FIRST KENTUCKY BRIGADE.

925

BYRNE'S BATTERY.

npiTE action of Light Artillery, under command of Captain -*- (afterward Major) Byrne, in two battles with the Kentucky Brigade, those of Shiloh and Murfreesboro', has been treated of heretofore; but we may notice here the origin and organization of the battery, and some incidents not elsewhere alluded to.

When it was announced that South Carolina had passed the ordinance of secession, Edward P. Byrne, a native of Kentucky, but residing at that time in Washington Comity, Mississippi, determined to recruit and organize a company of Light Artillery, and accordingly set about the work. He repaired to Memphis; and contracted with Quinby & Robinson for the manufacture of six brass field-pieces, and with Street & Hungerford for carriages and caissons. This was the first battery manufactured in Memphis, and was furnished to Captain Byrne, and contributed to the service, by the citizens of Washington County, Mississippi. The guns were four six-pounders and two twelve-pound howitzers; the company consisted of a fine body of the better class of young men   Kentuckians and Mississippians; the horses were excellent, and largely in excess of what was actually demanded for the officers and for draught; and the whole was thoroughly and handsomely equipped.

Pending the manufacture of the guns and equipments, Captain Byrne proceded to Louisville, where he met Colonels Temp Withers and Robert A. Johnson, who, aided by some of the prominent and wealthy citizens of that city, were completing their arrangements for recruiting the Second Regiment of Infantry, as