The No. 1 P.E.I. Pro. Brigade Garrison Artillery was designated 31 March 1882. The Battery was essentially a renaming of the previous entity the No. 2 Charlottetown Battery Garrison Artillery, which had been created in 1875, in accordance with an Act of the Government of Canada of 1868, as a militia unit for the new province of Prince Edward Island. The Battery was a reorganization of the Charlottetown Volunteer Artillery and Rifle Corps, a colonial militia unit which had been allowed to lapse.The Charlottetown Volunteer Artillery and Rifle Corps had formed in 1859 as a local response to the imperial loyalty engendered by the Crimean War and tensions in Europe. nitially the organization consisted of 5 commissioned officers and 70 non-commissioned officers and men. During its various incarnations this militia unit was called upon for drill duty, the provision of Guards of Honour, and the protection of government owned buildings in Charlottetown.