It was one of the Massachusetts regiments organized in response to President Abraham Lincoln's call on May 2, 1861 for volunteer troops to serve a term of three-years.

[1] For the first several months of their service, the battery performed garrison duty at Ship Island off the Mississippi coast, which served as the staging point for Butler's expedition.

[1] In December 1863, nearly all the men of the 4th Massachusetts Light Artillery opted to reenlist (although the close of their term was still roughly a year off) in exchange for a month's furlough.

When the 4th Battery returned to New Orleans in April, they were drilled for several months as infantry, then re-supplied again as light artillery.

[2] After the Confederate surrender, the battery was deployed to Buffalo Bayou outside of Houston, Texas where they performed various details over the summer of 1865.