My reference is Dean S. Thomas' 1985 "Cannons: An Introduction to Civil War Artillery," Arendtville, Pennsylvania: published by the author, page 3. Thomas wrote that a Union battery of cannon consisted of six usually of the same type of cannon commanded usually by a captain, and the battery could be subdivided into two-gun sections each commanded by a lieutenant. Therefore, each battery could have three sections (of two cannon each) capable of independent action and fire even if the battery was split up. I recently had to find out for myself what constituted a section in describing what forces were garrisoned in an isolated Missouri Union post, and, frankly, with the guerrilla war in Missouri, all the garrisons were isolated in one way or another.

Bruce Nichols