Perryville Battlefield Programming

Swett’s Mississippi Battery

(Warren Light Artillery)

The Warren Light Artillery was organized at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in May, 1861, with men from Warren County.  They were armed with four (4) 6pdr field guns.  They fought heavily at Shiloh, claiming to have fired both the first and last shots of the battle.  There, they lost 4 killed, 3 mortally wounded, and 6 wounded, for a total of 13.  A member of the company, in an article written for The Vicksburg Evening Post, several years after the war, states – “The record shows that Swett’s Battery had twenty positions, each in advance of the other on Sunday, and a record of the shots fired in the two days was nearly eighteen hundred, over one thousand being captured ammunition”.  They listed 73 men in the company on April 26, 1862.  They lost two more men in action around Corinth. Swett’s Battery prided itself on always being ready for whatever was to be done.  The company had four artificers, viz: two wood workers, one harness maker, and one horse shoer and black-smith, all of whom had horses on the march, so as not to be too tired to work, all night if necessary, at the end of a day’s march. The two wood workers were not only finished carpenters, but could do anything in wood that was ever placed before them. On July 24th 1862, the battery and other artillery of Hardee’s command started for Chattanooga, (the infantry going by rail) which place was reached August 19th.  On the 26th, the battery was assigned to Liddell’s Brigade. Captain Charles Swett was not present at the battle, probably sick.  At Perryville the battery was commanded by his brother-in-law, 2nd Lieutenant Thomas Havern.

Casualties of the Swett’s Battery at Perryville

Mike Devine, Killed in Action
Ed Dowling, Killed in Action

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Count:      2

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“There must have been more”  – Captain Charles Swett, writing in 1908.

Other Members of Swett’s Battery from the Roster

• Havern, Thomas - Second Lieutenant
• Birchett, T. G. - Assistant Surgeon
• McRea, R.G. - Hospital Steward 
• Kezer, A.R. - Ordnance Sergeant 
• Lake, J.B. - Quartermaster Sergeant
• Watts, T.E. - Quartermaster Sergeant    
• Fowler, William M. – Sergeant
• McDonald, W.P. – Sergeant
• Rapp, J.K. – Sergeant
• Shirley, A. - Sergeant    
• Ashton, Joseph - Corporal
• Allen, H. W. - Corporal
• Burnett, E. P. - Corporal  
• Echols, J. D. – Corporal
• McMullen, John – Corporal
• Putnam, Samuel – Corporal
• White, T.H. - Corporal  
• Blake, A.A. – Bugler
• Boyle, James - Artificer
• Corson, O.G. – Artificer
• McTaggart, William - Artificer (Harness Repairer/Maker)  
• Dennis, William - Teamster  
• Adams, F. W.   Private 
• Aiken, John   Private 
• Alspaugh, J. B.   Private  
• Ballow, A.S.   Private  
• Barefield, Jefferson   Private  
• Battle, B. B.   Private  
• Bircher, John   Private  
• Bolling, C. C.   Private  
• Bonengal, Frank   Private  
• Cable, J. J.   Private  
• Campbell, Hiram   Private  
• Charles, Robert E.   Private  
• Coody, Samuel   Private  
• Cookson, John   Private  
• Crabtree, G.M.   Private  
• Craig, Joseph   Private 
• Culbertson, Frank   Private  
• Curtis, Isam   Private  
• Davis, O. P.   Private  
• Denny, George   Private  
• Deterles, Charles K.   Private  
• Duggan, Henry   Private  
• Echols, J. D.   Corporal  
• Eley, John   Private  
• Elligott, Michael   Private  
• Ellis, L. A.   Sergeant  
• Erwin, Joseph   Private  
• Fanbush, E.M.   Private  
• Faribon, Joseph   Private  
• Fields, Samuel   Private  
• Fish, Calvin   Private  
• Fish, Robert M.   Private  
• Fontaine, W. L.   Private  
• Fooks, Samuel   Private  
• Fortner, Louis   Private  
• Fournkle, Valentine   Private  
• Frazier, J. M.   Private 
• Gibson, R.H.   Private  
• Gillispie, J.   Private  
• Goodman, Azariah   Private  
• Grammer, Jacob S.   Private  
• Graves, T.P.   Private  
• Gravitt, Charles   Private  
• Green, Martin   Private 
• Grimes, Alexander T.  Private  
• Gussio, Florian L.   Private  
• Gwinn, J. N.   Private 
• Hall, C. C.   Private  
• Hardy, Henry   Private  
• Harrell, B. B.   Private  
• Heath, T.J.   Private  
• Hedrick, L.   Private  
• Henry, Frank B.   Private  
• Hogan, Peter   Private  
• Horton, J.M.   Private  
• Huffman, Warren   Private 
• Jaynes, James W.   Private  
• Johnson, Burr   Private  
• Jones, Lemuel B.   Private  
• Kelley, William   Private  
• Kirby, John   Private  
• Ledbetter, A.   Private  
• Lewis, H.B.   Private  
• Low, John P.   Private  
• Mallon, Patrick   Private  
• Marshall, R.M.   Private  
• Maxey, A.   Private  
• McDonald, D.H.   Private  
• McKenzie, Daniel   Private  
• Merrill, R.F.   Private  
• Metzler, J.T.   Private  
• Minshall, John J.   Private  
• Montjoy, Gideon   Private  
• Morris, John T.   Private  
• Morrow, J. N.   Private  
• Murphy, A.   Private  
• Neal, L. W.   Private  
• Norris, Robert A.   Private  
• Oslin, William   Private  
• Paulk, Jason   Private  
• Pegram, G. G.   Private  
• Pegram, J. B.   Private  
• Pettit, J. C.   Private  
• Rainey, Benjamin   Private  
• Raney, Rufus   Private  
• Raney, Samuel   Private  
• Rapp, John E.   Private  
• Roberts, W.F.   Private  
• Robertson, T.F.   Private  
• Rose, Samuel   Private  
• Rucker, E.   Private  
• Sanders, Lafayette   Private  
• Scanlan, F. A.   Private 
• Shirry, John   Private  
• Smelt, W.H.   Private  
• Smith, A.   Private  
• Smith, C.C.   Private  
• Smith, Hardy   Private  
• Spangler, John W.   Private  
• Steele, Henry N.   Private 
• Stinson, A.W.   Private  
• Stricker, B.R.   Private  
• Tanner, G.W.   Private  
• Tennant, George S.   Private  
• Threat, J.M.   Private  
• Torrence, J.E.   Private  
• VanHorn, George D.   Private  
• Wall, J.H.   Private 
• Walsh, James   Private 
• Walson, D.L.   Private  
• Ward, J.J.   Private  
• Wardeyhoff, J.   Private  
• Waters, Edward   Private  
• Watson, D.L.   Private  
• Watson, W.A.   Private  
• Watts, John B.   Sergeant  
• Weams, A.M.   Private  
• Weldon, George W.   Private  
• Wells, J.M.   Private  
• Williams, F.M.   Private 
• Wilson, J.D.   Private  
• Wink, P.H.   Private  
• Wood, John E.   Private  
• Wooten, William B.   Private  
• Wordehoff, Joseph   Private