Talk:5th U.S. Artillery, Battery H

unit histories
evedently someone is a little CW-centric, so I guess we should make another page for each 10-min. of a units history? and were to good to link to proper U.S. Army Unit histories. alrighty then Brian in denver (talk) 00:22, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Some basic distinctions
Hello. I'm not sure I entirely understand the comment above, but I think it is generally in line with what I have to say:

There is a tendency on Wikipedia for U.S. Army artillery company articles to focus entirely on Civil War service, to the extent that the unit history is quite incorrect. There were no Regular Army Federal artillery companies organized specifically for the American Civil War and disbanded afterward (with the exception of the USCT, which was the case across service branches). The 1st through 4th Regiments of Artillery (in their 1861-era iterations) were in continuous service from 1821 onward, with additional companies (K, L/M, and N/O) added in 1838, 1847, and 1899 respectively. Additionally, the 6th and 7th Regiments were organized in 1899. The 5th Regiment was the only Civil War-era Federal artillery regiment that was actually organized in 1861; all existing Federal artillery regiments continued in service through February 1901, when the regimental model was abolished and the units were re-designated as coast artillery companies or field artillery batteries.

Furthermore, there was no such designation as the "U.S. Light Artillery" during the time of the Civil War. The Light Artillery was abolished in 1821. The 5th Regiment, like the four others at the time, consisted of artillery companies with standard letter designations. The only possible distinction is the difference between a typical artillery battery and a "light battery", of which there were one or two in each regiment. The distinction here is most easily understood as the later difference between the coast artillery garrison companies and the field artillery batteries: the light batteries were trained and equipped as mobile field artillery, generally trained separately, and were often equipped as horse artillery during the war. The regular artillery companies were typically "unmounted" in peacetime and served as fortress garrisons or heavy/siege artillery units during the war.

Just a few thoughts on the matter. That's about all I care to say about it here on Wikipedia. Radar488 (talk) 03:35, 2 January 2024 (UTC)