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19th
Massachusetts Infantry
in the Civil War
| Regimental History |
| Nineteenth Infantry. — Cols., Edward W. Hinks, Arthur F. Devereux,
Ansel D. Wass, Edmund Rice; Lieut.-Cols., Arthur F. Devereux, Ansel D. Wass, Edmund Rice,
Morcena Dunn; Majs., Henry J. Howe, Ansel D. Wass, Edmund Rice, Morcena Dunn, Isaac H.
Boyd, William L. Palmer. The 19th was mustered in for three years at Lynnfield, in Aug.,
1861, and was mustered out June 30, 1865, so large a number of its members having
reenlisted that the organization was maintained. The regiment contained three companies of
the 1st battalion of rifles, the Tiger fire zouaves of Boston, four other Boston
companies, one from Lowell and one from Maiden, and numbered 1,892 members. It lost by
death from wounds 163, and 104 died from disease or imprisonment. It arrived in Washington
on Aug. 30, 1861, and was assigned to picket duty on the upper Potomac. Its first
engagement was at Ball's bluff, after which it joined the preceding Mass. regiments in the
Army of the Potomac. Engagements followed at Yorktown, Oak Grove, Peach Orchard, Savage
Station, White Oak swamp and Glendale. At Antietam its division was nearly surrounded but
the 19th valiantly fought its way back with the 1st Minn. When the army attempted to cross
the river before Fredericksburg, the 19th Mass. was one of the regiments that crossed the
river in open boats and drove out the Confederate sharpshooters, who were blocking the
approach. After this battle it was encamped at Falmouth during the winter of 1862-63 and
participated in the Chancellorsville campaign the following spring. At Gettysburg the
regiment, in a hand to hand fight, captured 4 flags. It next went south with the Army of
the Potomac, took part in its operations of the autumn, and went into winter quarters at
Brandy Station, Va., until May 3d, 1864, when it began the advance with the army and was
in action at the Wilderness. On May 10 it made two brilliant but unsuccessful charges and
later joined in the successful assault on the "Angle" at Spottsylvania. At Cold
Harbor, Petersburg, Deep Bottom and along the Weldon railroad the regiment was repeatedly
engaged, and while quartered for the winter of 1864-65 at Fort Emory, on the Vaughan road,
several engagements ensued in that vicinity. It took part in the grand review at
Washington, the end of a long and honorable service. |
Footnotes:
Regimental history taken from "The Union Army" by Federal Publishing
Company, 1908 - Volume 1
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