Captain Key & Key's Battery

Captain Key and Key's Battery. . , Captain Thomas Jefferson Key earned a reputation as an audacious battery commander, often running his guns up close to the enemy in advance of the infantry. Many reports and correspondence mention the incredibly fast loading and firing that characterized the Helena Artillery under Key's command. Area battles in which Key's Battery fought included the Battle of Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Ringgold Gap and Tunnel Hill as well as Hood's ill-fated campaign in Tennessee., During the Atlanta Campaign, Key's Battery was assigned to the Hochkiss' Battalion, part of Major General Cleburne's Division. Key's Battery was the first to fire on a Union Brigade involved in the demonstration against Dalton, Georgia on February 25, 1864., In the "hundred days" fighting between Dalton and Atlanta, Georgia, he won the rank of Major and was in the fiercest of the battles. Key finished the war fighting in General Joseph Johnston's army in North Carolina., At the end of the war, the Helena Artillery under the command of Captain (now Major) Thomas Jefferson Key surrendered at Macon, Georgia on April 20, 1865.