Hampden Co, MA - Civil War
The 18th Infantry

The Eighteenth regiment has as an organization no connection with Hampden county, being encamped at Dedham and leaving the atate, only partially organized, August 20, 1861.  But its colonel and several other officers, as well as 43 of the enlisted men, were from Hampden County, entitling the regiment to more tan casual mention in these pages.

The officers from Hampden county were as follows:
 

The regiment served with distinction in th army of the Potomac, Fifth corps, and of a total enrollment of 1,365 lost 9 officers and 144 men killed or mortally wounded in battle, while 2 officers and 127 men died from disease, etc., making a total death loss of 252.

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The 21st Infantry

The 21st regiment was organized at Worchester in July and August, 1861, and in addtition to several commissioned officers, bore on its rolls the names of 77 enlisted men from Hampden county.  Those from Hampden county commissioned int he regiment were as follows:
 

This regiment was the first selected for the Burnside Expedition against the North Carolina coast, and it served in North Carolina until the Ninth corps was transferred to Virginia, where it fought at the Second Bull Run, Chantilly, Antietam, and Fredericksburg.  In February, 1863, it was transferred to Burnside's command in Kentucky, serving in that state and Tennessee untl the return of the Ninths corps to the army of the Potomac in the spring of 1864.  In the campaign under General Grant from the Wilderness to Petersburg the dwindling regiment bore its full share until the 18th of August, 1864, when the original members were mustered out, leaving a battalion of three small companies which two months later was attached to the Thirdy-sixth Massachusetts regiment.  From an enrollment of 1,435, the 21st lost 11 officers and 148 ment killed or mortally wounded in action, and 2 officers and 89 men died from disease - a total of 250.

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The 27th Infantry

Within two months after the departure of the 10th regiment from the rendezvous at Springfield, another regiment began to gather, the camping ground being selected just east of the city's residential portion.  It covered very much the same ground, four of the companies as organized coming from Hampden conty, two each from Berkshire and Hampshire, one from Franklin, and one from north western Worcester.  The regiment was designated as the 27th, and by the 25th of October, 1861, had been fully recruited, armed, equipped and mustered, with the following roster of officers:
 

Leaving Springfield on the 2nd of November, 1861, the regiment went to Annapolis, MD, where it formed part of the Burnside expedition against North Carolina.  It rendered excellent service in the operations in that state, until October 10, 1863, when it was transferred with its brigade to VA, being assigned during the winter to provost duty at Portsmouth and Norfolk.  At this time enough members of the regiment reenlisted to insure the continuance of the organization after the expiration of the original three-years' term of enlistment.  The 27th entered service in the spring of 1864 as a partof General Butler's army of the James, its reports showing a membership, including recruits, of 933 officers and men.  It took part in several minor engagements, and on the 16th of May at Drewry's Bluff suffered a terrible disaster, losing 65 in killed and wounded, and 248, including 12 of the wounded, made prisoners.  Being detached as part of a provisional division under Gen. Charles Devens to join the army of the Potomac at Cold Harbor, the 27th took part in the murderous assault on the Confederate lines on the morning of June 3, 1864, losing 17 killed, 65 wounded, and four taken prisoner.  Of the 744 men who accompanied the colors of the regiment from Yorktown a month previous, only 83 now remained for duty, and of these, 14 more were lost during the subsequent days before Cold Harbor.  In the operastons against Petersburg, up to the 18th of June, the 27th lost 50 officers and men in killed and wounded, only one commissioned officer - a first lieutenant - remaining for duty.

Those original members of the regiment who had not reenlisted wre relieved from duty about the 20th of September, 1864, reached Springfield on the 28th, and were mustered out the following day.  The re-enlisted men and recruits still comprising the regiment int he field were returned to North Carolina for duty, and under Lieutenant-Colonel Walter G. Bartholomew remained in the service until the close of the war.  On the 8th of March, 1863 the regiment was surrounded and almost annihilated at the battle of Southwest Creek, seven men only escaping death or capture, 147 being made prisoners, 40 of whom were wounded.  The captured were marched to Libby prison, whee they were paroled, and on reaching the union lines were given a month's furlough to Massachusetts.  The nucleus remaining in the service, which by the addition of convalescents and recruits soon came to number about thirty, remained on guard duty and similar detail untilt he 26th of June, when it was mustered out of service, returning to Readville, Mass., where the final payments were made, and the 27th regiment was formally disbanded on the 19th of July.

The command had a total enrollment of 1,567, of whom 9 officers and 128 men were killed or mortally wounded in action, while 3 officers and 261 men died from other causes, making a total of 401 deaths.  Of this number, more than 120 died in the confederate prison pen at Andersonville, GA.  Thr principal battles in which the regiment participated were as follows:
 

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Ellen Pack
Hampden County, MAGenWeb Project
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