Yorktown Hanover Court House Mechanicsville Gaines Mill Malvern Hill Second Bull Run Fredericksburg Chancellorsville Gettysburg

Rappahannock Station Mine Run Wilderness Spottsylvania North Anna Bethesda Church Petersburg Weldon Railroad Hatcher's Run

Contents History of the Original Unit  History of the Reenactment Unit  Research information  Contacting the group  Current Campaign schedule (UPDATED November 26, 2009) Shooting Team Links to other Civil War history and reenacting web sites

Latest Changes Virtual Battery Roster (email) Original Battery Roster (table) Web Rings Recent Event Photos (UPDATED September 26, 2009) (1000 + photos) Guestbook (NEW) Let us know you were here ! Reminiscences of the Rebellion (Memoir of original Battery Member)

5th Massachusetts Battery(E)

It is the mission of the 5th Massachusetts Battery to be one of the most authentic Civil War Artillery reenacting units in the Northeast Region with something of interest to everyone.  In addition to closely adhering to original drill and field realism, we offer the following additional activities for those who are interested.

• Competitive Artillery target shooting with the American Artillery Association.  We get the lead out!
• Horse drawn Artillery:  We are currently working with horses in the field as appropriate for Civil War artillery towards the goal of a horse drawn piece within the next two years.  We offer an alternative to horse owning people who may otherwise consider joining a cavalry re-enacting unit.
• Blacksmithing: We have use of one of a handful of Civil War traveling artificer forges in existence. Amateur blacksmiths are welcome.
• Memorial graveside ceremonies honoring the original members of the 5th Mass Battery.
• Geneological research into the original members of the Battery.
• Educational historical lectures and presentations in schools and other public forums.
• Civilian portrayals of 1860's life.  Children and non-military 1860's civilian impressions are always welcome. Our children are the next generation of the 5th Mass Battery.

History and Education

The 5th Massachusetts Battery is a Chapter 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to the accurate portrayal of an 1860's period Volunteer Field Artillery Battery.  Specifically we recreate the 5th Massachusetts Battery originally recruited from the Boston and New Bedford vicinities.

An area where the 5th Mass Battery is concentrating effort is ...

Research ... and more research

One of the goals of our organizational charters is research into the history of the original 5th Massachusetts Battery.  For this purpose, we have ongoing research teams digging out any and all items pertaining to our Battery and other Civil War artillery batteries as they relate to the 5th Mass Battery and Civil War field artillery in general.  We have three teams, each with its own objectives:
 

Capt Charles A. Phillips

Research the function and equipment of a battery during the Civil War. This information is pertinent to how we conduct ourselves at re-enactments or living histories.  Research the history of the 5th Mass Battery. What did the men actually see as they marched down a road or through a town ?  This is data over and above what is contained in the Battery history Research the Battery personnel (table of all 321 original members) --their personal history --before, during, and after the war. We have collected many photos and letters etc., but, there is much more still to be discovered. Reminiscences of the Rebellion?or what I saw as a private soldier of the 5th Massachusetts Light Battery from 1861-1863  by William Archibald Waugh (Born 1843). A newly revived first hand account of the war as told by an original Battery member.

The overall objective is to accumulate data and to make the results available to other interested parties . Also, through the research process we hope to locate and catalog Battery artifacts and to locate original Battery personnel descendents. This is a major task and would have been even harder if the original Battery members hadn't published their history in 1902. This document is rich with insights into the Battery activities throughout the war. This book was just reprinted by Butternut and Blue in 1997 and is now available to the general public. If you have any information please contact us.   To the right is an original carte-de-visite (CDV) of Henry D. Scott, 1st Lieutenant Fifth Mass Battery. Wounded at Gettysburg 7/2/63 through the mouth, and wounded a second time a year later, he eventually became Captain of the 16th Mass Battery in 1864, the last field Battery to be formed from Massachusetts

Links to other sites:

• Historical Sites
  • Civil War Battles by State (National Park Service) (also shown selectively in our banner)
  • 5th Corps history (This was our corps through most of the war)
• Civil War Reenactment or General information sites
  • The Civil War Reenactors Page
• The Civil War Home Page
• Camp Chase Gazette
• Gettysburg 1999 reenactment
• Jim Schmidt's Home Page "The Civil War Nut" includes a Virtual Tour of Fredericksburg
• Civil War News
• Artillery sites
• Civil War Artillery
• American Artillery Association
• Summary history of Massachusetts Batteries
• 9th Massachusetts Battery
• 10th Massachusetts Battery
• Battery B, 4th U.S. Light Artillery
• 5th Company - Washington Artillery (Confederate in Baton Rouge / New Orleans area)
• 6th Massachusetts Light Artillery (Federal in Baton Rouge / New Orleans area - hmmm, you don't suppose...)
• 1st Michigan Light Artillery, 3rd Battery
• 1st Michigan Light Artillery, Battery D
• 1st New Jersey Light Artillery, Clark's Battery B
• 1st New York Light Artillery, Wiedrich Battery I
• 1st Ohio Light Artillery, Battery L
• 1st Ohio Light Artillery, Battery I "Dilger's Battery"
• 1st Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, Battery B
• 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery, Battery F
• 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery Regiment
• 3rd Kansas Artillery, Battery B
• 3rd U.S. Field Artillery, C Battery
• 4th U.S. Artillery, Battery B
• Other unit sites
  • 11th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment [NEW] 
  • GAR Post 89 (includes research materials, photos of Beverly, MA's GAR Post #89, and a complete roster of it's 400 members, including name, DOB & location, Unit, Rank, and a photo in most cases. About 20% of the members come from two Regiments, the 23rd M.V.I. and the 8th Reg. M.V.I)
  • The Centennial Legion of Historical Military Commands, Inc. The Fifth Mass is a proud member of this organization.
• Civilian Activities
• Civilian Links Plus a little more
• Reenactors of the American Civil War

Contact Information

Please come and visit us in the field!

Email:

• For additional information about the 5th Mass or about joining, send email to President.
• For more information on our military branch, send email to our Captain
• For feedback on our website or to request a link back to your site, send email to Webmaster.
• For more information on our Battery Forge and related activities, send email to the BlackSmith
• For more information on our horse teams to pull the guns, send email to the Chief Driver
• Additional email listings for individual members are included on our Virtual Battery roster.

Web Site: http://www.fifthmass.org

Snail Mail Address: 5th Massachusetts Battery E, PO Box 861, Reading, MA 01867

Last updated November 26, 2009

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