Colonels: Daniel Chaplin (Bvt. Maj. Gen.: K.I.A.), Russell B. Shepard (Bvt. B.G.).
Battles: Fredericksburg Pike, North Anna, Totopotomoy, Petersburg assaults of 16, 17, and 18 June 1864, Jerusalem Road, Petersburg siege, Deep Bottom, Weldon R.R., Boydton Road, Hatcher's Run (25 Mar '65), Sayler's Creek. Present at Cold Harbor, Vaughan Road, Farmersville, Appomattox.
This unit has the distinction of sustaining more battle losses than any other of the 2,047 Federal regiments. Only the 2nd Wis. Had a higher percentage of killed. This is particularly remarkable since these losses were incurred in the last 10 months of the war. At Petersburg, 18 June, the 1t Me. H.A. sustained the greatest losses of any one regiment in any one action of the war: out of 900 who attacked, 632 were killed or wounded. (These are Fox's figures; he notes that the official figure is 580 casualties, and the State Reports put it at 604.) In this action 13 officers were killed and 12 wounded.
The regiment was organized 21 August 1862. Most of its men came from the Penobscot Valley. In December it was converted to a heavy artillery unit and remained in the defenses of the capital until May 1864. In mustering all possible combatant strength for his final offensive against Lee, Grant converted many cavalry and artillery units, particularly the "heavies," to infantry. This unit joined the Army of the Potomac near Spotsylvania and lost 476 killed and wounded in it first fight, 19 May, on the Fredricksburg Pike. Initially the regiment was in the 3rd Brig. (Mott's), 3rd Div. (Birney's), II Corps. In the final phase of the war it was in the 1st (De Trobriand's) Brigade of the same division (now commanded by Mott) and the same corps. The regiment had 12 companies (rather than the usual 10) and its total enrollment was 2,202 men.
The Civil War Dictionary, Boatner III, Mark Mayo, New York: David McKay Company, Inc, p. 503.
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