Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 37.djvu/177

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Grimes' battery, a famous artillery organization of Portsmouth, is 100 years old and the anniversary is being celebrated by its members.

Not many citizens of the city of Portsmouth are aware of the fact that Grimes' battery is the oldest artillery organization in the State of Virginia, and that the year 1910 marks its one hundred anniversary, says the Portsmouth Star.

Grimes' battery was organized in the year 1810, and is as well known in the records of the government and war department and outside the State of Virginia, as any organization in the country.

The battery is an historical organization of which the city of Portsmouth and her citizens may well be proud of, and its record is one filled with the glorious achievements through when Portsmouth came to be one of the makers of the history of our country and our State.

The Portsmouth Light Artillery was organized in 1810, and under the command of Captain Arthur Emmerson, it achieved an enviable record in the war of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. One of its principal engagements in that war was at the battle of Craney Island, in 1814, which is contributed materially to the repulse of the British.

It continued in existence and was ordered into the service of the Confederacy on the 20th of April, 1861, under the command of Captain Carey F. Grimes, and on the night of April 20, 1861, was on duty with its guns parked at the intersection of High and Court streets, Portsmouth.

During the Civil War, this command, then known as Grimes' battery, its name having been changed on the 20th of July, 1861,