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Federal Regiment

20th Massachusetts Infantry

"Harvard Regiment"
Organized: Readville, Mass; mustered in 9/9/1861
Disbanded/Mustered out: 7/16/1865

 

Commanding Officer on the Antietam Campaign:
  William Raymond Lee

 

This Regiment's Chain of Command:
  Army - Army of the Potomac
  Corps - Second Army Corps
  Division - 2nd Division, 2nd Corps
  Brigade - 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, 2nd Corps


Unit history

Service summary:
Left State for Washington, D.C., September 4, 1861. Attached to Lander's Brigade, Division of the Potomac, to October, 1861. Lander's Brigade, Stone's (Sedgwick's) Division, Army of the Potomac, to March, 1862. 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, 2nd Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, to March, 1864. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 2nd Army Corps, to July, 1865.

The 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, popularly known as the "Harvard Regiment", was one of the most honored regiments of the Army of the Potomac in the Civil War.
The Twentieth was "The Harvard Regiment" because it was officered largely by young Harvard graduates, the most famous being future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Other notable names in the officer corps of the Twentieth include Henry L. Abbott, William Bartlett, George Nelson Macy, William Lee, Henry Ropes, Francis Palfrey, and Paul Revere, Jr. The Regiment won its fame not only from its "star" roster, however, but from hard and bloody fighting in almost all major battles fought by the Second Corps, Army of the Potomac from 1861 to 1865.

The Twentieth was in the thick of the worst fighting, from Ball's Bluff in 1861, through the Peninsula Campaign (including Fair Oaks-Seven Pines) to Antietam.

Map Showing this Unit

Battlefield Tablets for this Unit

Tablet #35: Second Army Corps - 15 Sep, 7 AM to 15 Sep, 8 PM
Tablet #115: Second Army Corps - 15 Sep, 9 AM to 17 Sep, 7 AM
Tablet #120: Army of the Potomac - 17 Sep, 5 AM to 17 Sep, 12 PM
Tablet #116: Second Army Corps - 17 Sep, 6 AM to 17 Sep, 10 AM
Tablet #36: Sedgwick's Division, Second Army Corps - 17 Sep, 7 AM to 17 Sep, 10 AM
Tablet #38: Dana's Brigade, Sedgwick's Division - 17 Sep, 7 AM to 17 Sep, 12 PM

After the Antietam Campaign

The Regiment continued to campaign with the Army of the Potomac in the savage street fighting in Fredericksburg in December 1862, to its critical role during Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg in 1863, and continuing through the Wilderness and the bloody 1864 battles.

By late 1864 it was "fought out", losing by casualties and reorganization its identity as the "Harvard Regiment". The Regiment nonetheless existed and fought as a unit to the war's conclusion at Appomattox in April 1865.

The Twentieth had the highest number of casualties among Massachusetts regiments, and of two thousand total Union regiments, it ranked fifth in casualties. The Twentieth was also labeled "The Copperhead Regiment", given the anti-abolitionist beliefs of some officers, including a significant number of the Harvard men. There was social and political conflict within the Regiment between anti-abolitionist pro-McClellan "Copperheads", and the Twentieth's abolitionists, particularly the two companies - B and C - made up largely of German immigrants.

We have 39 individuals in the AotW database who were on the Maryland Campaign with this unit:

 

Co. Rank Name Casualty? Details*
APvtBrown, Abraham WIA   09/17
ACaptHolmes, Jr, Oliver Wendell        We have a picture for this person We have some details for this person
BPvtGuttermuth, Frederick KIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
BPvtRabenan, Ludwig KIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
BPvtShilling, John MWIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
CPvtSchneider, Jacob MWIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
DPvtButler, William M.WIA   09/17
DCaptHallowell, Norwood PenroseWIA   09/17     We have a picture for this person We have some details for this person
DPvtHoward, Hiram B.WIA   09/17     We have a picture for this person We have some details for this person
DPvtMcQuestion, Clinton KIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
EPvtFaxon, Horatio N.MWIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
EPvtGriffith, Lucius EllisKIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
EPvtHarwood, Ezra O.KIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
EPvtKallaher, Cornelius WIA   09/17
FPvtBresney, Michael WIA   09/17
FPvtBrown, John KIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
FPvtBuckley, Timothy WIA   09/17
FPvtMcDonough, John MWIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
GCorpAllen, Frederick S.MWIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
HLtBeckwith, Robert S.        We have a picture for this person We have some details for this person
HPvtClancy, Maurice WIA   09/17
HPvtCressey, Leonard KIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
HPvtFlanders, George C.WIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
HSgtKeith, Friend H.KIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
HPvtMcDonald, George H.KIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
IPvtAlexander, Edward MWIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
IPvtBuck, William E.MWIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
IPvtChase, Hollis H.WIA   09/17
IPvtMather, John KIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
KPvtBowman, Henry WIA   09/17
KCorpCampion, Edward J.WIA   09/17
KSgtCampion, Patrick J.WIA   09/17
KCorpKehr, George W.KIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
KPvtRiley, John KIA   09/17     We have some details for this person
KLtRopes, Henry         We have a picture for this person We have some details for this person
F&SSurgHayward, Nathan POW   09/17     We have a picture for this person We have some details for this person
F&SColLee, William Raymond        We have a picture for this person We have some details for this person
F&SLColPalfrey, Francis WinthropWIA   09/17     We have a picture for this person We have some details for this person
F&SASrgRevere, Edward Hutchinson RobbinsKIA   09/17     We have a picture for this person We have some details for this person

 

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