Union monuments at Gettysburg > New York > Artillery & Engineers
“Empire Battery”
The monument to Battery B, 1st New York Light Artillery is south of Gettysburg on Hancock Avenue. (Hancock Avenue Part 3 tour map) It was dedicated in 1888 by the State of New York.
Monument to Battery B, 1st New York Light Artillery, flanked by two 10-pounder Parrott rifles. The Codori farm is in the distance and the monument to the 15th Massachusetts Infantry is at the center.
The battery at Gettysburg
Battery B brought 114 men to the field serving four 10-pounder Parrott Rifles. Captain James McKay Rorty, a Second Corps Ordnance Officer who requested a combat command for the battle, took over from Lieutenant Albert S. Sheldon on July 2-3.
The battery fought near the Wheatfield and on McGilvery’s line of artillery along Plum Run on July 2, and was stationed on Cemetery Ridge on July 3, directly in the path of Pickett’s Charge.
Three of the battery’s cannon were disabled in the bombardment preceding the charge. So many men were out of action that Rorty grabbed a swab to help work the remaining piece and borrowed a score of men from the nearby 19th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment to keep the gun firing.
Rorty and nine other men were killed and Lieutenant Albert S. Sheldon was wounded as Kemper’s Virginians briefly overran the battery in a flurry of hand to hand fighting, planting their colors on one of the guns before they were killed or captured. Lieutenant Robert E. Rogers was left in command.
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Attached to the Artillery Brigade, 2d Corps
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From the front of the monument
Battery B
1st New York Light Artillery,
Artillery Brigade 2d Corps
From the right side
Position held afternoon of July 3rd, 1863.
Casualties; killed 10, wounded 16.
From the rear
Organized at Baldwinsville, Onondaga Co. New York.
From the left side
Mustered into service Aug. 31, 1861.
Participated in 78 days of battle.
Mustered out of service June 18, 1865.
Location to the monument
The monument to Battery B of the 1st New York Light Artillery is south of Gettysburg on the west side of Hancock Avenue about about 65 yards directly south of the United States Regulars monument. (39°48’38.3″N 77°14’08.8″W)