The Rowan
Artillery was called up 3 May 1861 for twelve months service. The men were organized in Salisbury, North
Carolina before being sent to Weldon, North Carolina where the men would enter
the Confederate service for 3 years or the duration of the war.
It was here
that Captain James Reilly took command of the artillery unit. Reilly was an Irish Catholic Immigrant, who
had been a member of the United States regular army. He had fought during the Mexican American War
in artillery and at the start of the Civil War; Reilly was the Ordnance
Sergeant at the United State post of Fort Johnston in Smithville, North
Carolina. He was known in the service as “Old Tarantula”, and was described by
a soldier of the 4th Texas as “rough, gruff, grizzly and brave. He loved his profession and knew his
business.”
When the
Rowan Artillery first organized, they didn't have any cannon, nor other related
equipment. So the men were temporarily
assigned to the 4th North Carolina State Infantry. Following the Union loss at the First Battle
of Manassas, the unit was outfitted on 27 July 1861 with two 10 pound Parrotts
and two Dahlgren Howitzers.
The Rowan
Artillery served at the Battles of Williamsburg and Yorktown. They were with Confederate General Thomas J
Jackson during his valley campaign and in the Seven Days Battles. During a reorganization of the Confederate
Artillery in the spring of 1863, the Rowan Artillery; now called by many, the
Reilly’s Battery, was placed in Confederate Major Mathis W Henry’s Battalion, a
part of the Major General James Longstreet’s Corps.
Captain
Reilly and his men arrived on the field at Gettysburg on 2 July 1863. Sometime before 4 pm Major Henry had the guns
placed on the crest of Warfield Ridge, in front of Confederate John Bell Hood’s
Division. This was the right wing of the
Confederate line of battle that day. The ground was open and the sight lines to
Devils Den and Little Round Top were good.
Reilly’s men brought six pieces to the field, 2 Napoleons, 2 three inch
rifles and 2 ten pound Parrotts.
During the
long cannonade on 2 July, as the Confederate enescholon attack was being made,
one of the Rowan’s rifled pieces burst.
The gun was replaced that night by a captured Union 10 pounder, most
likely from Smith’s 4th New York Independent Battery.
