battery history
Battery A first officially mustered on 3 Feb 1866 in Portland, Oregon, USA, as the Portland Light
Battery with CPT F.C. Paine
in command. They were reportedly outfitted with two worn out
horse-drawn Napoleon 6-pounder field guns but had no horses of their
own. In 1872 they were renamed Battery A, Oregon Artillery,
were supposedly housed in a small barn in northwest Portland (near
NW 6th and NW Glisan streets) and often used what is now the North
Park Blocks as an assembly and training area.
Other donated or rented buildings in northwest Portland served as
their headquarters until after the completion of
The First Regimental Armory
in 1888 (often called The Portland Armory and located at the corner
of NW 10th and NW Couch streets) where they were finally allocated
official space. In 1891 The Annex was built alongside the existing armory and included a
rather large indoor training area as well as a multi-purpose firing
range in the basement. The combined brick and stone buildings now
occupied the whole block and together were known simply as
The Portland Armory. The
large indoor training area later became the glory and the savior of
the building as it lent itself very well to the hosting of many
military and civilian celebrations, dances, indoor baseball games, a
city basketball league, a haven for local flood victims,
professional wrestling matches, and now, a professional live
theater. Expansion of the Oregon Guard resulted in many smaller
armories being built throughout the communities of the state and the
eventual sale of this now old and mostly vacant complex to private
enterprises. The original armory building was demolished in the late
1960s, but The Annex
remains standing to this day after a unique makeover and total
upgrading by the present theatrical owners. Additional information
can be found on the web at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Regiment_Armory_Annex.
In 1935 it is known that Battery
A occupied part of the 2nd floor of a multi-storied brick warehouse
on the corner of NW 1st and NW Couch Streets. It shared this rented
building with the rest of the newly formed 218th Field Artillery
Regiment (specifically batteries B, & C and Regimental Headquarters)
and the building was simply referred to as
The Artillery Armory. A
few cannons for training were housed here but the bulk of their
equipment was stored and used at Camp
Withycombe in Clackamas, Oregon.
In 1961, after a war and several reorganizations and reductions,
what was left of the 218th Regiment moved to their new armory
facility in NE Portland on the southern edge of the Portland Air Base.
Reduced to a single battalion and renamed 2nd Battalion 218th Field
Artillery, the Regiment now consisted of only three firing batteries
with a total of 18 guns. In 1975 this new Artillery Armory was
renamed W. D. Jackson Armory
in honor of a former member of early Battery A that had served his
whole military career with great distinction and dedication to the
artillery and to the Oregon National Guard.
The entire battalion has spent many years here with all their
guns and equipment right at hand until 2006 when external
reorganizations of the Oregon Army National Guard and another
internal reorganization caused the battalion to split up among three
different armories. Battery A (8 guns) still occupies the Jackson
Armory in Portland,
Battery B (8 guns) is located in the McMinnville armory, and
Headquarters & Headquarters Battery reside in the armory at Forest
Grove.
The early missions of the
Portland Light Battery (Battery
A, Oregon National Guard) were seldom recorded and are apparently
lost in the passing of time. It is known that they had constant
struggles to maintain members and that their cannons were worn out
hand-me-downs from the Mexican War era. A pamphlet of bylaws
published in 1874 lists the dues for belonging to the battery as 50¢
per month, assuming of course, that you were allowed to join. Entry
into the battery was by vote of existing members and a single “Nay”
vote could mean your doom. The officers of the battery were elected
by the members and these officers then appointed the sergeants and
corporals. There were no paid events, no horses, no pistols, and
only a few sabers. Meetings were held every Friday night and usually
consisted of marching or
drilling with the cannon or with sabers. Those without sabers used
sticks or broom handles. Training was usually conducted by the
battery sergeants under the watchful eyes of their officers and
occasionally regular Army officers/NCOs were present to assist with
the accuracy of this training. There were no annual or summer
training camps and only occasional voluntary camp-outs of 1 or 2
days duration. A uniform (1 shirt, 1 pair pants, and 1 hat) was
provided and presented to you once your commitment became apparent
and you became a “regular”.
The battery was kind of a social club for unattached young men
and as such sponsored many dances and local charities and regularly
participated in local parades and civic events. They were often
called upon by the Portland mayor to lend punctuation to various
ceremonies and could never turn down a good baseball game with any
of several fairly good teams around. They became an even bigger hit
with the annual 4th of July celebrations by firing
various cannon salutes and by demonstrating their cannons and
marching skills the length of the big parade – all still without the
aid of horses.
The battery regularly struggled to attract new members as the
rewards for their hard work were few. A newspaper article appeared
in The Oregonian on January 30, 1916 stating that on July 4, 1876,
at a one-story building located at Ankeny & Park streets, that the
Artillery had installed a new flagpole and had a flag-raising
ceremony that “unfurled the largest American flag on the Pacific Coast.”
A stunt it may have been, but most choose to believe it was
just another example of the battery’s dedication and belief in what
they were doing.
More of Battery A's rich history
will unfold here as our research develops.....
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