3rd Battery Volunteer Artillery (Bell Battery, Benton's)
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From Bergeron, La. Confed. Units, 21-22:
"This battery was organized at Monroe in April or May, 1862. The battery bore the nickname "Bell Battery" because the cannons originally intended for it had been cast from bells donated by planters in Ouachita, Caldwell, and Morehouse parishes. Those guns, cast in Vicksburg, Mississippi, never reached the battery; and Captain [Thomas O.] Benton finally obtained four cannons from General Braxton Bragg at Cornith, Mississippi. After training at Monroe, the battery received orders to move to the Mississippi River and interfere with enemy shipping in East Carroll and Madison parishes. in early 1863, the battery moved to Harrisonburg and became part of gthe garrison of Fort Taylor and later of Fort Beauregard. The men fought Federal gunboats at the latter fort on May 10 and 11 and helped drive the enemy back. When Federal land and naval forces caused an evacuation of Fort Beauregard on September 4, the battery fell back to Alexandria. From there, it moved to Bayou DeGlaize near Marksville. The Federal advance up the Red River in March, 1864, forced a retreat toward Shreveport with the rest of the Confederate army. At the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, April 8-9, the men remained in reserve and did not engage the enemy. On April 26, Captain Benton and his two rifled guns fired on two enemy gunboats on the Red River at Deloach's Bluff and drove them away. The battery participated in a skirmish south of Alexandra at Chambers' Plantation, May 5. The next day, in a skirmish at Polk's Bridge over Bayou Lamourie, three of the battery's four guns became disabled; and the battery saw no further action during the campaign. In the fall and winter of 1864, the battery accompanied General Camille J. Polignac's division on a march into Arkansas. By January, 1865, the battery had returned to Louisiana and established a camp near Collinsburg in Bossier Parish. From there, the men moved to Shreveport. Placing their guns in storage, they reported to Grand Ecore to take over some of the heavy artillery batteries there. The men surrendered at Grand Ecore in June, 1865. Some 108 men served in the battery during the war."
CSRC, M320, roll 48
ROSTER