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 In the fall of 1861, with volunteer
units scrambling to join the fight, Senator Henry Wilson from Massachusetts
endeavored to form a full brigade including infantry, sharpshooters and
artillery. However, demand for soldiers grew so urgent that time only permitted
the formation of one infantry regiment, the 22nd Massachusetts, to which were
attached the 2nd Company Andrews Sharpshooters and the 3rd Massachusetts Light
Battery. Thus the 22nd became one of very few infantry regiments with its own
attachment of sharpshooters and artillery. The unit was known as the "Henry
Wilson Regiment."
The 22nd Massachusetts served with
the Army of the Potomac and saw action in the Peninsular Campaign, Antietam,
Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and the seige of Petersburg, among other
engagements. Of the 1,300 or so men who started the regiment, only 124 returned
near the close of the war.
Click on a topic at left for more information on the original 22nd
Massachusetts.
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