart wanted to assess the Yankee strength. Pennington spotted the cluster of horsemen. It didn’t take him long to send a shell screaming their way. As Frank Smith Robertson on Stuart’s staff told it: “The General and staff rode out of the woods to a cleared hill. A Yankee battery at the far end of the big clearing opened on us and we rode back again. The General disappeared and the staff seemed to scatter.” The accurate fire of Battery M came close to eliminating the South’s most famous cavalryman.[viii]
Breathed’s and McGregor’s Confederate batteries soon arrived on Cress’s Ridge after replenishing their caissons. These were veteran gunners that had long demonstrated their superiority on many battlefields. They dropped trail near where Jackson’s and Green’s guns once stood and opened fire.[ix]
Battery M replied to their new targets and was soon joined by Battery E & G, 1st U.S. Artillery. Commanded by Capt. Alanson M. Randol, they dropped trail on the Low Dutch Road and joined in the counter-battery fire. One Yankee noticed that “Pennington replied with astonishing effect, for every shot [seemed to] hit the mark, and the opposing artillerists were unable to silence a single Union gun.” According to Pennington, salvo after salvo was directed at the Confederate guns and he eventually silenced them.[x]
From the woods on Cress’s Ridge came row upon row of rebel horseman. Under generals Wade Hampton and Fitz Lee, they formed to charge. Battery M opened on this new target from long range. In what turned out to be the final charge of the battle, “Pennington let loose a terrific storm of shot and shell, tearing whole ranks apart and leaving large gaps in the Confederate lines.”
As the Confederates drew closer, Pennington switched to canister and then double canister, until Custer, at the head of the 1st Michigan Cavalry, formed in their front. As Custer and his Wolverines moved forward to meet charge with charge, Pennington’s guns resumed firing, sending shells over their comrades’ heads right up until the last minute when horsemen crashed into horseman. Historian Edward Longacre opined that the Federal artillery wreaked havoc on Gen. Wade Hampton’s troops as they galloped across the open plain until they closed with the Yankee horsemen.[xi]
The combination of the Yankee horsemen and artillery turned the tide, and Hampton and Lee pulled back to the safety of Cress’s Ridge. As they did so, Pennington’s guns continued to throw shells into their backs and swept the ground until the gray horsemen disappeared. Pennington was said to have fired more than 240 rounds during the contest.[xii]
Praise was soon showered on Pennington and Battery M. General Gregg stated, “The batteries commanded by Capt. A.M. Randol and Lieut. A.C.M. Pennington, Jr., rendered most effective service. The fire of the artillery during the engagement was the most accurate that I have ever seen.” Historian Eric Wiitenberg recounted of Custer’s laudatory comments “but for Pennington we would have been licked in that fight and to . . . Pennington [and Battery M] the country owes the fortunate result of the Battle of Gettysburg.” In his report of the Gettysburg Campaign, Gen. Kilpatrick’s gave his final assessment of the conduct and service of Battery M and Pennington, in a succinct assertion: “Pennington, always ready, always willing.”[xiii]
Battery M would go on fighting in a number of battles after Gettysburg. At Newby’s Crossroads, section chief Lt. George Woodruff would earn a Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions there. They fought at Yellow Tavern and Trevillian Station. Trevillian was Battery M’s costliest fight of the war. Of the 44 casualties sustained there by the unit, 37 of these were men captured.[xiv]
On October 7, 1864, Pennington left Battery M to be named colonel of the 3rd New Jersey Cavalry. Both he and Battery M fought with Gen. Phil Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864. Battery M returned to fight at Five Forks on April 2 1865 and was ready to accompany Sheridan to reinforce Sherman’s army after Lee’s surrender. The surrender of Johnston’s army made that unnecessary. Battery M finished the Civil War with a proud record of service, boosting of never having lost a gun during the war, and their finest day was the service they performed at Gettysburg.[xv]
Monument to Battery M, Second U.S. Artillery at East Cavalry Battlefield Gettysburg NPS
[i] Downey, Fairfax, The Guns of Gettysburg, New York, David McKay Co., 1958, p. 163.
[ii] Cutrer, Thomas W. and Smith, David Paul, David E. Twiggs: Confederate General and U.S. Army Officer, Texas State Historical Association, 1952, updated April 27, 2023. Twiggs, David Emanuel Morgan, Always Ready, p. 2.
[iii] Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 2001, p. 754. Morgan, Always Ready, p.13. Hunt, Roger D., & Brown, Jack R., Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue, Gaithersburg, MD, Olde Soldier Books, Inc., 1997, p. 476. Longacre, Edward G., The Cavalry at Gettysburg: A Tactical Study of Mounted Operations during the Civil War’s Pivotal Campaign, 9 June – 14 July, 1863, Rutherford, NJ, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1986, p.161-163.
[iv] Tucker, Phillip Thomas, Custer at Gettysburg: A New Look at George Armstrong Custer versus Jeb Stuart in the Battle’s Climactic Cavalry Charges, Guilford, CT, Stackpole Books, 2019, p. 265. McClellan, Henry B., I Rode with JEB Stuart: The Life and Campaigns of General J.E.B. Stuart, New York, NY, Da Capo, 1994, p. 339. Gottfried, Bradley M., The Artillery at Gettysburg, Nashville, TN, Cumberland House, 2008, p. 235. Capt. Jackson’s battery was composed of two 12-pounders and two 3-inch rifles, and Green’s section was composed of two 10-pounder Parrott rifles.
[v] O.R. Series 1, Vol XXVII, pt. 1, pp. 1000-1001. Custer’s report. Kidd, James, Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman, Ionia, MI, Sentinel Printing Company, 1908, p.73.
[vi] McClellan, I Rode with JEB Stuart, p.146.
[vii] Kidd, Personal Recollections.
[viii] Trout, Robert J., In the Saddle with Stuart: The Story of Frank Smith Robertson of Jeb Stuart’s Staff, Gaithersburg, PA, Thomas Publications, 1998, p. 80. It would be less than a year when one of Custer’s Wolverines would mortally wound Stuart at Yellow Tavern.
[ix] Tucker, Custer at Gettysburg, pp. 270-271. Breathed’s battery had four 3-inch guns, and McGregor’s had two 12-pounder Napoleons and two 3-inch rifles.
[x] Kidd, Personal Recollections. Hewitt, Janet B. et. al, ed., Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. 5, Wilmington, NC, Broadfoot Publishing Co., 1994-1998, p. 285.
[xi] Kidd, Personal Recollections. Longacre, Cavalry at Gettysburg, pp. 228-229.
[xii] Kidd, Personal Recollections. Gottfried, Artillery at Gettysburg, p. 235-238.
[xiii] O.R. Series 1, Vol. XXVII, pt.1, p. 957. Gregg’s report dated July 25, 1863. Wittenberg, Eric, Protecting the Flank at Gettysburg: The Battles for Brinkerhoff’s Ridge and East Cavalry Field, July 2-3, 1863, El Dorado, CA, Savas Beatie, 2013, p. 40. O.R. Series 1, Vol XXVII, pt.1, p. 994. Kilpatrick’s report.
[xiv] Morgan, Always Ready, Always Willing, pp.23-24, 30.
[xv] Eicher & Eicher, Civil War High Commands, p. 754. Morgan, Always Ready, Always Willing, p. vii.
