Many northern Christians, including many Baptists, are convinced of the righteousness of the Union cause: the unity of the American nation and freedom for African slaves. This certainty leads the Young Men’s Christian Association of Albany, New York to petition for a Battery Regiment.
Today the Independent Battery, Flying Artillery is authorized, under the leadership of Rev. Albert A. von Puttkammer, a German Baptist clergyman. Puttkammer is duly elected as captain of the battery. The officers are Christians, and the 11th is intended to epitomize Christian morals. Enlistment standards are high. Profanity, alcohol, and gambling are not tolerated. Religious meetings are to be held daily, in addition to Sunday services.
High Christian standards, however, prove to be detrimental to attracting the required number of men to comprise the battery. Good intentions notwithstanding, the officers quickly run into difficulty recruiting soldiers. Weeks and months pass, and the battery is far short of the requisite 150 men. New York authorities grow impatient, and on January 15, 1862, merge the 11th with the also-incomplete New York Eagle Brigade battery.
Collectively, the 11th New York Independent Battery Regiment (Light Artillery) is commissioned for three years of service, with Puttkammer as captain. Much of the unit’s service is in the larger Washington D.C. area, within the Army of the Potomac, including the Fredericksburg Campaign, December 11-15, 1862. The battery also participates in the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, as recounted by Captain George W. Davey:
On May 23d, the battery was transferred to the Reserve Artillery, and attached temporarily to Battery ” K,” First Regiment of New York Light Artillery. Captain R. H. Fitzhugh, being the senior officer, was placed in command of both batteries.
On June 13th, the battery left camp at White Oak Church, Va., at 4 p. m., marching night and day until it arrived at Fairfax on the 15th. Remaining there until the 24th, it resumed its march, crossing the Potomac River at Edwards Ferry and arriving at Taneytown, Md., on the 30th, where we heard that Lee’s army had been found near Gettysburg, Pa. We arrived there on the morning of July 2d, and went into position on the Baltimore Pike, in support of the Twelfth Corps line. In the evening we were sent to reinforce the line to the left of the ” Clump of Trees,” returning to the Reserve on the morning of July 3d.
About 1 p. m. the enemy opened with his artillery, and for two hours the mighty duel raged in all its fury, making the air hideous with the shrieks of the shot and shell which ploughed the earth in furrows, many of the shells falling among the reserve batteries, causing them to change their positions for a more sheltered place. Soon the command was given for the drivers of the Eleventh Battery to mount, and it galloped to the front, moving along the line of battle into position near the ” Angle,” where it assisted in repelling the charge of Pickett’s Division. While awaiting Pickett’s charge a shell from the enemy’s artillery struck one of the lead horses of a gun squarely in the breast. It staggered and fell with its rider to the ground. The lieutenant in command of the section called out, ” Bring up another horse! ” The driver looking up to him and saluting said, ” Lieutenant, hadn’t you better bring up another man too?”
For reasons now uncertain, Puttkammer is dismissed from service shortly after Gettysburg. Following the war, the battery is honorably discharged and mustered out June 13, 1865, at Albany, “having during its service lost by death, killed in action, 6 enlisted men; of wounds received in action, 2 enlisted men; of disease and other causes, 13 enlisted men; total, 21; of whom I died in the hands of the enemy.”
Sources: George W. Davey, “History of the 11th New York” (link); New York in the War of the Rebellion, 11th ed. Frederick Phisterer. Albany: J. B. Lyon Company, 1912 (link); Francis Augustín O’Reilly, The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock, Louisiana State University Press, 2003, pp. 352-353 (link)
