Recruited mostly in Middlesex County. The colonelcy was tendered to Powell T. Wyman, a graduate of West Point, who was in Europe when the war broke out, but returned and offered his services to his State. The regiment left Massachusetts August 17, 1861, and proceeded to Old Point Comfort, Va., where it encamped for the winter. In May, 1862, it went to Suffolk, and in June joined McClellan's army, then before Richmond, when it was assigned to Grover's (1st) Brigade, Hooker's (2d) Division, Third Corps. Within a few days after its arrival there, the regiment was ordered to develop the enemy's position in the woods on the Williamsburg Road -- June 18, 1862 -- in which affair the Sixteenth established a reputation for efficiency under fire; its loss in that fight was 17 killed, 30 wounded, and 14 missing; the latter were killed or wounded. Colonel Wyman was killed a few days after, at Glendale. Major Gardner Banks commanded the Sixteenth at Manassas, and in the preliminary action at Kettle Run; in these actions the regiment lost 19 killed, 64 wounded, and 27 missing. At Chancellorsville the losses were 6 killed, 59 wounded, and 8 missing; at Gettysburg, 15 killed, 53 wounded, and 13 missing. In 1864, the division was transferred to the Second Corps, in which command it fought in the Wilderness campaign. Lieutenant-Colonel Waldo Merriam, who commanded the regiment, was killed at Spot-sylvania. The Sixteenth was discharged July 11, 1864, and the recruits and reenlisted men remaining in the field were transferred to the Eleventh Massachusetts.