1st Maryland Light Artillery (Snow's Brigade)
The 1st Maryland Light Artillery, which entered official service in October 1861. The unit was better known as Snow's Battery after its commander, Capt. Alonzo Snow.
Before the war was over, the 450 officers and men of Snow's Battery would see action for the Union at Antietam, Malvern Hill, New Market and in the Shenandoah Valley. Some would be captured in Virginia and spend the war in the infamous Confederate prison, at Andersonville, Ga.
During the battle of Antietam 1st Lt. Theodore J. Vanneman the acting commander of the 1st Maryland, who made his official report: "Sept. 20, 1862 On 17th, on orders of General Franklin, moved to the right and in front of Headquarters in a cornfield, and ordered to shell woods in front where an enemy battery stationed near a school house opened on us. We fired 300 rounds, and with the help of other batteries, silenced it. We suffered no losses. All the officers and men behaved with bravery."
Regarding the 1st's actions in the battle Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker recalled, "Every stalk of corn in the greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife and the slain lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks a few moments before." An unknown Confederate gunner referred to it as "Artillery Hell"
The sketch artist Frank H. Schell, who drew some of the batteries in action, described the Confederate dead and wounded. "One of them had bound his shattered leg with corn stalks and leaves to stop the flow of blood," according to an account based on Schell's descriptions. "He asked for water of which there was none and then begged the artist to remove his dead comrade, who was lying partially on him, which was done. He wanted to be carried out of the woods, because he expected his friends to return and fight for them again. At the right was a tall young Georgian with a shattered ankle, sitting at the feet of one of the dead, who he said, was his father."
The men of Snow's Battery came from Port Deposit and Cecil County. Cecil Countians made up nearly all of B company while the Port Deposit soldiers made up the other companies.
Snow's Battery saw action in the battle of New Market on May 15, 1864. An anecdotal account of the battle was recorded in the 1950s by local historian William T. Mahoney, who relayed a story told to his father by Jacob McCardell, a sergeant in the battery. Mahoney wrote that "McCardell one of the battery's best gunners was ordered to fire a single shot at a group of Confederate officers about a mile away. In the group were the Confederate commander Gen. John C. Breckenridge and his staff, who were on horseback on the town's Main Street near the Lutheran church". Mahoney later investigated the story and found a weathered post at that spot with a shell hole, above which was a framed notice stating that the hole had been made by an unexploded 3-inch shell fired by Snow's Battery.
In the June of 1864, the battery experienced one of its bleakest periods, an unsuccessful campaign under the command of Gen. David Hunter against Confederate forces at Lynchburg, Va. During the retreat, several members of Snow's Battery were captured. The July 23, 1864, issue of the Cecil Democrat newspaper lists the names of one lieutenant and 20 privates who were taken prisoner. Most were sent to Andersonville prison, where several died from disease and the harsh conditions there. After nearly four years of service, Snow's Battery was mustered out in 1865. The battery had lost 41 men killed in action, 117 wounded (one-third of whom later died) and 82 captured (21 of whom died in prison). Most of the veterans remained friends and neighbors in Port Deposit or Cecil County long after the war. An account from the Cecil Whig newspaper describes a reunion on Oct. 11, 1890: "On last Saturday Port Deposit was decorated with bunting in honor of the reunion. Nearly every dwelling and store had our national ensignia floating to the breeze. The reunion was held in the town hall. At 1:30 p.m. the soldiers formed in procession with the River Side Band in the lead followed by a number of wounded comrades in carriages and marched through the town." As the years passed, the veterans of Snow's Battery were buried one by one at Oakwood Cemetery in town. Reunions continued well into the 20th century, until the men of the Snow's Battery veterans' group sadly stated in 1926, "Too few remaining to continue."
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References[edit]
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