United States Regiments & Batteries * Massachusetts * 2nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment
The 2nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment lost 14 officers and 176 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded and 2 officers and 96 enlisted men to disease during the Civil War. The regiment is honored by a monument at Gettysburg, the first permanent regimental monument on the battlefield.
1861
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May 25 | The 2nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was organized at Camp Andrew, West Rexbury, and mustered in under the command of Colonel George H. Gordon, Lieutenant Colonel George Leonard Andrews (first in his class, West Point Class of 1851) and Major Wilder Dwight. |
July 8 | Left Massachusetts for Hagerstown, Maryland. |
July 11-12 | Moved to Williamsport and Martinsburg. Virginia. Attached to Abercrombie’s Brigade, Patterson’s Army |
July 19 | Attached to Abercrombie’s Brigade, Banks’ Division, Department of the Shenandoah |
August | Attached to Gordon’s 2nd Brigade, Banks’ Division, Army of the Potomac; Duty at Harper’s Ferry |
October 23-24 | At Conrad’s Ferry |
October 25 – December 4 |
Picket duty at Seneca Mills |
1862
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December 4 -February 27 | Duty at Frederick, Maryland. |
February 27-28 | Reconnoissance to Charleston |
March 12 | Occupation of Winchester. Attached to 3rd Brigade, Williams’ 1st Division, Banks’ 5th Army Corps |
March 24- April 27 |
Pursuit of Jackson up the Shenandoah Valley |
March 27 | Strasburg |
April 1 | Woodstock |
April 1-2 | Edenburg; Attached to 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, Department of the Shenandoah |
May 15-June 17 |
Operations in Shenandoah Valley |
May 23 | Buckton Station |
May 23-June 6 | Retreat to Martinsburg and Williamsport |
May 24 | Middletown and Newtown |
May 25 |
Battle of WinchesterThe regiment was in the rearguard May 24-25. |
June | Assigned to 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 2nd Corps, Army of Virginia |
May 26 – June 9 | At Williamsport |
June 10-18 | Moved to Front Royal |
June 13 | Colonel Gordon was promoted to brigadier general, Lieutenant Colonel Andrews to colonel and Major Dwight to lieutenant colonel |
July 11-17 | To Warrenton and Little Washington |
August 6- September 2 |
Pope’s Campaign in Northern Virginia |
August 9 |
Battle of Cedar Mountain |
August 19-23 |
Fords of the Rappahannock |
August 28-30 |
Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas)Guarded supply and ammunition trains during the battle and was not engaged. |
September | Assigned to 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 12th Corps, Army of the Potomac |
September 16-17 |
Battle of AntietamThe regiment lost 12 men killed and 51 wounded, including Lieutenant Colonel Wilder Dwight, who was mortally wounded, and Captain Francis and Lieutenants Crowninshield and Mills, who were wounded. Captain Robert Gould Shaw was also lightly wounded in the neck, an incident that is shown in the movie, Glory. Collis’ Independent Pennsylvania Company of Zouaves d’Afrique was attached to the regiment for the battle. From the first War Department marker to Gordon’s Brigade in The Cornfield on the Antietam battlefield:Gordon’s Brigade formed line at daybreak on the Hoffman farm and advanced in a southerly direction in support of Hooker’s Corps. The 107th New York was detached to support Cothran’s Battery and the 13th New Jersey was held in reserve. The Brigade formed on either side of Ransom’s Battery on the high ground due east of D. R. Miller’s, where it repulsed an assault of Hood’s Division and its support and, moving south through the Cornfield, changed front to the right and took position behind the ridge parallel to the Hagerstown Pike, where it remained until it was relieved by the advance of Sedgwick’s Division and withdrawn to the East Woods. From the second War Department marker to Gordon’s Brigade on the Antietam battlefield:Immediately after the withdrawal of Gordon’s Brigade to the East Woods, after being relieved by Sedgwick’s Division, it was ordered to the support of that Division in the West Woods. The 13th New Jersey and 2nd Massachusetts advanced into this road – the former north and the latter south of this point – where they encountered such a destructive fire from the enemy that they were compelled to retire to the East Woods. Later in the day, the 13th New Jersey advanced into the woods west of the Dunkard Church and took position on the right of Greene’s Division. < See the Official Report of Colonel Andrews for the 2nd Massachusetts at Antietam > |
September 19-October 29 |
Duty at Maryland Heights |
