7th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment

United States Regiments & Batteries > Maine

The 7th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment lost 15 officers and 113 enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 3 officers and 209 enlisted men to disease during the Civil War. The regiment is honored by a monument at Gettysburg.

1861
August 21, Organized at Augusta and mustered in under the command of Colonel Thomas H. Marshall.
August 23 Left State for Baltimore, Md.; Attached to Dix’s Division at Baltimore, Md.
October Attached to Davidson’s Brigade, W. F. Smith’s Division, Army of the Potomac
October 25 Colonel Marshall died in Baltimore of typhoid fever.
November 5 Edwin C. Mason was promoted to colonel.
November 7 Moved to Washington, D.C. and duty at Georgetown Heights and at Lewinsville, Va.
1862
March Attached to 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, 4th Army Corps, Army Potomac
March 10-15 Advance on Manassas, Va.
March 23-24 Return to Alexandria, thence moved to Fortress Monroe, Va.
March 27-31 Reconnaissance to Watt’s Creek
April 5-May 4
Siege of Yorktown
May 5 Battle of Williamsburg
May Attached to 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, 6th Army Corps
May 9-13 Advance up the peninsula
May 14 – May 19 At White House
May 23-24 Mechanicsville
June 25-July 1
Seven days before Richmond
June 27-28 Garnett’s and Golding’s Farms
June 29 Savage Station
June 30 White Oak Swamp Bridge and Glendale
July 1
Malvern Hill
July – August 15 At Harrison’s Landing
August 15-27 Movement to Fortress Monroe, then to Centreville
August 27-31 In works at Centreville
August 30 Assist in checking Pope’s rout at Bull Run
September 1 Cover retreat to Fairfax Court House
September – October Maryland Campaign
September 14
Crampton’s Pass, South Mountain

The regiment was commanded by Major Thomas W. Hyde
September 16- 17
Battle of Antietam

The 7th Maine was commanded by Major Thomas W. Hyde, who was awarded the Medal of honor for his actions at Antietam. Late in the day the regiment was ordered to drive back a company of Confederate sharpshooters that was annoying a battery. As Major Hyde sent out a company of skirmishers his brigade commander, Colonel Irwin, ordered him to lead out the whole regiment. Major Hyde asked him to repeat the order, which Colonel Irwin did emphatically and with an oath.

Major Hyde led the 7th Maine forward a quarter mile in a bayonet charge which cleared the offending sharpshooters, which were from the 7th Georgia, 1st Texas, and 2nd Mississippi Battalion. But the regiment was  now under fire from three sides, unsupported, low on ammunition, and threatened with being cut off. Major Hyde led the survivors back in good order to the starting lines.

From Major Hyde’s report:

“The color-sergeant was killed, and all the guard shot but one, who brought off our flag riddled with balls. Fifteen officers and 166 men went into the fight, and our loss was as follows: Enlisted men known to be killed, 12; wounded and brought off, 60; fate still unknown, 16. Lieutenants Brown and Goodwin and Sergeant-Major Parsons, killed; Captains Jones, Cochrane, and Cook and Adjutant Haskell, wounded and missing; Lieutenants Shorey, Benson, and Emery, wounded.

But one officer, Lieutenant Nickerson, escaped untouched in clothes or person, and but very few men. Captain Channing and Lieutenant Webber had each three bullets through their clothes. The adjutant and myself both had our horses shot under us.”

The final tally of men killed in the action was 25.
October Ordered home to recruit at Portland, Me.

1863
January 25 Joined Brigade and Division at White Oak Church, Va.
April 27-May 6 Chancellorsville Campaign
April 29-May 2 Operations at Franklin’s Crossing
May 3 Maryes Heights, Fredericksburg
May 3-4
Salem Heights
May 4 Banks’ Ford
May 23 Company F joined the rest of the regiment
June 5-13 Operations at Franklin’s Crossing
July 2-4
Battle of Gettysburg

The regiment had six companies at Gettysburg: B,C,D,F,I and K. (The remaining companies were in Maine recruiting.) It was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Selden Connor and brought 261 men to the field. One of the last Union units to arrive on the battlefield, it was assigned to a position on the extreme right flank of the army protecting Meade’s main supply and communication route along the Baltimore Pike. On July 3rd the 7th Maine advanced to the north of the Pike to push back Confederate skirmishers and sharpshooters, and suffered six wounded.
July 5 Fairfield
July 10-13 Near Funkstown, Md.
October 9-22 Bristoe Campaign
November 7-8 Advance to line of the Rappahannock
November 7 Rappahannook Station
November 26 –
December 2		 Mine Run Campaign
1864
May 3 Campaign from the Rapidan to the James River
May 5-7
Battle of the Wilderness
May 8-21
Spotsylvania Court House
May 12 “Bloody Angle,” assault on the Salient
May 23-26 North Anna River
May 26-28 On line of the Pamunkey
May 28-31 Totopotomoy
June 1-12
Cold Harbor
June 17-July 9 Before Petersburg
June 22-23 Jerusalem Plank Road
July 9-11 Moved to Washington, D.C.
July 11-12 Repulse of Early’s attack on Washington, D.C.
August 7-21 Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign
August 21 Mustered out at Charlestown, Va. Veterans and Recruits transferred to 1st Maine Veteran Infantry