Action at Ball’s Bluff

Peninsula Campaign

To the Peninsula

Siege of Yorktown

West Point

Battle of Fair Oaks, Seven Pines

Seven days before Richmond

Oak Grove, near Fair Oaks

Lieutenant Warner and several enlisted men were killed and Lieutenant J. H. Rice and around 60 enlisted men wounded.

Peach Orchard and Savage Station

White Oak Swamp and Glendale

Colonel Hincks and Captain Devereux (Lt. Colonel Devereux’s brother) were wounded and Major How and Lieutenant David Lee killed. Captain Edmund Rice took command of the regiment.

Malvern Hill

Maryland Campaign

Colonel Hinks resumed command,

Battle of South Mountain (In Reserve)

Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg)

Colonel Hinks was the first to fall, seriously wounded, leaving Lieutenant Colonel Devereux in command. Devereux was ill and exercised command for only a short time before turning it over to Captain Harrison G. O. Weymouth. Captain George W. Batchelder was killed.

From the brigade marker at Antietam:

Dana’s Brigade, following Gorman’s in column of attack, passed through the East Woods, crossed the Cornfield and the Hagerstown Pike, about 50 yards in rear of Gorman, and entered the West Woods, where its advance was checked about 40 yards east of this point.

Its left flank having been attacked and turned, by McLaws’ and Walker’s Divisions, it was compelled to retire.

A portion of the Brigade, with the 1st Minnesota Infantry, occupied a line near the Nicodemus house which it held for a time until, its flank having been again turned, it retired to the woods and fields east of the Hagerstown Pike.

Battle of Fredericksburg

The regiment was a “forlorn hope” to cross the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg. Lieutenant Colonel Devereux was still very sick in camp, so the regiment was commanded by Captain Harrison G.O. Weyouth, who was badly wounded, losing his leg.

Chancellorsville Campaign

Maryes’ Heights. Fredericksburg

Salem Heights

Gettysburg Campaign

Battle of Gettysburg

The 19th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was commanded by Colonel Arthur F. Devereaux. It brought 231 men to the field, losing 9 killed, 61 wounded and 7 missing.

Colonel Devereaux noted that the opening shot of the artillery barrage preceding Pickett’s Charge struck Lieutenant S.S. Robinson of the 19th, “cutting his body nearly in two, killing him instantly.” While there is no doubt of Robinson’s death, there are four other contradictory accounts of the first shot, including one by the 19th’s own Lieutenant J.B.G. Adams, who claimed to have had the shot pass over him while lying in a field hospital just behind the lines.*

From one of a series of iron signs on the south side of the Copse of Trees: 

Nineteenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. The position of this regiment in line of battle was 119 yards S.S.E. and is represented by its monument. The 19th Massacusetts and 42d New York Regiments were the first troops to attack Pickett’s Division in flank. “Passing at this time Colonel Devereux, commanding the 19th Massachusetts Volunteers, anxious to be in the right place, appled to me for permission to move his regiment to the right and to the front where the line had been broken.” – Hancock’s official report.

Major Edmund Rice was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at the height of Pickett’s Charge, when he led a countercharge into Confederate attackers who had broken the Union lines, holding them in check with a thin line of men for several minutes until reinforcements arrived to turn the tide. He fell severly wounded, the officer nearest the enemy.

The regiment captured the colors of the 14th, 19th, 53rd and 57th Virginia Infantry Regiments.

*From George R. Stewart, Pickett’s Charge: A Microhistory of the Final Attack at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, p126

< See Colonel Devereaux’s Official Report for the 19th Massachusetts in the Battle of Gettysburg >

Bristoe Campaign

Bristoe Station

Mine Run Campaign

Campaign from the Rapidan to the James

Battle of the Wilderness

Laurel Hill

Battle of Spottsylvania Court House

Po River

Assault on the Salient

North Anna River

Totopotomoy

Battle of Cold Harbor

First Assault on Petersburg

Siege of Petersburg

Jerusalem Plank Road

Strawberry Plains, Deep Bottom

Ream’s Station

Boydton Plank Road, Hatcher’s Run

Dabney’s Mills, Hatcher’s Run

Appomattox Campaign

Fall of Petersburg

Sailor’s Creek

High Bridge and Farmville

Appomattox Court House

Surrender of Lee and his army.