28th Massachusetts Infantry regiment

The 28th Massachusetts Infantry regiment was the second primarily Irish 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 & 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 2nd Corps as the fourth regiment of the famed Irish Brigade (US), 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.

For most of its service, the 28th Massachusetts was commanded by Col. Richard Byrnes, who had previously served in the cavalry. Wounded on June 3, 1864, while leading the Irish Brigade at the Battle of Cold Harbor, Byrnes died nine days later.

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 & 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.

External links

* [http://www.28thmass.org Recreated 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry] , a New England-based living history organization and reenactment unit.

* [http://www.28thmasscob.org Recreated 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Co. B] , a Washington, D.C.-based living history organization and reenactment unit.
* [http://www.28thmassk.com Recreated 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Co. K] , a southern New England-based living history organization and reenactment unit.