| FIFTEENTH REGIMENT
The Fifteenth Regiment of Massachusetts volunteers was mustered into the service of the United States June 12, 1861, under the command of Col. Charles Devens, Jr., and left for Washington Aug. 8, 1861. The regiment was recruited in Worcester County and its nucleus consisted of three companies, viz: A, B, and C, of the Ninth Regiment, to which were added recruits from many New England families that had been represented in the revolution. The regiment was first engaged at Ball’s Bluff, Va., where it suffered severely. It was next engaged in the battles of the Peninsula campaign and afterwards at Antietam where 52 percent were lost in killed and wounded and 24 were missing, for the 606 officers and men who entered the battle only 262 remained available for service. This was one of the heaviest regimental single battle losses of the war. So sever, indeed, were the casualties which the regiment suffered in its early fighting that it was reported to have been “shot to pieces.” The regiment was engaged in the battle of Fredericksburg, but it did not suffer severely. Not only in battle but also on the march the men won distinction for with the 19th regiment the 15th was complimented in General Orders, June 26, 1863, for marching in the best and most compact order and with the least straggling from the ranks. The regiment took part in the battle of Gettysburg, July 2 and 3, 1863, going into action with 18 officers and 221 men of whom 22 were killed and 93 wounded. In August, 1863, 169 recruits were received. In the fall of that year the regiment was engaged in many skirmishes and in the battles of Bristow Station and Robert’s Tavern. Early in 1864 about fifty re-enlisted for three years and about as many recruits were received. May 1, 1864, at the opening of the Spring campaign, there were about three hundred officers and men present for duty, but in the battle of the Wilderness one half of this number were lost in killed and wounded. In all the marches from the Rapidan to Petersburg in which the second Corps was engaged this regiment bore its part. On June 22d, only five officers and seventy men could be put into battle near the Jerusalem Plank Road before Petersburg and in the engagement nearly all of this remnant were captured as prisoners, only one officer and five men escaping. These were placed in another command until the return of convalescents from the hospitals permitted an independent organization again. On July 12, 1864, three years having expired since its enlistment, the regiment proceeded to Worcester, Mass., where it was mustered out of the service. it then marshaled only 85, some being in prison, some in hospitals, and some transferred to other regiments. Those whose terms of enlistment had not expired were transferred to the Twentieth Regiment. |