"Shells burst with great force about us and their solid shot shrieked close to our heads with fearful accuracy."
Sam Thompson, Douglas' Texas Battery
The Battle of Richmond began on a hot and hazy August morning. Gen. Mahlon Manson drew up his brigade on the best available high ground between his column and the Confederates advancing from the south. When the head of the Confederate infantry came into view, Manson's artillery opened fire. Lt. Edwin O. Lanphere's 1st Michigan Light Artillery Battery F began what became a two hour artillery duel.
Lanphere commanded a battery of six pieces, the standard number in a Union battery. But, like everything else in Manson's army, the artillery had been pulled together from what units were available. Lanphere had four pieces from his battery, Battery F, and two pieces from Lt. Byron D. Paddock's battery, Battery G. It is not known what kind of guns the Union artillery had but Gen. Charles Cruft mentions a Rodman- a three-inch ordnance rifle- a very common Union gun. Confederate Gen. Patrick Cleburne reported that the Union army also used "a little mountain howitzer which they had captured the day before from Colonel Scott."
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