Historical Notes

Taken from Final Report on the Battlefield of Gettysburg (New York at Gettysburg) by the New York Monuments Commission for the Battlefields of Gettysburg and Chattanooga. Albany, NY: J.B. Lyon Company, 1902.

The Sixth New York Independent Battery was commanded originally by Capt. Thos. W. Bunting, who was soon succeeded by Walter M. Bramhall, one of the lieutenants. The latter commanded it during the Peninsular campaign where, as Bramhall's Battery, it achieved honorable distinction. Captain Bramhall, who resigned February 16, 1863, was succeeded by Joseph W. Martin, promoted from a lieutenancy. Martin was honorably discharged at the expiration of his term of service, February 16, 1865, and was succeeded by Lieut. Moses P. Clark, under whose command the battery returned at the end of the war. Although first recruited at Rahway, N. J., it was organized in New York City as Company K, Ninth Militia (Eighty-third N. Y. Vols.), to serve as an artillery company attached to that regiment; but it was detached Aug. 25, 1861, and designated the Sixth Battery. In the fall of 1861, it was stationed at Harper's Ferry and Ball's Bluff; during 1862, it served in the Third Corps; in March, 1863, it was equipped as a "horse battery," having been transferred to the Cavalry Corps, with which it remained during the rest of its service. It participated in the battles of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Seven Days, Malvern Hill, Chancellorsville, Beverly Ford, Gettysburg, Bristoe Station, Wilderness, Sheridan's Raid, Cedar Creek, and the Shenandoah Valley campaign. The Sixth was always known as a reliable and efficient battery.