History of the Second Massachusetts Regiment of Infantry

Rain-soaked quarters after Chancellorsville provide the starting point for Daniel Oakey's recollection of the Second Massachusetts Infantry at Beverly Ford on June 9, 1863. Written as a paper for an officers' reunion in Boston in 1884, the account mixes military movements with the texture of regimental life. A drill goes comically wrong, officers share meals with the Third Wisconsin, and soldiers trade jokes with cavalrymen as a selected infantry force sets out on a secret expedition.

Oakey then describes the infantry's work alongside cavalry and artillery, including skirmishing, protecting guns and defending the ford. His perspective moves between the spectacle of mounted charges and the demands placed on small detachments across the battlefield. Readers interested in the American Civil War will find a participant's account of coordination under pressure, as well as the friendships, discomforts and flashes of humor that shaped service in a regiment.