Trigg's Arkansas Battery

Trigg's Arkansas Battery (Confederate)
Arkansas state flag
Active	May 22, 1861 – July 23, 1862
Country	Confederate States of America
Allegiance	Arkansas
Branch	Confederate States Army
Role	Artillery
Size	battery
Nickname(s)	Austin Artillery
Engagements	Battle of Shiloh
Disbanded	July 23, 1862
Commanders
1861-1862	Captain John T. Trigg
1862	Captain Thomas M. Austin

Trigg's Arkansas Battery (1861–1862) was a Confederate Army artillery battery during the American Civil War. the unit is also known as the Austin Artillery, Auston's Artillery, Austin's Artillery, and Company B, of Shoup's Artillery Battalion. This battery is distinguished from a later organization, the 9th Arkansas Field Battery, which was also commanded by Captain John T. Trigg.

John T. Trigg was an attorney, railroad agent and politician. His sister Frances married Edmund Burgevin, who became the Adjutant General of Arkansas in 1861. His half-brother was Arkansas Governor Henry Rector. He first entered service as an enlisted member of the Pulaski Light Artillery, a military battery from Little Rock. He was paid for service in the battery, April 20–30, 1861 when the battery was sent as part of a militia battalion led by Colonel Solon Borland to seize the Federal post at Fort Smith, Arkansas. The unit returned to Little Rock in time to fire the salute celebrating Arkansas's secession from the Union on May 6, 1861. Trigg received a Militia Commission as captain of a volunteer artillery company of the 13th Militia Regiment of Pulaski County on May 22, 1861. The other officers listed in the battery are:

Trigg's Battery first moved to Pittman's Ferry, near Pocahontas, in northeast Arkansas. On July 14, 1861, Confederate Brigadier General William J. Hardee arrived in Little Rock to assume unified Confederate command in the state. The following day the state Military Board signed an "Article of Transfer", which provided that all state forces would be transferred on a voluntary basis to the command of the Confederate States of America. The Articles of Transfer included Major Francis A. Shoup's battalion of artillery;

Many Confederate artillery units seem to have begun the war named for the city or county that sponsored their organization. In the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, artillery units are most often referred to by the name of their battery commander. During the war, efforts were made to organize artillery units into battalions and regiments, but the battalions seldom functioned as a consolidated organization, in fact batteries were often broken out and fought as one or two gun sections. Shoup's battalion would be an exception to this rule.