Our use of the name "The Washington Artillery" is by proprietary trademark and permission of the active battalion of the same name.   Several founding members of our organization own the service-mark and trademark rights to both the name of and the emblem for The Washington Artillery.  As is the case with many re-enactors, we "galvanize."  That is, we will portray either Confederate or Federal artillerymen for any given re-enactment.  We are The Washington Artillery when we portray a Confederate artillery company, and the 6th Massachusetts Light Artillery when we portray a Federal artillery company.

As a point of historical fact, The Washington Artillery, organized in New Orleans as a state militia unit in 1838, did not see action in Louisiana.   We took the name of the 6th Massachusetts Light Artillery, a Federal company which did fight in Louisiana, in order to have a further historical connection to Louisiana by representing a unit which fought here.  Both The Washington Artillery and the 6th Massachusetts Light Artillery were light artillery batteries.

Light artillery batteries were, from their founding, intended to use cannons which could be moved readily with a team of horses or mules, in contrast with the enormous cannons used for coastal defense.  The artillerymen of a light artillery company were not necessarily mounted, in contrast with artillerymen in mounted artillery companies, but marched when they had to and rode on the caissons and wagons when they could.  Members of the artillery were more apt to carry along some of the odds and ends that made camp life more pleasant than were infantrymen, for artillerymen did not have to carry everything they owned on their backs; whatever "luxuries" they could convince the teamsters to carry along on the wagons and caissons went with the battery.

The 6th Massachusetts Light Artillery, on the other hand, was a mounted artillery company in which all its members rode horseback who did not serve as drivers, wagoneers, or teamsters.

Artillery companies in the South did not generally represent the cross-section of society that the infantry did.  Officers among the artillerymen tended to be men who either did not or could not become engineers, and so chose the second-best "gentleman’s" military occupation: artillerist. 

More so than their peers in the ranks of artillerymen, a Washington Artillery cannoneer was a man of greater educational accomplishments and higher social standing, better moneyed and personally sharper than the other branches of the service.  Men of public distinction were recruited for The Washington Artillery; for when their recruiting poster said, "Gentlemen...desirous of joining...", they did indeed mean gentlemen, the term then suggesting a man of education, culture, and class.  Young men wishing to advance in New Orleans commerce and society saw membership in The Washington Artillery both as prestigious and as a stepping-stone to a better life through better connections within the commercial world.  The Washington Artillery was often referred to as a "blue-stocking outfit" because of the great number of men of means and social standing within its ranks. Membership in The Washington Artillery was not by open invitation to the public, either.  You had to be more than willing and able in order to be accepted into The Washington Artillery.

In a day in which soldiers often had some liberty in modifying their uniforms or had options open to them in their manner of dress, the basic issue artillerist’s uniform tended to be a better quality and a sharper cut than those of the other branches of the army, which explains in part why the photographic evidence of the War Between the States shows a far higher proportion of enlisted artillerymen wearing single-breasted frock coats (a more formal-looking coat than the shell jacket or the sack coat) than the other branches.  Artillerists tended to be men of better background, more refinement; men of privilege and substance.  While the uniform of the 6th Massachusetts Light Artillery was identical with other Federal artillery units, The Washington Artillery uniform was unique and distinctive.

The Washington Artillery was quite unlike almost all of the other artillery units on either side.  Not only did The Washington Artillery have history behind it, having been formed in 1838 and in continuous operation until the War; not only did The Washington Artillery have wartime experience before the War of Northern Aggression, having served two different times in the Mexican War; but The Washington Artillery went into the War Between the States with fanfare, fully equipped and its equipment fully paid for, under good auspices, privately funded, and owing not one piece of its equipment to the State of Louisiana or the Confederate States of America having obtained its equipment for them. So popular was The Washington Artillery in New Orleans and throughout Louisiana that even Louisiana's Governor Moore, after whom Camp Moore was named, donated - funded from his own pocket - two Napoleon cannons to The Washington Artillery.

At the beginning of the war and in its first flush of enthusiasm, most men rushed to join the infantry so that they could carry the rifle with its shiny bayonet as file upon file of men marched smartly toward the foe, a romantic image that captured the imagination of the multitudes.  The rearing horses, sabers, and plumed hats of the cavalry, coupled with the overtones of knighthood and chivalric battle, excited many more to enlist.  The rest would be consigned to what many perceived to be the noisy, dirty, high-maintenance artillery.

Outside of The Washington Artillery and a very few similar companies, there was no general rush to join the South’s 268 batteries or the North’s 432 batteries.  It would be left to The Washington Artillery, the 6th Massachusetts Light Artillery, and batteries like them to establish a proud artillery tradition in America, for no such tradition existed before the War Between the States.   Enlisted men in the artillery had to maintain a higher standard than the infantry or the cavalry.  Artillery service required of them a greater degree of technical skill and mechanical aptitude, often some level of mathematical skills, and certainly more muscle.  Moreover, the dangers inherent in artillery service were arguably greater than those of the other branches of the service.  Cannons were the primary targets of cannons and sharpshooters both.  It took a serene indifference to danger and death for a cannoneer to stand at his post, totally without regard for the fact that cannons on the other side were throwing 12-pound balls at him at more than 1,400 feet per second, and sharpshooters were decimating the ranks of the cannon crews from afar.

More than that, the regard of a significant contingent of the command staff was biased against the artillery in the early years of the War.  The record is clear that, at the beginning of the War, officers on both sides (including Braxton Bragg - under whom The Washington Artillery - 5th Company served - and Roger Pryor) even tried to convert artillery batteries into infantry companies, although without much success.  They simply had no comprehension of what artillery could - and would - do for them.  They would soon learn as the War taught them the value of artillery batteries.

The Washington Artillery - 5th Company began their service as part of the Army of Tennessee under the overall command of General P.G.T. Beauregard of St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana, who later had to relinquish command to Braxton Bragg due to illness.  They would later serve under Johnston and Hood, as well.  The Washington Artillery - 5th Company fought initially under the St, Andrew's Cross pattern flag as its first Company flag, and then under the Hardee pattern battle flag as its second Company flag, a flag which is now in the possession of the Confederate Museum at Memorial Hall on Camp Street in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The 6th Massachusetts Light Artillery had a distinguished a record, just as did The Washington Artillery.  Under the thirty-four stars of the flag of the United States of America and their own swallow-tailed Company battle flag, the 6th Massachusetts Light Artillery saw distinguished service during the War, including service during the battles of Baton Rouge and Port Hudson.  Their bravery and tenacity in executing their duties as artillerymen, even in the hand-to-hand fighting in which they became embroiled and through which they exemplified all that is worthy of honor and respect in fighting men, make us proud to represent those men in our Federal impression.