The 2nd Maryland Infantry was an American military regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It should not be confused with the 2nd Maryland Infantry, CSA, which was composed of Maryland volunteers who fought for the Confederacy during the war. The regiment fought at numerous battles during the course of the war, and lost 5 officers and 84 men killed and wounded, plus 3 officers and 134 men died of disease, for a total of 226 casualties.[1]
The regiment was raised in Baltimore from May through October 1861. Col. John Sommer, a Mexican–American War veteran, was appointed as its first commander.
On August 18, 1862, the Second raided a Confederate signal station at Clark Mountain, Virginia, which resulted in the discovery of a large number of Confederate troops in the area. The information confirmed that Confederate General Robert E. Lee had turned his attention to the Union Army of Virginia—headed by Maj. Gen. John Pope—and allowed Pope to shift his forces to meet the new threat.
Action at Bull Run
At the Second Battle of Bull Run (August 28–30, 1862), the regiment saw its first large-scale action. On the afternoon of the 29th, the Second Maryland, as part of James Nagle's brigade in Burnside's IX Corps, assaulted troops under the command of Confederate General T. J. "Stonewall" Jackson, entrenched in an uncompleted railroad cut. After elements of the brigade pulled back in the face of a Confederate flanking attack, the Second Maryland found itself surrounded on three sides. The unit fought its way back to Union lines, but at the cost of nearly 200 men killed, wounded or captured in scarcely 15 minutes of combat.
Antietam
The Battle of Antietam, by Kurz & Allison, depicting the action at Burnside's Bridge
At the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862), the Second was again called to assault a well-entrenched Confederate force. Union commander George B. McClellan had tasked Burnside with opening up a southern front to the battle to divert Confederate forces from a simultaneous attack taking place on the north end of the field. Burnside attempted to throw his corps across Rohrbach's bridge, a small stone crossing henceforth known as "Burnside's Bridge." The crossing was defended by 400 Georgians under the command of Confederate Brig. Gen.Robert Toombs, whose men had dug themselves into the 100-foot high wooded bluff which overlooked the west side of the bridge. After one abortive attempt to take the bridge with Col. George Crook's Ohio Brigade—which resulted in skirmishers of the 11th Ohio Infantry taking 139 casualties—Burnside ordered Nagle's brigade to assault the position. After traveling for several hundred yards down a road running parallel to the creek, and open to flanking fire the entire way, Nagle's brigade, with the 2nd Maryland and 6th New Hampshire in the vanguard, broke before reaching the bridge. The Marylanders sustained 67 casualties out of an active force of less than 300 men. They fell prey to the Confederate sharpshooters and artillery, and the attack fell apart.[2]
After Antietam, the regiment's acting commander during the engagements at Second Manassas and Antietam, Lt. Col. Jacob Duryée, resigned after the Second's appointed commander, Thomas Allard, reported for duty. By this time, the regiment numbered less than 150 men out of the 900 that had left Baltimore less than a year earlier.[citation needed]
Fredericksburg and Knoxville
The Second saw limited action at Fredericksburg, where they were held in reserve for most of the day before making a late assault on a stonewall at the base of Marye's Heights manned by Confederate forces. After receiving a withering fire, the Second called off the assault and lay on the field and continued firing until relieved after dark.
Bailey, Ronald H., and the Editors of Time-Life Books. The Bloodiest Day: The Battle of Antietam. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1984. ISBN0-8094-4740-1.
The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. The combat, between the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee, included futile frontal attacks by the Union army on December 13 against entrenched Confederate defenders along the Sunken Wall on the heights behind the city. It is remembered as one of the most one-sided battles of the war, with Union casualties more than twice as heavy as those suffered by the Confederates. A visitor to the battlefield described the battle as a "butchery" to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.
The Battle of Antietam, or Battle of Sharpsburg particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War fought on September 17, 1862, between Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek. Part of the Maryland Campaign, it was the first field army–level engagement in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It remains the bloodiest day in American history, with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing. Although the Union army suffered heavier casualties than the Confederates, the battle was a major turning point in the Union's favor.
The First Vermont Brigade, or "Old Brigade" was an infantry brigade in the Union Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War. It suffered the highest casualty count of any brigade in the history of the United States Army, with some 1,172 killed in action.
IX Corps was a corps of the Union Army during the American Civil War that distinguished itself in combat in multiple theaters: the Carolinas, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi.
The V Corps was a unit of the Union Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War.
The VI Corps was a corps of the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The Maryland campaign occurred September 4–20, 1862, during the American Civil War. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the North was repulsed by the Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, who moved to intercept Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia and eventually attacked it near Sharpsburg, Maryland. The resulting Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history.
George Jerrison Stannard was a Vermont farmer, teacher, governmental official and Union general in the American Civil War.
Isaac Peace Rodman was a Rhode Island banker and politician, and a Union Army brigadier general in the American Civil War, mortally wounded at the Battle of Antietam.
The Philadelphia Brigade was a Union Army brigade that served in the American Civil War. It was raised primarily in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the exception of the 106th regiment which contained men from Lycoming and Bradford counties.
Norman Jonathan Hall was an officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War. He commanded the successful defense of his sector of the Union line against Pickett's Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg.
Burnside's Bridge is a landmark on the Civil War Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg, northwestern Maryland.
The 22nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union army during the American Civil War. The 22nd Massachusetts was organized by Senator Henry Wilson and was therefore known as "Henry Wilson's Regiment." It was formed in Boston, Massachusetts, and established on September 28, 1861, for a term of three years.
Jacob Eugene Duryée was a lieutenant colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War, who received the brevet grade of brigadier general of volunteers in 1867.
The 8th Connecticut Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that fought in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
James Nagle was an officer in the United States Army in both the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. During the latter conflict, he recruited and commanded four infantry regiments from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and led two different brigades in the Eastern Theater. As the war progressed, worsening health problems precluded prolonged field service, but Nagle is perhaps best known for his actions at the 1862 Battle of Antietam, where his brigade played a key role in securing Burnside's Bridge, a key crossing over the contested Antietam Creek.
Edward Harland was a Union general during the American Civil War. He was associated with early battles of the IX Corps as well as Union involvement in North Carolina and the Tidewater region of Virginia.
The Kanawha Division was a Union Army division which could trace its origins back to a brigade originally commanded by Jacob D. Cox. This division served in western Virginia and Maryland and was at times led by such famous personalities as George Crook and Rutherford B. Hayes.
The 21st Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was organized in Worcester, Massachusetts and mustered into service on August 23, 1861.
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. 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.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
United States of America 
