Hi,

I'm working on slowly but surely creating detailed orders of battle for the Siege of Petersburg at my web site: (http://www.beyondthecrater.com)

I have run into a bit of a mystery during the Sixth Offensive in late October 1864 which I think members of this board may be able to help me clear up. During this time frame, the "18th Georgia Battalion" is listed as being stationed at Mattoax Bridge, part of the First Military District, Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia.
Source: The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., page 151

The "18th Georgia Heavy Artillery Battalion" is listed as being unattached in the Department of Richmond.
Source: The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., page 152

Were these two distinct units? I tend to want to believe they were one and the same, and that either they moved from Mattoax Bridge to Richmond during this offensive, or Sibley made a mistake in listing the unit twice. I believe this because Joseph Crute's work on Confederate units does not even list an "18th Georgia Heavy Artillery Battalion." What makes things murkier is that by the time of Saylor's Creek during the Appomattox Campaign, the "18th Georgia Heavy Artillery Battalion" is listed in the Order of Battle. Was this unit simply the "18th Georgia (Infantry) Battalion" which had been impressed into Heavy Artillery duty for a time and had the name "stick," or are they really two distinct units?

Any help you can provide me would be greatly appreciated.