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Attached to the Twenty-Second Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry,
the 2nd Company Sharpshooters was organized at Lynnfield, Mass, in September, 1861. When the 1st Company, known as the "Andrew
Sharpshooters", left for the seat of war, Sept. 2, 1861, they were left at Lynnfield as
the number of recruits were in excess of the one hundred to which the 1st
Company was limited, and these recruits formed the nucleus of the 2nd Company.
Raised to full strength, the members of the
2nd Company were mustered into the service on various dates, mostly during the month of September. Commanded by
Captain Lewis E. Wentworth of Salem, the company left the State Oct. 8, attached
to the 22nd Regt. Mass. Vol. Inf., the command with which it was identified
through practically its entire term of service, its history forming a part of
the history of that regiment.
Proceeding to Washington in the fall of 1861, it remained with the
22nd Regt. until spring, then accompanied it to the Peninsula. It was present at
the siege of Yorktown in April, 1862, and accompanied the Army of the Potomac
in its advance to the front of Richmond. On the morning of the battle of
Gaines' Mill, June 27, 1862, the Sharpshooters under Lieutenant Stiles had
been detailed to guard the baggage train, hence in this most severe action
of the 22nd Regt. the Sharpshooters were not engaged. At Malvern Hill, July 1,
they were in action with few casualties, but lost their knapsacks in which
were the bullet moulds and patch cutters needed for their telescope
rifles.
In the latter part of the same month, under great protest, the
Sharpshooters
exchanged their telescope rifles for regulation Sharp's rifles which they
carried through the remainder of their term of service. After returning from the Peninsula in August, 1862, the
Sharpshooters accompanied the 22nd Regt. through the 2nd Bull Run and Antietam
campaigns, suffering no loss. Immediately after the battle of Antietam, they were
engaged near Blackford's Ford on the Potomac, covering the advance and retreat
of the troops which crossed in pursuit of the enemy. At Fredericksburg, Dec. 31, 1862, they participated in the assault
on Mary's Heights, losing seven men wounded, two of them mortally. After
this engagement they went into winter quarters near Potomac Creek. The company participated in the Chancellorsville campaign early in
May, 1863, losing one man killed by a shell. At Gettysburg, July 2, it was
in action near the Devil's Den on the Union left losing three officers wounded.
It served with the 22nd through the late summer and fall of 1863 along the line of the Rappahannock and in the Mine Run campaign, then spent
the winter in camp near Beverly Ford. In the spring of 1864 the Sharpshooters
entered into the Wilderness Campaign, being engaged on the Orange pike at the
Wilderness, May 5, and on the Jones and Spindle farms near Spotsylvania, May
8 and 10. On this part of the battlefield known as Laurel Hill, this being the
name applied to the Jones farm, they lost 6 men killed and 4 more severely
wounded, their heaviest toll of casualties in any engagement.
They were engaged with loss at Totopotomoy, May 30, at Bethesda
Church, June 3, and at Shady Grove Church Road, June 5. The company proceeded to the Petersburg front with the
22nd Regt., and shared its fortunes until October 3, 1864, when orders came to return
to Massachusetts. On the 5th the company embarked for Washington, there
entraining for Boston where it arrived October 10, and one week later was
mustered out of the siege. The recruits and re-enlisted men were then transferred
to the 32d Regiment.
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