Battery D, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery Regiment was organized in Providence, Rhode Island and mustered in for a three-year enlistment on September 4, 1861, under the command of Captain John Albert Monroe.

The battery was attached to McDowell's Division, Army of the Potomac, to March 1862.

Artillery, 3rd Division, III Corps, Army of Virginia, to September 1862.

Artillery, 1st Division, IX Corps, Army Potomac, to March 1863.

Artillery, 2nd Division, IX Corps, Department of the Ohio, to June 1863.

Artillery Reserve, XXIII Corps, Department of the Ohio, to October 1863.

Reserve Artillery, IX Corps, Army of the Potomac, to June 1864.

1st Brigade, Haskins' Division, XXII Corps, Department of Washington, to August 1864.

Reserve Artillery, XIX Corps, Army of the Shenandoah, Middle Military Division, to December 1864.

Artillery Brigade, XIX Corps, Army of the Shenandoah, to March 1865.

Battery D, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery mustered out of service on July 17, 1865.

Moved to Newport News February 19, then to Covington, Ky., March 19–29, and to Lexington, Ky.