Organized on 17 June 1861 as Company G, 19th Illinois Infantry Regiment, it was detached as an independent artillery battery on 14 January 1863.

The unit fought at Franklin and Nashville shortly before it was renamed Battery B, 1st Illinois Light Artillery Regiment on 21 December 1864.

Company G shared in the experiences of the 19th Illinois Infantry until September 1862, when it was fitted out as an artillery battery at Nashville, Tennessee.

On 14 January 1863, Company G was permanently detached as Bridges' Battery Illinois Light Artillery and equipped at Nashville.

By 20 February, the new artillery battery returned to the Army of the Cumberland at Murfreesboro and was attached to the Pioneer Brigade.

[1] While assigned to the Pioneer brigade, the battery reported 2 officers and 116 enlisted men present for duty and 6 guns.

[1] When Bridges' Battery reported from Manchester, Tennessee, its armament consisted of two M1841 6-pounder field guns, two M1841 12-pounder howitzers, and two 3-inch Ordnance rifles.

[4] At the Battle of Chickamauga on 19–20 September 1863, Bridges' Battery was attached to John Beatty's 1st Brigade, James S. Negley's 2nd Division, in the XIV Corps under George Henry Thomas.

[9] Bridges reported opening fire on Confederate infantry at 9:30 am with case shot at 400 yd (366 m) and canister as the range decreased.

Confederate Lieutenant Lot Young of the 4th Kentucky Infantry watched in astonishment as Captain Bridges rode his horse into full view and lifted his hat to his enemies.

[11] As Thomas, Beatty, and other officers tried to save the left from collapse, Bridges sent his four remaining guns back to Snodgrass Hill under Lieutenant Temple.

[16] After Wood's division captured Orchard Knob on 23 November 1863, General Thomas immediately ordered Bridges' Battery forward to occupy the seized hill.

After Grant repeated the order, Granger came to his senses and instructed his division commanders Wood and Philip Sheridan to attack when a battery fired six shots in rapid succession.

[18] As noted on the historical marker at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, Bridges' Battery fired the six signal shots to begin the attack about 3:30 pm.

After the soldiers stepped off, the battery "continued a rapid and annoying fire over the heads of the assaulting line of Union troops till the ridge was carried".

[20] At the start of the Atlanta campaign, Bridges' Battery was assigned to Wood's 3rd Division in Oliver Otis Howard's IV Corps.

During the four days of fighting, the battery lost five men wounded (two severely), four horses killed, and two caisson wheels damaged.

Also on 8 June, Lieutenants Temple and Bise and 28 soldiers were ordered to return to Chicago because their enlistments expired.

[23] From 17 June to 3 July 1864, Bridges' Battery was continuously involved in the fighting leading up to and after the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.

On 6 July, fire from the battery prevented Confederates from removing a pontoon bridge spanning the Chattahoochee River.

The unit took position on the north bank of Peachtree Creek on 19 July and the section led by Sergeant Clark E. Dodge received the compliments of General Thomas for its good shooting.

The Battle of Peachtree Creek occurred on 20 July; on the following day the battery fired on the outer defenses of Atlanta and drove off some enemy skirmishers.

[27] Bridges' Battery participated in operations against John Bell Hood's Confederate army in northern Georgia from 29 September to 3 November 1864.

The center was threatened when Confederate attackers closely followed routed Union soldiers from George D. Wagner's division and seized the outer breastworks.

Bridges' Battery and two others briefly held off the attackers until Emerson Opdycke's brigade plugged the gap.