Thirty-Eigth Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Mass.)

The Thirty-Eighth Volunteer Infantry Regiment organized in the summer of 1862 as part of a larger recruiting effort in the state of Massachusetts. The Thirty-Eighth boarded the B.S. Baltin in Baltimore, Maryland, to join Lt. General John C. Pemberton in Louisiana as part of General Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign. The unit saw its first combat at the Battle of Fort Bisland (April 12-13, 1863). In May of 1863, the unit engaged in battle at Sandy Creek, Missouri, and took part in several assaults on Port Hudson.

After wintering in Baton Rouge, the Thirty-Eighth joined the Red River Campaign under the command General William B. Franklin. Their mission was threefold: to destroy the Confederate army commanded by Lt. General Richard Taylor; to capture the Shreveport, Louisiana, Confederate headquarter for the Trans-Mississippi Department, in order to control the Red River to the north and occupy east Texas; and to confiscate as many bales of cotton from the plantations along the Red River as possible. The Thirty-Eighth took minor casualties during the failed Red River Campaign and was reassigned to the Army of the Shenandoah. They took part in the Third Battle of Winchester (September 19, 1864), the Battle of Fisher’s Hill (September 20-21, 1864), Battle of Tom’s Brook (October 9, 1864), and the Battle of Cedar Creek (October 19, 1864).

The Thirty-Eighth wintered at Camp Russell near Winchester. When the spring arrived the following year, the unit transferred to Savannah, Georgia, before being assigned to handle and guard the supplies of Sherman’s army in Morehead City, North Carolina. The Thirty-Eighth soon returned to Savannah, where they finally received orders to return to the Twenty-Sixth Massachusetts Regiment. The regiment mustered out on July 13, 1865.

Sources:

Acton Memorial Library - Civil War Archives. Thirty-Eighth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Three Years. Acton Memorial Library. http://www.actonmemoriallibrary.org/civilwar/Regiments/Mass/38MVI.htm (accessed June 16, 2010).

Powers, George Whitefield. The Story of the Thirty Eighth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Dakin and Metcalf, 1866.

From the guide to the Thirty-Eigth Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Mass. ) Reports, 1862-1865, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin)