Shoemaker's Battery, Stuart Horse Artillery, Pelham's Battalion
by Captain J. J. Shoemaker
Gaithersburg, Md., Butternut Press,
1983 re-print, 108 pp., $22.00.
Shoemaker's Battery was written by John J. Shoemaker some forty years after the war. It is based partly upon the diary of Lt. E. H. Moorman. The account is brief and consists mostly of tracing the battery's movements from its organization at Lynchburg on April 25,1861 as "The Beauregard Rifles," commanded by Captain Marcellus N. Moorman, and ending with its dissolution after Appomattox, as it was not formally surrendered with Lee's army. It is impossible to tell if the first half of the book is verbatim from Lt. Moorman's diary, but I believe this to be the case and am writing on that assumption. Shoemaker takes up the narrative where Moorman's diary ends in March of 1864 and was evidently tod modest to attempt to write his own version of what happened prior to that time.
Members of the battery were obviously proud of being transferred to Pelham's command, as evidenced by the title. Although they were not trans¬ferred until November 18, 1862, and thus were actually under Pelham for only a few months, still the title proudly states "Pelham's Battalion."
In the "Conclusion" on page 96, Shoemaker states: "The transfer of the battery after the battle of Sharpsburg, at the request of Gen. Stuart himself, to the Stuart Horse Artillery, was regarded as a promotion and distinction any battery in the army would have been proud of."
References to Pelham are brief. Lt. Moorman's diary states, of Kelly's Ford: "The battle was fought principally with pistol and saber, first one side charging and then the other, and it was in one of these charges that our Major Pelham was killed. Although we had been under his command but a short time, we had learned to love him for his own sake and to respect him for his invincible courage and gallantry in battle, and to this day we mourn his death, which was an irreparable loss to our bat¬talion and the Confederacy" (p.29). It was to Captain Moorman at Rapidan Station that Pelham pencilled his last order, on March 17th, warning of Federal presence in the vicinity.
A few "human interest" stories appear. On one occasion, a cannoneer sent to the rear for a limber of am¬munition was accosted by Jeb Stuart, who, "apparently thinking John was making .a sneak to the rear, asked him where he was going. John explained and was allowed to proceed, and on his return with the ammunition he met Gen. Stuart and asked him where he was going. Stuart seemed to compre¬hend the situation, gave John a jolly, and they parted with a better feeling and more respect for each other" (p.30).
There is an account of Custer's March, 1864 raid upon Charlottesville, where four batteries of the Horse Artillery were wintering. The artillerymen mounted their horses and charged as cavalry while Shoemaker shelled the Federals. Their bluff -- plus considerable exaggeration as to their force by a captured Negro -- caused Custer to withdraw, saving the town and incidentally resulted in the Horse Artillery's being presented with a flag from the ladies of Charlottesville. After this, Capt. Moorman was promoted out of the Horse Artillery, and Shoemaker became battery captain.
Of interest, too, is Shoemaker's footnote to one incident: "It must be remembered that the commissioned officers of the horse artillery never dismounted during a battle" (p.74). Obviously he was not familiar with Pelham's practice of assisting his men at the guns when necessary!
I was also enlightened to see the number of times that different batteries of the Horse Artillery supported one another. Under Pelham they seem to have been split up among the various cavalry regiments, where as later in the war they had more occasion to fight together. Shoemaker mentions one instance where the Confederate cavalry panicked and fled, leaving his battery exposed, in which he employed Pelham's tactics of withdrawing by section so that several guns were always covering the others. They saved the battery but wore out the horses so badly that he had to turn them all in for fresh ones!
While not nearly as extensive an account as George Neese's reminiscences of his service with Chew's Battery, it is still a valuable addition to the library of Horse Artillery fans.
This article first appeared in Volume 2, No. 3 of The Cannoneer.
