Massachusetts 12th Volunteer Infantry (Union)
14/06/61
Organized - Massachusetts 12th Volunteer Infantry - Massachusetts
21/10/61
Battle - Ball's Bluff - Loudoun County, Virginia
On the evening of October 20, 1861, Union army commander George B. McClellan ordered Gen. Charles Stone to send a scouting party across the Potomac River to identify the positions of Confederate Col. Nathan Evans's troops near Leesburg. In the darkness the party's inexperienced leader, Capt. Chase Philbrick, mistook a line of trees for a line of tents, and reported that he had stumbled across an unguarded Confederate camp. Early the next day, Col. Charles Devens was sent across the river to attack the ca…READ MORE
7/03/62
Battle - Winchester, Virginia
27/06/62
Battle - Gaines' Mill - Hanover County, Virginia
Despite his victory over the Confederates at Beaver Dam Creek on June 26th, Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter's Fifth Corps abandoned its position early on June 27th and established a new defensive line along Boatswain's Creek, just north of the Chickahominy River.READ MORE
9/08/62
Battle - Cedar Mountain - Culpeper County, Virginia
Maj. Gen. John Pope was placed in command of the newly-constituted Army of Virginia on June 26th. Pope's orders were to defend Washington DC and Union-held northern Virginia while the Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan battled Robert E. Lee outside of Richmond. When McClellan was defeated at the end of the Seven Days battles less than a week later, Lee turned his attention north toward Pope while McClellan regrouped his army. Pope's three army corps were arrayed in a line from the Blu…READ MORE
28/08/62
Battle - Thoroughfare Gap - Fauquier County, Virginia; Prince William County, Virginia
After the early summer collapse of the Union Peninsula Campaign offensive to capture Richmond, Robert E. Lee sought to move his army north and threaten Washington DC before Union forces could regroup. His trusted and highly capable "wing" commanders, Maj. Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson and Lieut. Gen. James Longstreet, brought Lee's army within 35 miles of the Union capital by the end of August. Jackson waited for the arriving Union army near Manassas. Longstreet, trailing Jackson by a day, met the Union divisi…READ MORE
14/09/62
Battle - South Mountain - Frederick County, Maryland; Washington County, Maryland; Boonsboro, Maryland
After his success at Second Manassas, Gen. Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia north across the Potomac River on an invasion of Maryland in September of 1862. Lee divided his army, sending a portion of it into western Maryland while Lieut. Gen. Stonewall Jackson's wing attempted to capture the Federal garrison at Harper's Ferry. The bold plan was jeopardized on September 13th when a mislaid copy of Lee's orders revealing the Confederates' plans was given to Union commander Maj. Gen. George B. M…READ MORE
17/09/62
Leadership Change - Regiment - Captain Benjamin F. Cook, and Major Elisha Burbank
CaptainBenjamin F. Cook
MajorElisha Burbank
17/09/62
Leadership Change - Brigade - Brigadier General George L. Hartsuff, and Colonel Richard Coulter
Brigadier GeneralGeorge L. Hartsuff
ColonelRichard Coulter
17/09/62
Leadership Change - Regiment - Major Elisha Burbank
MajorElisha Burbank
17/09/62
Leadership Change - Brigade - Brigadier General George L. Hartsuff
Brigadier GeneralGeorge L. Hartsuff
17/09/62
Leadership Change - Division - Brigadier General James B. Ricketts
Brigadier GeneralJames B. Ricketts
13/12/62
Battle - Fredericksburg - Fredericksburg, Virginia
In early November, Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside took command of the Army of the Potomac, and made immediate plans to move the army once again toward Richmond.READ MORE
30/04/63
Leadership Change - Regiment - Colonel James L. Bates
ColonelJames L. Bates
30/04/63
Leadership Change - Brigade - Brigadier General Henry Baxter
Brigadier GeneralHenry Baxter
30/04/63
Leadership Change - Division - Brigadier General John C. Robinson
Brigadier GeneralJohn C. Robinson
30/04/63
Battle - Chancellorsville - Spotsylvania County, Virginia
On April 27, 1863, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker launched a turning movement designed to pry Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia out of its lines at Fredericksburg.READ MORE
1/07/63
Leadership Change - Regiment - Colonel James L. Bates, undefined Jr., and Lieutenant Colonel David Allen
1/07/63
Leadership Change - Regiment - Colonel James L. Bates
ColonelJames L. Bates
1/07/63
Battle - Gettysburg - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
In the summer of 1863, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee launched his second invasion of the Northern states. Lee sought to capitalize on recent Confederate victories and defeat the Union army on Northern soil, which he hoped would force the Lincoln administration to negotiate for peace. Lee also sought to take the war out of the ravaged Virginia farmland and gather supplies for his Army of Northern Virginia. Using the Shenandoah Valley as cover for his army, Lee was pursued first by Union Maj. Gen. Joseph Ho…READ MORE
5/05/64
Battle - Wilderness - Spotsylvania County, Virginia; Orange County, Virginia
The first battle between Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Gen. Robert E. Lee erupted late in the morning of May 5, 1864, as Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren's Union V Corps attacked Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's Second Corps on the Orange Turnpike southwest of the old Chancellorsville battlefield. Although Federal infantry managed to break through at several points, the Confederate line held. Fighting shifted to the south as Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill's Third Corps engaged Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock's II Corps and ele…READ MORE
8/05/64
Battle - Spotsylvania Court House - Spotsylvania County, Virginia
Following the Battle of the Wilderness, Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant marched the Union army south with the hope of capturing Spotsylvania Court House and preventing Robert E. Lee's army from retreating further. Lee's Confederates, however, managed to get ahead of the Federals and block the road. Fighting began on May 8th, when the Union Fifth Corps under Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren and the Sixth Corps under Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick engaged Confederate Maj. Gen. Richard Anderson's First Corps at Laurel Hi…READ MORE
15/06/64
Battle - Second Petersburg - Petersburg, Virginia
As the Overland Campaign concluded, the strategic goals of Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant shifted from the defeat of Robert E. Lee's army in the field to eliminating the supply and communication routes to the Confederate capital at Richmond. The city of Petersburg, 24 miles south of Richmond, was the junction point of five railroads that supplied the entire upper James River region. Grant knew Petersburg was the key to the capture of Richmond and that Lee would be forced to defend it. Marching south from Co…READ MORE
21/06/64
Battle - Jerusalem Plank Road - Petersburg, Virginia
8/07/64
Mustered Out - Massachusetts 12th Volunteer Infantry - Massachusetts
31/03/65
Battle - White Oak Road - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
By late March 1865, the battle lines surrounding Petersburg had extended west into Dinwiddie County. Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant knew his larger army could eventually stretch Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederates to the breaking point. On March 30th, Lee shifted reinforcements to meet a Federal movement to turn his right flank along the line, placing Maj. Gen. W.H. Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry divisions at Five Forks and transferring Maj. Gen. George Pickett's division from the Bermuda Hundred front to the extreme…READ MORE
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