1st Arkansas Field Battery

The 1st Arkansas Field Battery (1861–1865) was a Confederate Army artillery battery during the American Civil War. Also known as: the "John D. Adams Artillery," or usually just "Adams Artillery"; Gaines' Battery; McNally's Battery. The battery made the crossing of the Mississippi River in April 1862 with Major General Earl Van Dorn's Army of the West. After being surrendered at the conclusion of the Vicksburg Campaign, the battery was reorganized in the Department of the Trans-Mississippi and served there for the remaineder of the war.

Organization
The battery was organized as the "John D. Adams Artillery," and mustered into state service in April, 1861. Re-enlisted for Confederate service, effective December 1, 1861. The unit was named in honor of an Arkansas Veteran of the Mexican-American War. John D. Adams had served as a private in Colonel Yell's 1st Regiment of Arkansas Mounted Gunmen and suffered a wound at the Battle of Buena Vista. Following the war he became a successful merchant, planter and steamboat operation in Little Rock. John D. Adams did not serve with the battery that bore his name. He did later obtain a commission as a Major in the Quartermaster Department under General Thomas C. Hindman. The battery officers were: Captain James J. Gaines; Captain Francis McAnally; Lieutenant Frank A. Moore; Lieutenant David W. Hudgens, Second Lieutenant John P. Murphy. Unfortunately, there are no known surviving muster rolls of the Adams Artillery.

Battles
Assigned to support Hébert's brigade of McCulloch's division in northwest Arkansas in December, 1861. The unit was stationed at the Leetown portion of the Battle of Pea Ridge on March 7–8, 1862. The battery was armed with two 12-pounder rifled guns and two 12-pounder howitzers. The battery participated in the retreat to camp near Van Buren, Arkansas, after Pea Ridge, and then moved with the Army of the West to Corinth, Mississippi, in April, 1862.

Reorganized at Corinth on May 16, 1862, as a result of the Confederate Conscription Act, and assigned to support of Roane's (later Phifer's) brigade of Maury's division, Army of the West, serving in northeast Mississippi. Capt. Francis M. McNally assumed command, and it was thereafter known as McNally's Arkansas Battery.

Fought at the battle of Corinth on October 3–4, 1862, and at the Battle of Hatchie Bridge crossing on October 7. Served as an unattached battery of Maury's (later Forney's) division in north central Mississippi from November, 1862, to April 1863, fighting in an engagement at Oakland, Mississippi, on December 3.

Assigned to support of Shoup's brigade, Martin Smith's division, where it served during the Vicksburg campaign and in the defenses of Vicksburg during the siege. Surendered with the Vicksburg garrison on July 4, 1863, and was paroled there later the same month.

When the battery was captured at Vicksburg, a section of two 3-inch brass rifle guns under First Lieut. Frank A. Moore had been on detached service outside the Vicksburg lines and thus escaped capture. However, when McNally's Battery was exchanged back in Arkansas, Moore's section was stranded east of the Mississippi. It was subsequently attached to King's 2nd Missouri Battery and served east of the Mississippi to the end of the war. This section served with Cosby's brigade, Jackson's division, Lee's cavalry corps.

The battery surrendered at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, and was exchanged near Washington, Arkansas, in November 1863 and remained in the Trans-Mississippi Department for the rest of the war. The battery was reorganized in Arkansas using four 6-pounder smoothbores.

In General E. Kirby Smith’s September 30, 1864 report on the Organization of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi Department, McNally's Battery is listed as belonging to the 5th Mounted Artillery Battalion along with West's and Marshall's Arkansas Batteries. The battery supported Churchill's First Arkansas Division, and served with this division until the end of the war.

On November 19, 1864, General E. Kirby Smith, commanding the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, issued Special Orders No. 290, re-organizing the artillery of the department and for the first time providing numerical designations to the batteries and battalions. In this reorganization, the Adams Artillery, armed with 4 guns, and commanded by Capt. Francis M. McNally was redesignated as the 1st Arkansas Field Battery and assigned to the 5th Artillery Battalion, commanded by Maj. William Durbin Blocher.

On December 31, 1864, General E. Kirby Smith listed the battery as belonging to Blocher's Artillery Battalion of Acting Major General Churchill's First Infantry Division of Major General John B. Magruder's Second Army Corps, Army of the Trans-Mississippi.

One of the last reports of the unit comes from the report of Union Scout C. S. Bell, who was attempting to pass through southern Arkansas when he was recognized and imprisoned. He managed to win release, only to be consripted into Confederate Service and assigned to McNally's Battery. Bell was sent, in leg irons, to join McNally's Battery on April 19, 1865 at Rocky Mountain, La., thirty miles northeast of Shreveport. A few days after reaching is new command, he witnessed the reading of an order from General Kirby Smith dated the 23 April 1865 in which Smith recounted the disasters to Lee's army and bade his army to be hopeful; to not abandon their colors; that the eyes of the world were upon them; that their resources were inexhaustible, and that on them depended the fate of the Confederacy.

The battery was involved in the following engagements:


 * Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, March 6–8, 1862.
 * Second Battle of Corinth, Mississippi, October 3–4, 1862
 * Battle of Hatchie's Bridge, Mississippi, October 7, 1862
 * Battle of Coffeeville, Mississippi, December 3, 1862
 * Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, May–July 1863.

Surrender
When the Trans-Mississippi Army surrendered in May 1865, McNally's Battery, along with most other units, simply disbanded and never formally surrendered. The battery was officially surrendered by General E. Kirby Smith with the Trans-Mississippi Department on May 26, 1865. The date of the military convention between Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith and Union General Edward Canby for the surrender of the troops and public property in the Trans-Mississippi Department was May 26, 1865, however, it took awhile for parole commissioners to be appointed and for public property to be accounted for. As a result, a final report of field artillery which was part of the accounting process, was not completed until June 1, 1865. The final report lists McNally's Battery with four, six pounder smooth bore cannon being turned in at Shreveport, Lousisiana.