John,

I'm guessing that your ancestor was Private Rheese Holly who enlisted from Monroe, Louisiana on February 28, 1863.

Moody’s Battery, Madison Light Artillery was part of Edward Porter Alexander’s Reserve Artillery Battalion in Longstreet’s Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. All batteries except one were ordered into winter quarters near Carmel Church in Caroline County, Virginia (five miles north of Hanover Junction) on December 27, 1862 after the Battle of Fredericksburg. They stayed there until April 29, 1863 when they began the march to the Battle of Chancellorsville. They saw no action and were not under fire during their time in winter quarters.

Captain Moody himself (along with his 1st Lt.) was Absent on Detached Service, Recruiting, by order of General Lee dated January 12, 1863. He went to Monroe, Louisiana near Richmond, Louisiana where he had recruited many of the original Battery members in June of 1861. This winter he enlisted somewhere around 110 men into the battery.

Most likely Pvt. Holly was felled by disease (probably pneumonia) as he was discharged on Surgeon’s Certificate on April 16, 1863; well before the battery broke camp. He is listed only on the March and April 1863 Muster Roll, which would have been filled out near the end of May. There might be a hospital record for him. At least 24 of the men in Moody’s Battery were sick in hospital during this time period (either Richmond or Lynchburg – at least five entered the hospital at Lynchburg on March 20, 1863 alone). Six of them were bad enough to stay until December and three died during this time period (I include Rheese Holly in this number). In fact, one of them died the very day Rheese was discharged. Most of the sick were among the new recruits.

So I’m sorry to say that he did not see any action.

I have more documents tucked away around here somewhere, so if you want more info on Moody’s Battery just email me direct at SteveBogdan@prodigy.net

Steve