The 28th Massachusettes Volunteer Infatry Regiment was called into active service on September 24,1861. The regiment was recruited out of Camp Cameron in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was mustered into Federal Service on December 13, 1861. Due to the large number of men recruited of Irish birth or descent, the regiment's offical designation was the Second Irish Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers. Unofficially, it was known as the faugh- a - ballagh regiment. This was a Gaelic war cry meaning "clear the way."
Novenber 23, 1862, the 28th Massachusetts became the "Fourth Regiment" of General Thomas F. Meagher's Irish Brigade.
During its service for the Unoin, the 28th Massachusetts was involved actively in every major campaign in the Eastern Theater following the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. Of all of the Union regiment serving with the army of Potomac, the 28th ranked seventh in the total number of men killed or mortally wounded. In fact, of the 1,703 men who served with the regiment during the war, 1,133 were listed as killed, wounded,or missing in action. |
