It was initially attached to the 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery Regiment (African Descent) as Battery M. The battery was attached to the garrison of Fort Pickering, District of Memphis, 5th Division, XVI Corps, Department of the Tennessee, to January 1864.
All Union artillery was largely ineffective because the guns could not be depressed enough to fire upon the Confederates on the steep terrain below.
Nearly every man in this detachment was killed or missing in action when Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest captured the fort on April 12, 1864 and Union troops were subsequently massacred.
In his report of April 27, 1864, Captain Lamberg, who was not present at the battle, stated that the section had one officer and 34 enlisted men.
The official report on the Battle of Fort Pillow identified only one soldier of the section of 40 men as a survivor.
(Source: "River Run Red") One example of a survivor is Daniel Tyler who was shot in the eye and right shoulder.
When he returned in March 1865, he was accused of being absent without leave and was imprisoned in Irving Block Prison in Memphis.