28th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry The 28th Massachusetts Infantry regiment was the second primarily Irish American volunteer infantry regiment recruited in Massachusetts for service in the American Civil War . The regiment ' s motto ( or cry ) was " Faugh a Ballagh ( Clear the Way ! ) " Recruitment and training . The 28th was raised in Boston and received its initial training at Camp Cameron in Cambridge and Somerville . The unit underwent additional training at Fort Columbus in New York Harbor before being dispatched in early 1862 for its first active duty assignment . Service in the war . After serving briefly under Gen . Benjamin Butler in the Carolinas and with the 9th Corps during the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia ' s first campaign into the North , the 28th Massachusetts was assigned to the II Corps as the fourth regiment of the famed Irish Brigade , commanded by Brig . Gen . Thomas Francis Meagher . Known for their distinctive Tiffany - embroidered green flag and Gaelic war cry , " Faugh a Ballagh " ( Clear the Way ) , the Irishmen of the 28th Massachusetts saw action in most of the Union Army ' s major eastern theatre engagements – Antietam , Fredericksburg , Chancellorsville , Gettysburg , the Overland Campaign , and the siege of Petersburg – and were present for Gen . Robert E . Lee ' s surrender to Gen . Ulysses S . Grant at Appomattox Court House . Upon completion of their original three - year term of service , many of the 28th ' s veteran soldiers elected to return to Massachusetts . But a sufficient number re - enlisted by January 1 , 1864 , to justify the continuation of the regiment as a five - company battalion of " veteran volunteers " until the end of the war . During the Second Battle of Bull Run , Lt . Col . George W . Cartwright was severely wounded , placing Captain Andrew P . Caraher , commander of Company A , in command of the regiment during the Maryland Campaign . Following the Battle of Antietam , however , command of the 28th Massachusetts was given on October 18 to Col . Richard Byrnes , who although himself Irish , had been a regular officer and a 1st lieutenant in the 5th U . S . Cavalry . Although resented and protested by the other officers of the regiment , Byrnes served with distinction and was wounded on June 3 , 1864 , while leading the Irish Brigade at the Battle of Cold Harbor . He died nine days later . At Fredericksburg , the regiment was put in the middle of the Irish Brigade and led the charge , as they were the only regiment of the brigade that had the distinctive green flag , and since their commander wanted to make it clear to the confederates that they were facing the Irish Brigade , the 28th was planted in the middle . Stage actor Lawrence Barrett served as captain of the regiment ' s Company B , but served for less than a year , resigning in August 1862 . Casualties and mustering out . Among all Union regiments , the 28th Massachusetts ranked seventh in total losses . Roughly one - quarter of the 1 , 746 men who served in the unit were killed , died of wounds or disease , taken prisoner , or reported missing . The surviving veterans of the regiment marched in Washington , D . C . , during the Grand Review that celebrated the war ' s conclusion , then traveled home to Massachusetts , where they were paid and discharged from the service at Readville in June 1865 .