29th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment

29th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
Cannons on the site of Fort Stedman where the 29th saw heavy combat on March 25, 1865.
Active	December 13, 1861 – August 11, 1865
Country	United States of America
Allegiance	Union
Branch	Union Army
Type	Infantry
Part of	In December 1862: 2nd Brigade (Christ's), 1st Division (Burns's), IX Corps, Army of the Potomac
Commanders
Notable commanders	Col. Joseph H. Barnes
Insignia
IX Corps (1st Division) badge

The 29th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union army of the United States during the American Civil War. The regiment was organized in December 1861 when three new companies were attached to a battalion of seven Massachusetts companies that had been in active service since May 1861.^[1] These seven companies had been recruited to fill out the 3rd Massachusetts and 4th Massachusetts regiments and had signed on for three years of service. When the 3rd and 4th Massachusetts were mustered out in July 1861, the seven companies that had signed on for three years were grouped together to form a battalion known as the Massachusetts Battalion. Finally, in December 1861, three more companies were added to their roster to form a full regiment and the unit was designated the 29th Massachusetts.

The regiment took part in 29 battles and four sieges in a variety of theaters of the war.^[2] After their early service at Fortress Monroe in Virginia, the 29th was attached, in the spring of 1862, to the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsular Campaign as part of the famed Irish Brigade. The 29th had the distinction of being the only regiment of non-Irish ethnicity to serve in that brigade. In January 1863, the IX Corps (including the 29th Massachusetts) was transferred to Kentucky and engaged in operations against Confederate guerillas. In the summer of 1863, the IX Corps was again transferred and took part in the siege of Vicksburg and the siege of Jackson, Mississippi. In the fall of 1863, IX Corps took part in the Knoxville Campaign which resulted in the defeat of Confederate forces in eastern Tennessee. The spring of 1864 saw the IX Corps and the 29th Massachusetts once again returned to duty with the Army of the Potomac, just in time to take part in the Overland campaign and the siege of Petersburg. During the siege of Petersburg, the unit suffered their worst casualties of the war in the Battle of Fort Stedman on March 25, 1865.

The 29th was mustered out of service on August 11, 1865. Including the seven months served by most of the regiment before its designation as the 29th, the unit had one of the longest terms of service of any Massachusetts regiment—a total of four years and three months.^[3]