Third Corps badge Sleeper's Battery Second Corps badge

The Tenth Battery,
Massachusetts Light Artillery
1862 - 1865

The Tenth Massachusetts Battery Association presents the Tenth Battery in the Civil War. The Battery was mustered in 1862 and served until the end of the war, and was very active in the Petersburg (Virginia) campaign, June, 1864 through April, 1865.

The links below will take you to information on the Battery: the History of the Battery is in two parts; the Roster lists all the members of the Battery, and then gives additional information on each; the Service Record lists the actions and casualties; Field Artillery gives information on guns, ammunition, organization and life in a battery; other information on the Battery we have been able to uncover, as well as research today, is presented at the Tenth Mass Battery Association today.

Tenth Battery guidon The History of the Tenth Battery
Part I; 1862 - 3/1864
The beginnings through service with the Third Corps
Part II; 3/1864 - 6/1865
The Second Corps, including Petersburg Campaign

The Roster of the members of the Tenth

Service Record of the Tenth in the Civil War

Field Artillery in the Civil War

The Tenth Mass Battery Association today

 

The original Tenth Battery Flag

photo of Original Battery Guidon

photo by TMBA member C. Peter Jorgensen,
From the Hall of Flags, Massachusetts State House


 

J. Henry SleeperJ.Henry Sleeper

The first Commander of the Tenth Massachusetts Battery and the first President of the Tenth Massachusetts Battery Association. At Bull Run with the Fifth Massachusetts Infantry, he transferred to the First Massachusetts Battery, and was made the Captain of the Tenth Massachusetts Battery at the age of 23. He was wounded at Ream's Station, was breveted a Major, returned briefly after recouperating and resigned from the Battery in February, 1865.

After the war, he was a sucessful businessman in Boston with an office on Milk Street and lived on Marlborough Street. He died at his summer house on Marlbehead Neck on August 19,1891 at age 52, leaving a wife and three sons, and is buried in Mt Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

H.H. GrangerH. H. Grainger

Henry H. Grainger, from central Massachusetts, received the permission to raise a Battery on August 12, 1862 under Special Order Number 614 from Governor John A. Andrews. The recruiting drive swept through the state to Boston and up the North Shore, most of the Battery coming from Worcester County, Charlestown or Marblehead. When the Battery was mustered, Grainger was made Senior 1st Lt.

When Sleeper was wounded at Ream's Station on August 25, 1864, Grainger took command of the Battery. His command was a short one, as on October 27th he was mortally wounded by a shell fragment at Hatcher's Run, dying two days later.

Engravings from the book:  Sleeper's Tenth Massachusetts Battery, by John D. Billings, 1881

The History of the Tenth Btty  |  The Roster of the members of the Tenth Btty  |  Service Record of the Tenth Btty  |  Field Artillery in the Civil War  |  The Tenth Mass Battery Association today  | 
10th Mass Btty, N-SSA (and other links)

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