6th Arkansas Field Battery
| 6th Arkansas Field Battery (Confederate) | |
|---|---|
Arkansas state flag
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| Active | June 14, 1862 – June 4, 1865 |
| Country | Confederate States of America |
| Allegiance |
CSA .svg){kind=small}
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| Branch | Artillery |
| Size | Battery |
| Nickname(s) | Washington Artillery |
| Engagements | |
| Commanders | |
| 1862-1865 | Captain Chambers Brady Etter |
The 6th Arkansas Field Battery (1862–1865) was a Confederate Army artillery battery during the American Civil War. Also known as: the Washington Artillery and Etter's Battery. The Washington Artillery spent its entire existence in the Department of the Trans-Mississippi, serving in Arkansas and Louisiana.
After the Battle of Pea Ridge, General Earl Van Dorn was ordered to move his Army of the West across the Mississippi River and cooperate with Confederate forces in Northern Mississippi. Van Dorn stripped the state of military hardware of all types, including almost all the serviceable artillery. When General Thomas C. Hindman arrived on May 31, 1862, to assume command of the new Trans-Mississippi District, he found almost no organized troops to command. He quickly began organizing new regiments, but his most pressing need was for arms for the new forces he was organizing, including the artillery. With Hindman's first order, dated May 31, 1862 at Little Rock, he announced his staff, including the appointment of Major Francis A. Shoup, Chief of Artillery. Shoup had served as chief of artillery under General William J. Hardee during the Battle of Shiloh. Hindman was almost totally destitute of military quality weapons and could hardly arm or issue ammunition to the few troops that he had in June 1862. Until shipments of arms reached Arkansas in July and August 1862, General Hindman struggled to arm his conscripts. When General Hindman discovered that Brigadier General Albert Pike, commanding the Indian Territory, had ten Parrott Guns located at Fort Washita which could not be used for lack of limbers and harnesses, he dispatched a detachment of the 24th Arkansas Infantry Regiment, under Captain L. P. Dodge to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) to bring the artillery to Camp White Sulphur Springs, near Pine Bluff.
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