In 1775, COL. Richard Gridley founded the Massachusetts regiment, the first American artillery unit to fire against the British in the Revolutionary War.

In the War of 1812, the Second Artillery Regiment was there at Fort McHenry, where Francis Scott Key was inspired to write, “The Star Spangled Banner.” The bombs bursting in air were those of the Second.

It was during the 11 years of duty in the south keeping peace and order among the Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole Indian tribes that fortune frowned upon the Second, specifically, ‘Charlie’ Battery, under the command of Major Francis L. Dade.

Dade set out on a routine scouting patrol through the swamps between St. Augustine and Tampa, Florida Christmas Eve, 1835.

With 112 men from the 4th Infantry and 2nd and 3rd Artillery, Dade tried unsuccessfully to fight off an ambush orchestrated by Osceola, chief of the Seminoles.

The unit distinguished itself in many other battles during the war, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Molina Del Ray, and Chapultepec.

By this time, the batteries were horse mounted and served conspicuously throughout the Civil War, The Regiment fired the first shots at Gettysburg.

Among these were a record-breaking jungle march in which the battalion, then a 75mm mule-pack howitzer outfit, crossed the Isthmus of Panama cross-country in just four days.

Another first was racked up when the Second later became the United States Army artillery outfit to be transported across the Isthmus of Panama by air in a matter of hours.

The Battalion arrived at Sainte-Mère-Église, France on August 66, 1944, and was assigned to the VIII Corps, Third United States Army.

Attached to Task Force ‘B’, the battalion reinforced the artillery fires of the Plougastel-Daoulas Peninsula from the Dirinon, France on August 22, 1944.

The end of World War II found the Second Field Artillery Battalion attached to the 70th Infantry Division.

2nd Field Artillery Battalion moved to New Post Fort Sill in 1953, and an effort was made to give morale a boost.