In 1821, John C. Calhoun as Secretary of War worked to reorganize and modernize the War Department and the army for the turn of the century, which included the creation of several proper regiments of artillery, including that of the 4th US Artillery. The various batteries were stationed across Florida and the Gulf Coast, though these frontier posts at the time were terribly hostile to the basic health of the garrisons, including sixteen deaths to disease of just officers alone, let alone 220 enlisted men killed over the course of their duty in the south. After five years the unit's headquarters was moved to Fort Columbus on Governor's Island near Manhattan, while the individual batteries themselves were stationed widespread across the frontier, and took an active role in the various Indian Wars of the 1830s, as well as the occupation of Corpus Cristi during the Mexican-American War. Several of the men were detailed with other proper infantry to storm Federacion Hill in the battle of Monterey, achieving many distinctions in official reports. 

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By the time of the Civil War, most of the batteries were detailed to various locations in the west, including Utah for Battery B, where they acted as cavalry keeping the roads clear for settlers and mail to go through to the west, even while the storm of war brewed throughout the summer of 1859. When the storm broke, and the official declarations of war were drawn, the batteries were quickly sent for to return to the East to their new headquarters first at Fort McHenry in Boston, and then to Fort Washington to the south of the Capital to guard the Potomac.

Battery B was one of the light batteries in the regiment, armed with six 12-pdr Napoleons through til 1864, when it was standardized with four guns. A few months after taking over the garrison of Fort Washington, the battery was then assigned to the Army of the Potomac under General Pope in mid 1862, and by August was engaged in some of it's first major fighting in the war at Cedar Mountain. Under McClellan, the battery was reassigned to General Hooker's 1st Corps, and took active part in much of the Maryland Campaign, including being right within the thickest of fighting as the 1st Corps moved down the Hagerstown Pike near the Miller Farm. During the fighting over Fredericksburg, they received great accolades from their new Corps commander John Reynolds, since Hooker had been wounded at Antietam.

In 1863, artillery as a whole were again subject to reorganization, and instead were formed as their own brigade in each corps rather than being assigned among the infantry brigades. Shortly after, the men of "Jock" Stewart's battery were at the forefront of fighting near Cemetery Hill, almost being captured twice but able to retreat in time, but taking serious casualties including thirty-three horses killed, one caisson blown up, another three broken down, and two of their guns spiked to prevent Rebel capture. Following that, the battery continued to take an active role in fighting at the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Courthouse, and ended the year of 1864 in the vicinity of Petersburg. Their prowess in battle was equaled only by their comrades in Battery K, but found no equal besides.