Men of God, Angels of Death: History of the Rowan Artillery
By Col. Black Jack Travis
(April 2009 Civil War News)

Illustrated, index, 232 pp, 2008. Privately printed. Order from Past Perfect, P.O. Box 14387, North Palm Beach, FL 33408. $25.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Peter A. Frandsen
Peter A. Frandsen is a student of artillery history and book review editor of The Artilleryman magazine.

Review:
And now abideth in harmony, Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery, these three, but the greatest of these is the Artillery. I Corinthians 13:13, as reported on the dust cover.

This regimental history has three major parts: the Rowan Artillery (Co. D, 1st Artillery Regiment, 10th Regiment North Carolina Troops) and its two most important officers, Capt. John Ramsay and Maj. James Reilly.

The book brings the three stories together separately and combined, for, like the fortunes of war, sometimes they are together and sometimes separated.

Major Reilly was a relatively recent Irish Catholic immigrant who enlisted in the field artillery and fought first in the Mexican War. He faced much discrimination, because of his religion and social origin despite his military experience, almost to the end of his military career.

After switching from the Confederate field artillery during the Civil War, he would end up in coastal defense, finally surrendering Fort Fisher in North Carolina to Union forces in early 1865.

Captain Ramsay was a Presbyterian whose ancestors in America went back more than 100 years and he enjoyed speedier promotion and acceptance than Reilly. He commanded the Rowan Artillery for much of the time, despite having less experience than Reilly, before becoming disabled early in 1865.

The Rowan Artillery saw much hard service from First Manassas (1861), to Fredericksburg (1862), to Gettysburg (1863) and finally to the sieges of Richmond/Petersburg (1864-65).

It was a rare Confederate battery that had a full six-gun battery and crew most of the time. It was one of the strongest Confederate batteries at Gettysburg.

Author and artillery reenactor Jack Travis (founder of Alexander's Artillery Battalion of today) tells us much detail about the unit and its people. For the artilleryman, the operational details of the battery are probably the most interesting.

The armament, sometimes indifferently described by the author, was quite unusual and mixed during the war. Over time it included pairs of captured Dahlgren boat howitzers, imported English rifles and Confederate-made Napoleons, each of which often operated separately as sections according to weapon type.

In battle the unit frequently fired off all the rounds it carried in its ammunition chests. It traveled much around the Eastern Theater of war.

Drawing upon a wide variety of sources collected over many years, Travis has reconstructed the history of this battery and its senior officers. Depending upon the fortunes of surviving records, sometimes there is great detail and sometimes not so much.

The author makes good use of original records and accounts by the participants in archives and with surviving family members that he found. Pertinent parts of these records are quoted throughout the book.

For some battles, we know how many rounds were fired and when and why. For other battles we know that the unit participated in only general terms. The author skillfully weaves all these things together with biographical details to bring back to us the very human nature of pride, frustration and self-sacrifice of these dedicated Southern artillerymen.

Today in the town of Salisbury, N.C., there is an unmarked Noble Brothers 6 pdr. iron gun. It is likely the cannon that Captain Ramsay purchased after the war to commemorate his time in the artillery and fired on special occasions. It was apparently last fired to celebrate the end of World War II.