Schoolfield’s Battery Company History
The unique little battery commanded by Captain J. J. Schoolfield was invented by a man named Williams, of Covington, Ky., who went to Richmond early in the war and induced the Confederate Government to cast a battery of six guns. This was the only battery of the kind,1 I think, in the Confederate army. During much of the war it was attached to our brigade, and the twenty-five young men who manned it intimately affiliated with the Fourth Kentucky Cavalry. The names of a majority of the battery membership are to be found on the muster-roll of Captain Bart Jenkins’ company.
It was a small breech-loading gun, the breech being thrown out by a spring, when the gun was discharged, thereby permitting a current of air to pass through the long barrel, which had a tendency to keep it cool while being actively worked. It carried a one pound solid ball, but upon occasion it did effective service at short range when loaded with buckshot and half-ounce ball cartridges. The gun could be fired about forty times a minute,2 and being mounted upon a light carriage it could be run from point to point by hand. The little battery often did great execution, and the Federals were frequently puzzled to know the character of artillery they were fighting.
On one of the inconsequential raids into the mountains of Kentucky Colonel Tom Johnson took one of the little guns with his battalion, but I do not think any of the regular batterymen accompanied it. While encamped somewhere near the Big Sandy River, in a narrow valley, flanked by high mountains, a noted Union partisan, named Patrick, entered Johnson’s camp at night and stole the gun away.3 Patrick told me of the circumstance since the war, and said he was like the man who drew the elephant—that he did not know what to do with the gun after he had captured (?) it. The incident was the occasion of much amusement to Federals and Confederates. Some months afterward, while the little battery was encamped in Virginia, Colonel Tom Johnson, riding by, could not resist the temptation to say something “funny” and sarcastic about the guns. Accosting John Fish, one of the cannoneers, he said: “You had better keep your eyes on those guns or some woman may slip into camp and carry them off.” Fish, who did not know the colonel, replied: “Oh, we are not uneasy. The only man in the army who would permit such a thing is Old Tom Johnson, and he is not in command here.”
In one of the battles in Tennessee I can not remember the name of the place, the battery signally distinguished itself. I think General George B. Crittenden was in command, and that the fight occurred just before General John S. Williams took command of us. We had been falling back for several days, skirmishing nearly all the while, until we reached the point referred to, when Captain Schoolfield was ordered to take position on a little hill on the right, in a valley, and await the coming of the enemy. The remainder of the command moved back nearly a mile in rear of Schoolfield’s position, leaving his battery dangerously exposed and unsupported. Why the battery was left isolated on the outpost, I never knew nor understood. The gallant youths with the guns made a frail fortification of fence rails and grimly waited for the Federals, who soon appeared in strong force. A hot fire was immediately opened on both sides, and a close and deadly combat ensured, which lasted probably an hour. Schoolfield, unsupported, held his position until he was flanked, and the enemy in front charged almost to the muzzles of his guns. In fact the enemy in front had to cease firing for fear of killing their own men, who were on the flanks and trying to surround the battery. The men had to run their guns off the field by hand, as no horses could have lived to get to them. Even then the battery would have been captured had not a part of the Fourth Kentucky gone to the rescue. The Fourth Kentucky boys met the guns just as Schoolfield had succeeded in getting them beyond the brow of the hill, probably one hundred and fifty yards from the enemy. The batterymen were so exhausted that they could do nothing more, and the boys of Company E, Fourth Kentucky, took hold of the guns and rushed them down the hill. Lieutenant Archie Smith was in command of the detachment of Company E, and he and his men not only had to handle the guns, but they had to assist Schoolfield and his exhausted men off the field. The enemy continued to press them until one of our larger batteries on a hill in the rear opened on them and checked their advance.
As soon as he had gotten his battery out Schoolfield went to headquarters, where he received a compliment he will never forget. When he entered the house Major Parker was sitting on the only chair in the room. He immediately arose, saluted and requested Captain Schoolfield to be seated. The captain declined, but the major insisted that he should take the chair, saying that the gallant commander of the battery was the only officer in the command who had now a right to a seat in the chair that day.
Bud Peters, an adopted son of Judge Peters, of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, an exceedingly promising youth of Schoolfield’s little command, was drowned in Nola Chucky River, which the battery was crossing on its way to Greenville, Tenn. With uncovered head I salute Captain Schoolfield and his gallant young artillerists.
Excerpt from Kentucky Cavaliers in Dixie
By George Dallas Mosgrove
Notes
1There were at least 30 guns built, one four-gun battery was Buckner’s, active in West Tennessee and northern Mississippi (research by Lyle Hegsted and Bill Heard).
2These guns could fire ten rounds per minute. A six-gun battery could fire 60 rounds per minute (research by Bill Heard).
3The Patrick gun, as it is known, is located in the Kentucky State Military Museum in Frankfort, Kentucky (research by Bill Heard).
Baxter's Battery
Tennessee Light Artillery
