2nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry The 2nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that saw extensive federal service in the Union Army during the American Civil War . The regiment saw action at the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of Gettysburg . History . The regiment was organized in May 1861 at Camp Andrew in West Roxbury , Massachusetts south of Boston . The 2nd Massachusetts was commanded by Colonel George H . Gordon , a West Point graduate ( Class of 1846 ) , along with Lieutenant Colonel George Leonard Andrews , also a West Point graduate ( Class of 1851 ) , and Major Wilder Dwight . On July 8 , the regiment left for Maryland where it joined the forces under General Robert Patterson . In 1861 , the regiment served guarding the upper Potomac River and Frederick , Maryland , and in the spring of 1862 , the regiment served under Maj . Gen . Nathaniel P . Banks , unsuccessfully opposing Maj . Gen . Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley . In June , the regiment was transferred to the Union Army of Virginia and participated in General George B . McClellan ' s Peninsula Campaign . During this time , Colonel Gordon was promoted to brigadier general and commanded the brigade . Lieutenant Colonel Andrews was promoted to colonel and given command of the 2nd Massachusetts . Major Dwight was promoted to lieutenant colonel . Battle of Antietam , and early 1863 . In August , the regiment became part of the 3rd Brigade ( commanded by Gordon ) , 1st Division ( commanded by Major General Alpheus S . Williams ) , II Corps ( commanded by Banks ) , of Maj . Gen . John Pope ' s Army of Virginia . On August 9 , Banks ' s Corps fought at the Battle of Cedar Mountain as part of Pope ' s Northern Virginia Campaign , where the corps was again up against Jackson , and was again defeated , the 2nd Massachusetts suffering 173 casualties . However , the II Corps did not reach the Second Battle of Bull Run until after the battle was over . On September 17 , the II Corps was redesignated as the XII Corps , Army of the Potomac , with the 2nd Massachusetts remaining in the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division . During the Battle of Antietam , the XII Corps , commanded by Maj . Gen . Joseph K . Mansfield supported General Joseph Hooker ' s advanced through the cornfield during the morning phase of the battle and received heavy casualties including Lieutenant Colonel Dwight , who was mortally wounded . The regiment lost 12 killed and 51 wounded , among the wounded were Captains Francis and Robert Gould Shaw along with Lieutenants Crowninshield and Mills . General Mansfield was also killed in the battle and command of the XII Corps passed to General Henry W . Slocum . Later in the year , they marched to Fredericksburg , Virginia but did not participate in the Battle of Fredericksburg . During this time , at Stafford Court House , Captain Shaw left the regiment to become colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry . In May , 1863 , the regiment participated in the Battle of Chancellorsville . In the battle , Stonewall Jackson ' s corps executed a surprise flanking movement and smashed into the right flank of the Army of the Potomac , severely damaging the unsuspecting XI Corps . The neighboring troops , including the XII Corps with the 2nd Massachusetts , entrenched hastily and was able to stop the Confederate advance before it overran the entire army . Battle of Gettysburg . After Chancellorsville , the regiment marched north to Pennsylvania following General Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia . It participated in the Battle of Gettysburg . On July 3 , the third day of the battle , it made an attack against the Confederate troops at the base of Culp ' s Hill , near Spangler Spring . The regiment ' s commander , 24 - year old Lieutenant Colonel Charles R . Mudge , replied to the order to attack , " Well it is murder , but it ' s the order . " In the charge a bullet struck Mudge just below the throat and killed him instantly . The regiment suffered 137 casualties in the assault . After the battle , the regiment was sent to New York City to help end the Draft Riots that were going on . Cpt . Charles Fessenden Morse of Company B was promoted to lieutenant colonel . Atlanta . Late in 1863 , the XII Corps , with the 2nd Massachusetts included , along with the XI Corps was placed under the command of General Joseph Hooker and sent west to join the Army of the Cumberland . Hooker ' s two Corps played a decisive role in the Battle of Wauhatchie , which opened up the " Cracker Line " to the besieged Union army , and seized Lookout Mountain in the famed " Battle Above The Clouds " during the early stages of the Battle of Chattanooga . In 1864 , it participated in General William T . Sherman ' s Atlanta Campaign . Later , the XI Corps and XII Corps were combined to form the XX Corps . It participated in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain , The Battle of Peachtree Creek and the Siege of Atlanta . In September , it was part of the forces the occupied Atlanta , with Lt . Col . Morse serving as provost marshal of the city . Drive to the sea . In November , the 2nd Massachusetts was part of Sherman ' s March to the Sea . The regiment was in Raleigh , North Carolina when General Joseph E . Johnston ' s Confederate army surrendered to Sherman on April 26 , 1865 . The regiment was mustered out in July . The 2nd Massachusetts Regiment lost during service 14 Officers and 176 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 2 Officers and 96 Enlisted men by disease for a total of 288 . Monuments . There is a monument to the 2nd Massachusetts at Gettysburg which was erected in 1879 . It is positioned on Colgrove Avenue near Spangler ' s Meadow . The monument was the first placed on what is widely considered the " battlefield " today . Form the tablet on the front of the monument : " From the hill behind this monument on the morning of July 3 , the Second Massachusetts Infantry made an assault upon the Confederate troops in the works at the base of Culp ' s 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 6 officers and 84 enlisted men wounded . To perpetuate the honored memories of that the survivors of the Regiment have raised this stone 1879 . " From the rear : " 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 " Popular culture . The 2nd Massachusetts Regiment during its engagement at Antietam is portrayed at the beginning of the film " Glory " , but the scene more resembles the attack against Spangler ' s Spring at Gettysburg .