20th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment

20th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
ActiveAugust 29, 1861 – July 28, 1865
Country United States of America
AllegianceUnion
BranchUnited States Army
TypeInfantry
Size1,978
Part ofIn 1863: 3rd Brigade (Hall's), 2nd Division (Gibbon's), II Corps, Army of the Potomac
Nickname(s)"The Harvard Regiment"
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Col. Paul J. Revere
Col. William R. Lee
Lt. Henry L. Abbott
Insignia
II Corps (2nd Division) badge
Massachusetts U.S. Volunteer Infantry Regiments 1861-1865
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19th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment 21st Massachusetts Infantry Regiment
20 Mass. Infantry - Revere, Feirson, Bryant, Lee, Palfrey, Folsom, Hayward, ca. 1859–1870
Monument to the 20th Massachusetts Infantry on the Gettysburg battlefield; Roxbury Conglomerate.

The 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, also known as the "Harvard Regiment", was a regiment of infantry in the American Civil War. The regiment was so nicknamed because the officers of the 20th were young Harvard graduates.[1] In addition, some, but not all, of the private soldiers had attended Harvard. The 20th was organized at Camp Meigs in Readville, August 29 to September 4, 1861. After training they left Massachusetts for Washington, D. C., September 4. They would fight until the war's conclusion being mustered out on July 16 and discharged July 28, 1865.[2] Fogel et al's Union Army Data urban sample suggests perhaps as many as two-thirds of the regiment's enlisted were immigrants with Irish immigrants making up half of the regiment's total.[3]

  1. ^ Dyer (1908), p. 1254-1255; Miller (2005), p. 16-19.
  2. ^ NPS 20th Massachusetts.
  3. ^ NBER Union Army Data-Urban.