The 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

May 25

Organized at Camp Andrew, West Rexbury, and mustered in under Colonel George H. Gordon, Lieutenant Colonel George Leonard Andrews and Major Wilder Dwight

July 8

Left State for Hagerstown, Md.

July 11-12

Moved to Williamsport and Martinsburg. Va. Attached to Abercrombie's Brigade, Patterson's Army

July 19

Attached to Abercrombie's Brigade, Banks' Division, Dept. 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

December 4 -

February 27

Duty at Frederick, Md.

February 27-28

Reconnoissance to Charleston

March 12

Occupation of Winchester. Attached to Gordon's 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, Dept. 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 Winchester (Rear guard May 24-25)

June

Assigned to 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 2nd Army 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

Guarding trains during battles of Bull Run

September

Assigned to 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 12th Army Corps, Army of the Potomac

September 16-17

Battle of Antietam

The regiment lost 12 killed and 51 wounded, including Lieutenant Colonel Wilder Dwight, who was mortally wounded, and Captain Francis and Lieutenants Crowninshield and Mills, who were wounded. Captin Robert Gould Shaw was also lightly wounded in the neck.

September 19-October 29

Duty at Maryland Heights

October - December

Picket duty at Blackford's Ford and Sharpsburg, Md.

November 10

Colonel Andrews promoted to brigadier general

December 12-16

March to Fredericksburg

1863

January 20-24

"Mud March"

January - April

At Stafford Court House

Captain 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

Brandy Station and Beverly Ford

June 11-July 24

Gettysburg Campaign

July 1-3

Battle of Gettysburg

The regiment was commanded at Gettysburg by Lieutenant Colonel Charles R. Mudge, who was killed leading the regiment in a charge he questioned: "it is murder, but it's an order."

From the monument, "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, Ala., attached to Army of the Cumberland

October

Guarding Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad at Elkwater Bridge and Tullahoma

December 31

Regiment veteranize

1864

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

January to April

Campaign of the Carolinas

March 2

Thompson's Creek, near Chesterfield

March 3

Thompson's Creek, near Cheraw, S.C.

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

Mustered out

July 26

Discharged at Boston, Mass.

Charles R Mudge