We are delighted to publish John Hughes's definitive work on our Battery on this website.  It has been a labor of love and provides a fascinating read incorporating carefully researched material.  Chapters will be added every week or two throughout the winter of 2011.  Needless to say, all of these materials are copyright protected - the men who served our Battery were honorable and we expect no less from our dear readers.  Now, without further ado....

Cast Iron Compliments: A History of the 3rd Battery, 1st
                          Michigan Light Artillery

                           by John E. Hughes

Foreward

My interest in researching the history of, and the men who served in, the original Battery C, 1st Michigan Light Artillery began many years ago as a young recruit in the North-South Skirmish Association.  I joined a team that carried the Battery's name and, as most enthusiastic new members, I asked other members about the men and the history of the Battery; unfortunately very little was known about them other than “they served with Sherman’s Army.” 

I was disappointed; surely there must be more than that! What were their names? What battles did they fight in? Where did they come from? Were any of them famous?  I apparently kept asking questions that no one could answer until I was elected Unit Historian and given the task to find out for myself.  

In the age before Internet, research was a daunting task.  With no one to point the way, I headed to the State Museum & Library to see if there were any records. I discovered Michigan in the War and the Michigan Brown Rosters. These old books had not only the names and short biographies about the men but also a brief history of the Battery which satisfied my curiosity for a while.

Later, a piece of “filler” text in The Skirmish Line, the N-SSA’s magazine, caught my eye - a short article about  Pvt. James G. Birney Palmer of Company A, 32nd Wisconsin Infantry, writing from his camp near Goldsborough, North Carolina, on March 27th:

“These stores had been removed from Charleston [South Carolina] previous to the evacuation.  The most valuable pieces of artillery were brought along.  The 3rd Michigan Battery (in our division) has two pieces, English made, one of them with the following inscription upon it.  "Presented to the Sovereign State of South Carolina, by one of her citizens residing abroad in commemoration of her noble conduct on the 20th of Dec. 1860" [1]

This information sparked a passion to discover more about the original Battery that continues to this day. Many people have responded to my search requests, from librarians and museum staff to descendants and other researchers; their help has been indispensable to the amassing of widely scattered sources and tidbits of information that provided clues for further study.  My thanks.

My gratitude and appreciation to Chuck TenBrink for convincing me that I had enough data to publish a book about the men and Battery, then taking it upon himself to take all my handwritten manuscripts and type them up, and having a few bound and assigned a Library of Congress number.

Deb Gosselin and Tim Howery have volunteered their time and energy to research the records of many of the men, their post-war lives and final resting places. Most of the men now have additional information linked to their names on Robinson’s Battery’s website thanks to Deb and Tim.

Kris Lindquist provided proof reading and editing for the manuscript in addition to her superb work in developing and maintaining the website.  Thank you, Kris.

So what really inspired me to learn all that I could about Battery C, First Michigan Light Artillery?  I cannot claim I really know, but perhaps General John Beatty expressed it the best in his Address of Welcome to the Veterans of The Ohio Brigade’s first reunion held on October 3 and 4, 1878.  Battery C had been attached to the Ohio Brigade for most of the war and a number of the Brigade’s infantrymen served on the cannon of the Battery.

General Beatty said, “…It requires no great stretch of the imagination to see the inquisitive boy or youth of a century, nay of five centuries hence, exploring closets and old libraries, delving into ancient books and musty manuscripts, eager to find some scrap of the history of the man who carried the name he bears through the great struggle which took place when the Nation was young. How he prizes every word. With what joy he seizes the letters which you wrote from the battle-field. It is his own blood speaking to him from the shadowy and almost forgotten past. Your spirit thus goes down the centuries and communes with his- teaches him to be loyal, self-sacrificing and brave, and he looks back with earnest, eager eyes through the fading centuries to get a glimpse of you.” [2]

[1]  Letter from Private James G. Birney Palmer.  March 27, 1865, near Goldsboro, North Carolina.  Reprinted by the Fond du Lac County Historical Society, 1962.

[2] Report of Proceedings of Ohio Brigade Reunion, Including Addresses, Correspondence, Etc. held at Columbus, Ohio, October 3 and 4, 1878.  Mt Vernon, O. Chase & Cassil, publishers 1879 Reprinted by BiblioLife, LLC LaVergne, TN. 05 December 2010