Chicago's Battery Boys

The history of an artillery unit and its role in the Civil War, at Vicksburg and beyond, with photos, maps, and illustrations.   The celebrated Chicago Mercantile Battery was organized by the Mercantile Association, a group of prominent Chicago merchants, and mustered into service in August of 1862. The Chicagoans would serve in many of the Western theater’s most prominent engagements until the war ended in the spring of 1865.   The battery accompanied Gen. William T. Sherman duri