Battery E, 5th Massachusetts Light Artillery

Battery E of the 5th Massachusetts Light Artillery, part of the Army of the Potomac's First Brigade Artillery Reserve under Captain Charles A. Phillips and equipped with six 3 inch rifles, withdrew at 5 p.m. on July 2 from the field near the Peach Orchard and went into battery here. On July 3 at about 1.30 p.m., by order of Brig. General H.J. Hunt, it fired on the Confederate batteries but did little damage, then soon opened an enfilading fire on Longstreet's advancing line of infantry and helped repulse the assault. Immediately afterward the Florida Brigade made a charge within the battery's range, and at about the same time a Confederate battery opened on the left front; the concentrated fire of the brigade's batteries drove the cannoneers from their guns, which they abandoned. The battery remained in this position until the afternoon of July 4. Its casualties were 2 men killed, 1 officer and 13 men wounded, 16 in total.

Pennsylvania · United States