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of six 10-pounder Parrotts, there was not a rifled field-piece south of the Potomac.
The first step to supply this want was to ream out a number of old 4-pounder iron guns belonging to the State of Virginia to get a good bore, and then rifle them after the manner of the Parrott.
Besides these, that State purchased a few Parrott guns, used by Colonel Magruder at Big Bethel, in June, 1861.
Of the volunteer associations, the Washington Artillery, of New Orleans, organized in 1838, and having seen service as Company A in Persifal Smith's regiment in the Mexican War, was best known.
In 1861, the organization consisted of five batteries, four of which served in Virginia, and one in the Army of Tennessee.
On May 3, 1861, the battalion, through Judah P. Benjamin, offered its services to the Confederate Government, and was mustered in on the 26th of that month.
The battalion made its mark at Bull Run on July 18th, but its most conspicuous service was at Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, when from Marye's Heights it played an important part in repulsing repeated assaults of the Union troops.
Its strength was afterward much reduced, and in Virginia the batteries consisted of three guns each.
Next in importance was the Richmond Howitzers, organized at the time of the John Brown raid by George W. Randolph, afterward Confederate Secretary of War.
In 1861, it was recruited up to three companies and formed into a battalion, though in the field the first company was never associated with the other two.
It has been said that the flower of the educated youth in the South gravitated toward the artillery, and it is claimed that over one hundred men were commissioned from this corps, of every rank from that of second lieutenant to Secretary of War. One of its features was the Howitzer Glee Club, led by Crouch, the author of “Kathleen Mavourneen” ; another was the Howitzer Law Club, in which mootcourts were held.
Many of its members were from the
Review of Reviews. New York. 1912.
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