October – December | Picket duty at Blackford’s Ford and Sharpsburg, Md. |
November 10 | Colonel Andrews was promoted to brigadier general. |
December 12-16 | March to Fredericksburg |
1863
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January 20-24 |
“Mud March” |
January – April |
At Stafford Court HouseCaptain Robert Gould Shaw left the regiment to become colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry (the subject of the film, Glory.) |
April 27-May 6 |
Chancellorsville Campaign |
April 29 | Germania Ford |
May 1-5 |
Battle of Chancellorsville |
June 9 |
Battle of Brandy StationCommanded by Lieutenant Colonel Charles R. Mudge. |
June 11-July 24 |
Gettysburg Campaign |
July 1-3 |
Battle of GettysburgThe 2nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was commanded at Gettysburg by Lieutenant Colonel Charles R. Mudge, who was killed leading the regiment in a desperate charge. He questioned the command but remarked, “it is murder, but it’s an order.” Text from the monument near Spangler’s Spring at Gettysburg:From the hill behind this monument on the morning of July 3, the Second Mass. Inf. made an assault upon the Confederate troops in the works at the base of Culps Hill opposite. The regiment carried to the charge 22 officers and 294 enlisted men. It lost 4 officers and 41 enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 8 officers and 84 enlisted men wounded. To perpetuate the honored memories of that hour the survivors of the Regiment have raised this stone. 1879. Lieut. Col. Charles R. Mudge, Captain Thomas B. Fox, Captain Thomas R. Robeson, Lieut. Henry V.D. Stone. Color bearers – Leavitt C. Durgin, Rupert J. Sadler, Stephen Cody. First Sergeant Alonzo J. Babcock, Sergeant William H. Blunt. Corporals Charles Burdett, Theodore S. Butters, Jeremiah S. Hall, Patrick Heoy, Ruel Whittier, Gordon S. Wilson. Privates Samuel T. Alton, George M. Baily, Henry C. Ball, Wallace Bascom, John Briggs, Jr., David B. Brown, William T. Bullard, James A. Chase, Peter Conlan, John Derr, James T. Edmunds, William H. Ela, John E. Farrington, Silas P. Foster, Willard Foster, Joseph Furber, Fritz Goetz, Daniel A Hatch, John J. Jewett, John Joy, Charles Kiernan, William Marshall, Frederick Maynard, Andrew Nelson, Rufus A. Parker, Philo H. Peck, Sidney S. Prouty, Richard Seavers, Charles Trayner, David L. Wade |
July 5-26 | Pursuit to Warrenton Junction, Va. |
August 16 to September 13 | Detached duty in New York City |
September 24- October 3 |
Movement to Stevenson, Alabama, attached to Army of the Cumberland |
October | Guarded Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad at Elkwater Bridge and Tullahoma |
December 31 | Regiment veteranized |
1864
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January 10 – March 1 |
Veterans on furlough |
April | Assigned to 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 20th Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland |
May 1 to September 9 |
Atlanta (Ga.) Campaign |
May 8-11 | Demonstration against Rocky Faced Ridge |
May 14-15 |
Battle of Resaca |
May 19 | Cassville |
May 22 | Non-Veterans left front for muster out |
May 25 | Non-Veterans mustered out at Chattanooga, Tenn. |
May 25 |
New Hope Church |
May 25-29 | Operations on line of Pumpkin Vine Creek, and battles about Dallas, New Hope Church and Allatoona Hills |
May 29-June 8 | Guard trains to Kingston and back |
June 6 | Raccoon Creek |
June 10-July 2 | Operations about Marietta and against Kenesaw Mountain |
June 11-14 | Pine Hill |
June 15 |
Gilgal or Golgotha Church |
June 15-17 | Lost Mountain |
June 17 | Muddy Creek |
June 19 | Noyes Creek |
June 22 | Kolb’s Farm |
June 27 |
Assault on Kenesaw |
July 4 | Ruff’s Mills, Smyrna Camp Ground |
July 5-17 | Chattahoochie River |
July 19-20 |
Peach Tree Creek |
July 22-August 25 |
Siege of Atlanta |
August 26 – September 2 |
Operations at Chattahoochie River Bridge |
September 2-November 15 |
Occupation of Atlanta |
November 15-December 10 |
March to the sea |
December 9 | Monteith Swamp |
December 10-21 |
Siege of Savannah |
1865
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January to April |
Campaign of the Carolinas |
March 2-3 | Thompson’s Creek, near Chesterfield |
March 16 | Averysboro, N. C. |
March 19-21 |
Battle of Bentonville |
March 24 | Occupation of Goldsboro |
April 9-13 | Advance on Raleigh |
April 14 | Occupation of Raleigh |
April 26 | Bennett’s House, surrender of Johnston and his army. |
April 29-May 19 | March to Washington, D.C., via Richmond, Va. |
May 24 | Grand Review |
May – July | Provost duty at Washington |
July 11 | The 2nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment mustered out |
July 26 | Discharged at Boston, Mass. |