The 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was a Civil War unit celebrated for its ferocious fighting and remembered for its heavy losses. It mustered 750 men at Read-ville, Massachusetts, between August 29 and September 4, 1861, in response to an appeal by Governor John Albion Andrew for soldiers to defend the Union. Among those who flocked to the colors were Paul Revere, Jr., grandson of the famous Revolutionary War rider, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., a future Supreme Court justice. The officer corps represented a cross-section of Boston’s Brahmin class, including several graduates from Harvard University, hence its popular nickname as the “Harvard Regiment.” It also gained notoriety in abolitionist circles as the “Copperhead Regiment” because many officers were indifferent toward emancipation, although two full companies consisted of abolitionist German immigrants.
On September 4, 1861, the 20th Massachusetts deployed to the Washington, D. C., area to secure the national capital. Assigned to General Lander’s brigade, Division of the Potomac, under Col. William Raymond Lee, the unit had its baptism of fire at the disaster of Ball’s Bluff, Virginia, on October 21, 1861. Despite defeat, the 20th displayed hard-fighting qualities that would make it among the best-regarded units in the Army of the Potomac.
In March 1862 the 20th Massachusetts became part of General John Sedgwick’s division, the Army of the Potomac. In this capacity it played a conspicuous role in heavy fighting throughout the ill-fated Peninsular campaign waged in Virginia. After more severe combat at Second Manassas and Antietam in summer and fall 1862, the regiment was called upon to perform its most celebrated action: serving as the advance guard of the Federals at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 11, 1862. The 20th Massachusetts rowed across the Rappahannock River under heavy fire and executed a determined bayonet charge through the town, taking prohibitive losses yet flushing Confederate defenders from houses lining their path. On July 3, 1863, the 20th performed another critical role at Gettysburg by occupying the famous “copse of trees” that was the focal point of Confederate forces during George Edward Pickett’s charge. Here the regiment lost 127 men out of 218 present for combat.
By 1864 casualties and enlistment expirations in the 20th Massachusetts, along with an influx of new men, effectively removed its identity as the “Harvard Regiment.” The reconstituted unit soldiered on as part of the 2nd Division, II Corps, until the end of the war. It rendered effective—if costly—service in the Overland campaign and siege of Petersburg and was present at surrender ceremonies at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. In terms of casualties, the 20th Massachusetts sustained the highest losses of any Bay State regiment and the fifth greatest of the 1,000-plus regiments mustered by the Union army: Seventeen officers and 243 enlisted men were killed in battle, and one officer and 148 enlisted men were lost to disease, for a total of 408 dead. By dint of hard fighting it became one of the most widely respected regiments in the entire Army of the Potomac.
Further reading: Mark D. Howe, ed., Touched with Fire: Civil War Letters and Diary of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 1861-1864 (New York: Fordham University Press, 2000); John McKay, Brave Men in Desperate Times: The Lives of Civil War Soldiers (Guilford, Conn.: TwoDot, 2007); Richard F. Miller, Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Hanover, N. H.: University Press of New England, 2005); Edwin R. Root, “Isn’t This Glorious!”: The 15th, 19th, and 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiments at Gettysburg’s Copse of Trees (Bethlehem, Pa.: Moon Trail Books, 2006).
—John C. Fredriksen
World History
