56th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment

56th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
Regimental colors of 56th Massachusetts Volunteers
Active	February 25, 1864 – July 22, 1865
Country	United States
Branch	Union Army
Type	Infantry
Size	1,047
Part of	In 1864: 1st Brigade, 1st Division, IX Corps
Commanders
Colonel	Charles E. Griswold
Colonel	Stephen Minot Weld, Jr.

The 56th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was a regiment of infantry that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was one of the four "Veteran Regiments" raised in the winter of 1863–64. Recruits of these regiments were required to have served at least nine months in a prior unit. The regiment was attached to the IX Corps of the Army of the Potomac and took part in Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign in the spring of 1864. They were in extremely heavy combat during the campaign, suffering great casualties during engagements which included the Battle of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, and the Battle of the Crater. They were involved in several assaults during the Siege of Petersburg in 1864 and participated in the spring 1865 battles which finally drove General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army from their entrenchments in Petersburg, leading to the end of the war at Appomattox Courthouse.